The Bourne Supremacy DVD: Review By justincase

Matt Damon returns as super-assassin Jason Bourne (aka David Webb), still suffering from amnesia that delivers both inconvenient vulnerability and clues to his past life. Forced out of hiding by an attempt on his life that claims his wife, Marie (who, in the books lives through all 4), Bourne sets out to uncover the reasons and deliver retribution.

In this second, slightly less disappointing, outing for Damon as the famous Ludlum super-spy, we get a more satisfying motion picture than the first. The problem with this is that Ludlum purists will take offense at the treatment of the Bourne tales by the cinematic set.

Bourne's best friends and handlers (Panov and Conklin both of which are still alive at the end of the third Bourne novel) have already been unceremoniously dispatched (making me feel that the filmmakers never read nor appreciated the Bourne novels). He's living quietly and peacefully with his wife until his life is spun out of control by a hit that he skillfully dodges, but not without losing his wife (again, a surprising development for fans of the books...). We get to see a lot more action, a cooler character in Damon's Bourne and some great geography.

Still, the story lacks the punch of the books and leaves true fans disappointed that Ludlum is not still alive to give the filmmakers guidance on the treatment of his tales. The books don't play so fast and loose with the main characters. Nor do they wander aimlessley with so little real consequence. Yes, Bourne is the kind of guy that would go looking for trouble in the event that it first found, and disturbed, him. Unfortunately, there is no way to make this film, by the same title as the book, quench the thirst of fans of Ludlum's work.

I will sit through the next one, when finished, to see how the story arc plays, but if the first 2 outings are any example, I'm sure to once again be disappointed.

Explosive Deleted Scenes

Decent deleted scenes that will be reasonably interesting for true fans of the film or filmmakers.

Matching Identities: Casting

Another interesting industry-insight piece. We do get to pick-up some thoughts on the "hows" and "whys" of the casting choices. Why Joan Allen? Watch it and find out.

Keeping it Real

How and why the film was made and the choices made (i.e. selection of director, tone, etc.). This will be a total disappointment for true fans of the Bourne novels because what we hear about is maintaining the franchise and genre pictures. When the films stray so far from their namesake novels, I don't really care about what they had to say in this featurette.

Blowing Things Up

Great F/X info. Cool. Blow stuff up. Put it on film. Tell us how you did it. Yeah, worth checking out, but there's a lot of fluff.

On the Move with Jason Bourne

Probably the coolest element of the film is the geopolitical aspects. Mainly, the geography and the scenes/sets are phenomenal. Real places. This is how a film should be shot. Don't give us make-believe on a Hollywood soundstage. Give us the real deal...on location.

Bourne to be Wild: Fight Training

Of course, Bourne is a madman with his hands. He is a hand-to-hand killer. He's adept with weapons, explosives, guns and just about anything else. We already know that Hollywood can put together the greatest fight-scenes and this little featurette will show you how.

Crash Cam: Racing Through the Streets of Moscow

Love to see stuff get busted up. Love to see how they do it. Stunts are cool. This little look is worth sitting through if you dig how car stunts are executed.

The Go-Mobile Revs Up the Action

How car driving shots are made. Frank Marshall and Matt Damon walks us through the use of the camera-laden technique for dropping audiences inside a given automobile being filmed.

Anatomy of a Scene: The Explosive Bridge Chase Scene

Interesting stuff, but more for wannabe filmmakers and true enthusiasts. Most of the rest of us have already spent too much time with Damon and Greengrass and Marshall by this point.

Scoring with John Powell

This is kind of cool in that we don't get to see a lot of

detail on creating and mating the music for a scene. This is worth checking out, if only to increase your appreciation for the seldom-noticed background in your favorite films.

Feature Commentary with Paul Greengrass (director)

I didn't sit through this. I may in the future. I'm not big on the commentaries, especially when I have this much stuff to sit through in the featurettes.

Cast and Filmmakers

Rather uninspired bios on the cast and key crew. You can check it out for the most part in the production notes on MovieWeb.

DVD Credits

Enough said. Who dunnit...

DVD-ROM

I hate this. When I'm in front of my TV, dont' make me take it to my PC. No way.

On the smallish 23" HD LCD from Philips, the picture is outstanding. Crisp and clean, the transfer is high-quality. The only complaint I would have his not the fault of the disc, but -- rather -- of the set, as the brightness fades in and out. Distracting...but not so much that I wasn't able to be entertained.

Playing from the "virtual Dolby" speakers on the Philips LCD, this played pretty plain. This is most likely a film that begs for 5.1 playback and I'd recommend that you direct it through your system for full effect.

Pretty much the same as the first disc, the artwork gets the full Damon treatment, this time obviously running with a handgun. Faded into the background, a couple of the great scenes in the film. The disc, itself, is plain and without any artwork... just titles, aspect and a few other bits of text.

A decent geopolitical action pic. Worthy of a watch. See the movie. Watch it after the first. THEN, read the books... all 4 of them. Yes, I said FOUR. Eric Van Lustbader has delivered a worthy follow-up to the original trilogy. Do yourself a favor and read them all...before they let Damon back onto the set for The Bourne Ultimatum.