Plot
Two years after the events of the first film, Jason and Marie have set up a new life in India – away from Treadstone.
When Jason’s fingerprints find themselves at the scene of a double homicide of a CIA agent in Berlin, one of the new CIA Deputy Directors Pamela Landy wants Bourne’s head – as it was her man who was murdered.
Now Bourne must find out who is framing him, which brings back memories from one of his first assignment’s.
Direction
Directed by Paul Greengrass (who would go on to direct several more of the franchise) his quick cuts are a tad erratic at times.
The action seems less intense this time around, with more attention made to character and narrative than action etc.
Cast
Matt Damon of course returns as Jason Bourne – appearing in almost every scene. He feels less physically impressive here, perhaps this was due to other films he made around the same time that did not call for his muscular frame (Ocean’s Twelve).
Franke Potente appears early in the film, but (*** spoiler ***) Marie is killed just 20 minutes into the film.
Joan Allen plays Pamela Landy, a top ranking CIA director – seemingly taking over the position of Chris Cooper’s Conklin (who also returns in flashback scenes as he was killed off at the end of the first film). She is a strong ‘female lead’ essentially, with a character who takes little to no BS.
Returning cast members who get plenty more to do here than previously, are Julia Stiles as Nikki and Brian Cox as Abbott.
Karl Urban also appears as the assassin who was hired to frame Bourne, and kill him (killing Marie in the process).
Breakdown
Set two years after the events of the first film, we get not only where Jason and Marie are now (living in a small town in India), but also ‘how’ Jason is going be brought into the chaos once again.
His fingerprints are planted at a crime scene by an assassin (Karl Urban) who has stolen information regarding a ‘project’ Bourne and Conklin worked on seven years ago. The assassin is then ‘supposed’ to assassinate Bourne, but kills Marie by accident instead… which obviously upsets him tremendously!!!
This sets up, not just the story-points from Bourne’s POV – as he tries to work out who framed him, but why – as his memories are still fuzzy due to his ongoing amnesia struggles from the first film.
It also sets up the character of Pamela Landy (played by the always impressive Joan Allen), who has essentially taken over the position that Conklin had in the first film – however Treadstone is as dead as Conklin is. Her investigations bring Ward Abbott (Brian Cox) back into the fold.
As the investigations grow, we see just how much of an antagonist Abbott is, and even murdering a fellow CIA agent to stop the investigations from outing his involvement.
We also get more of Nikki (Julia Stiles) this time around – as she was present at the first films climax between Bourne and Conklin. There is a fun scene where Bourne is spying on Landy (having cleverly found her while investigating her) through a sniper scope while talking to her, and asks for Nikki to come meet him directly. Landy not knowing, says ‘if I can find her’ and Bourne replies ‘it shouldn’t be hard, she’s standing right next to you’…. great writing!!!
Once again there are great international locations, but I found the action sets are less impressive in this film – with more attention spent on the characters, narrative and Bourne’s uncovering the conspiracy around his past.
Even the finality of clearing his name, and piecing everything together feels… less.
Overall
Solid sequel that focuses on character/narrative and conspiracy rather than action set pieces etc.
Damon feels less physically impressive here, but that is not missed as much, as the narrative is quite impressive – as are moments with new character Landy – and increased moments with previously seen characters Nikki and Abbot.
Followed by several more sequels.
4/5
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