| RATING: | 80% |
| FORMAT: | DVD |
Bourne, Jason Bourne
A complex plot, with subtle humor, underlies a strange Bond film that comes across as something of an extended trailer - being so abbreviated in length - but a much better thriller than most. This one is somewhat narratively incoherent yet more emotionally engaging than previous 007 adventures. Its plotting jets all over the world in search of a story that is not obviously and self consciously appropriated from the Jason Bourne movies, whose style it copies - mostly successfully.
Smothering itself in humorous asides at present day (2008) power politics and the decline of Western global dominance, it begs the inevitable question of what is the point of such derring do – in both the real and espionage movie world? This is akin to the same entertainment problem for all spy thrillers after the collapse of the Soviet Union: A problem not fully resolved with the advent of Al Qaeda. This movie provides a not entirely satisfactory and naïve answer in the necessity for Western governments to elaborate a more ethical foreign policy.
James Bond is often an agent of Western imperialism. However, here he does not side with the Caucasian version of political hegemony in the Third World, but effectively criticizes it. Such poor nations (in this case, South American) are not so much governed by short lived tin pot dictators, but badly managed from afar as satellite clients of United States' oil interests. This may be a clever analogy to the present state of a culture that sees its international prestige waning in light of worldwide economic recession, but makes for somewhat indecisive entertainment. To get around this, the film moves at high velocity from one set piece to another; while creating the plotlines for future Bond movies in Le Chiffre and Mr White (both from the previous Casino Royale) being conspicuously left alive.
Uniquely, for a Bond film, this one is a direct sequel to its predecessor and continues almost exactly where that story left off. In the process, creating an arch villain of the Quantum organization that could easily appear in any number of successor movies, à la Blofeld of SPECTRE before he was finally killed off.
The featured players are treated with the customary respect, especially Gemma ARTERTON and Giancarlo GIANNINI who are both irresistibly amusing in their own right. However, Olga KURYLENKO fails to make her character believable in spite of it being well written. Mathieu AMALRIC is very good as the principal villain, but the film lets him down as an actor by neither giving him enough screen time nor enough to do.
Although entertaining, the risks the producers are taking with the Bond franchise risk Bond losing what made him Bond in the first place as he begins to resemble a Jason Bourne clone. However, this risk avoids the other one of the Bond formula going stale and the films failing at the box office, while more closely matching 007's risking his life for Queen and country. This one certainly improves with repeated viewings and may one day be regarded as a classic of its kind.
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