Jason Bourne is back and doing what he does best, causing mayhem, racking up a healthy amount of property damage in countries and being hunted by the agency that he was created by. The Bourne Ultimatum is easily the best in the growing franchise.
The suspenseful political thriller of a story is one of non-stop action as with the Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy. Taking some cues from the Robert Ludlum literary conception of Jason Bourne only modernized, The Bourne Ultimatum manages to quicken the pace to find out where he came from. It took the best parts of the first movie, which was character development and fights, and the best from the second, which was the action packed, breakneck speed chases, and effectively put them together into one incredible piece of action cinema art.
Bourne in this film is a darker Bourne that makes even the best James Bond look like a broken shell of a man. Through flashbacks where he endured torture to become Jason Bourne and talks with Nicky Parsons, the former logistics officer of Operation Treadstone, now turned ally, the past is slowly uncovered but it is a race against time. But wait, there’s more. The leadership and operatives of Operation Black Briar are overshadowing the world and even the ideal agency of the American clandestine organizations taking lethal potshots at potential threats to American national security.
It also is pretty good at demonizing the American Intelligence forces and, sadly, occasionally necessary intelligence gathering methods (torture, rendition/capture and vigorous interrogation of suspects, assassination, sabotage, etc). Operation Black Briar is essentially the evil of government agencies if left unchecked, or after legislation gave way too much power to intelligence or law enforcement agencies. So yes this movie is partially a really strong political statement against some of the steps taken in intelligence agencies.
The driving musical scores build and slow to accentuate the mood of scenes. In the end it is incredibly effective in terms of pulling you into the artistry of the scene and story. It takes some numbers from The Bourne Supremacy but that was one of the incredible things about that film. There is really not all that much left to say about this aspect of the film.
The bottom-line, go see it, especially if you are a fan of the original literary Jason Bourne. This is definitely an installment of the growing Bourne franchise that would have done the late Robert Ludlum proud.