In 2002’s The Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne was adrift in the world without any sense of who he was, and the movie tracked his quest to find out about his past. He did so with the help of Marie (Franka Potente), a twentysomething bohemian traveler who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. When The Bourne Supremacy opens, Bourne and Marie have taken refuge in a coastal town in India to escape Bourne’s past as a precise killer in a super-secret CIA offshoot known as Treadstone.

The past never stays down, though, and Bourne once again finds himself on the run when his old demons--external and internal, the latter enflamed by the former--come looking for him. A CIA operation goes bad and an operative winds up dead. Bourne is framed for the killing, which spurs agent Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), a deputy director with Tommy Lee Jones’ dogged chops for pursuit, to track him down. At the same time, Bourne is hunted by the Russian assassin who broke up the CIA operation. Thus, much like the classic Hitchcock hero, Bourne is a man running from two fronts, one of which should be his ally. However, unlike the classic Hitchcock hero, Bourne is no everyman. Rather, he is a finely trained human weapon who can slip out of the most impenetrable situation and has the ability to materialize out of nowhere.

In another director’s hands, Bourne might come off as some kind of comic book superman (see Alex Proyas’ unfortunate treatment of Will Smith’s character in I, Robot, which came out the same summer, as an example). However, director Paul Greengrass, who first made international waves with his stirring documdrama Bloody Sunday (2002), takes the reins from Doug Liman (who stayed on as executive producer) and infuses the movie with a driving sense of jittery realism. Eschewing digitally enhanced, over-the-top balletics to convey action, he jams your face right into the violence of the moment with head-spinning handheld camerawork that transforms routine fight sequences into moments of documentary-like punishment.

The real standout in the movie is a climactic car chase through the streets and tunnels of Moscow, which is an utterly exhilarating action setpiece that conveys the insane momentum and gut-pounding impact of metal ripping metal. In this scene and others in The Bourne Supremacy Greengrass nails the line between control and absolute chaos. Bourne may be a brilliant tactician and highly trained fighter, but even he is subject to the laws of physics and gravity, and Greengrass portrays the fights and chases as Bourne’s battle to control the uncontrollable. We are able to revel in the impressive means by which he stays one step ahead of his pursuers, but it is always with the sense that this superiority--this supremacy--is something that he had to struggle for and earn and has now become his curse.

More so than most films of its ilk, The Bourne Supremacy takes its violence seriously. It’s thrilling in a conventional sense, sure, and that’s part of the game. But, at the same time, it constantly drives home the fact that violence has consequences and leaves scars that run as deep as life is long. While most of the film is taken up with intricate spy-thriller plotting and white-knuckle action, it ends on a note of condolence, in which Bourne infiltrates one last house, not to take out its owner, but rather to offer a heartfelt apology for a deed he did many years ago and has only recently had the displeasure of remembering (the jarring fragments of this memory are the first thing we see on screen, thus they frame everything that happens after). His apology is offered with the same stoicism that characterizes virtually everything he has done, but the very fact that he is there offering it lets us know just how far Bourne has come in realizing his identity and trying to move beyond it to something better.

The Bourne Supremacy Blu-Ray + DVD
Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround French DTS 5.1 surround Spanish DTS 5.1 surround
Subtitles	English, French, Spanish
Supplements	Audio commentary by director Paul Greengrass U-Control “Scoring with John Powell” featurette “The Bourne Mastermind: Robert Ludlum” featurette “The Bourne Diagnosis Part Two” featurette Deleted Scenes “Matching Identities: Casting” featurette “Keeping It Real “ featurette Blowing Things Up” featurette “On the Move with Jason Bourne” featurette “Bourne to Be Wild: Fight Training” featurette “Crash Cam: Racing Through the Streets of Moscow” featurette “The Go-Mobile Revs Up the Action” featurette “Anatomy of a Scene: The Explosive Bridge Chase Scene” featurette U-Control BD-Live
Distributor	Universal Studios Home Entertainment
SRP	$29.98
Release Date	January 19, 2010
VIDEO & AUDIO
With all three of the Bourne films, Universal is the first studio to bring to Blu-Ray one of the initial appeals of the now defunct HD-DVD format, which is the ability to have high-def on one side and DVD on the other side of a single disc. Paul Greengrass’ grittier, more documentary-like aesthetic approach to The Bourne Supremacy marks a significant departure from Doug Liman’s more polished look in The Bourne Identity, and the first-rate high-def transfer (most likely the same master that was used on the HD-DVD) on this 50GB combo Blu-Ray/DVD disc reflects it well. The image is grainier and inherently rougher looking, which is entirely by design. Detail is sharp and nuanced throughout, although the camera is often whipping around so quickly it is hard to get more than an impression of what’s on screen at any given moment. Colors are somewhat more muted in keeping with the film’s style, but they are flawlessly represented. The DTS-HD 5.1 surround soundtrack is also excellent, with a strong, heavy low end to give the room-rattling action sequences plenty of heft and a finely tuned use of the surround speakers for directionality. Like the other Bourne films, this is a heavily immersive aural experience, especially in that fantastic chase sequence at the film’s climax.
SUPPLEMENTS
New to the Blu-Ray is Universal’s signature U-Control, which allows viewers to access information about the film’s production and background via both on-screen text and relevant parts of the supplements displayed via picture-in-picture while watching the film. BD-Live also allows you to share your favorite clips via the Internet, record your own video commentary and share it via the Internet, bookmark your favorite scenes, and play the interactive “Bourne Card Strategy Challenge.” The rest of the supplements will be familiar to those who already bought the previously available DVD and/or HD-DVD. While director Paul Greengrass contributes a thoughtful and informative screen-specific audio commentary, the majority of the supplements consist of a series of relatively short featurettes (running about 4 to 6 minutes each) that explore various elements of the film. “Scoring With John Powell” focuses on how the composer went about scoring the film; “The Bourne Mastermind: Robert Ludlum” takes a fascinating new look at the late novelist; “The Bourne Diagnosis Part Two” continues where the first part (which is on The Bourne Identity Blu-Ray/DVD) by offering further insights into the causes and effects of Bourne’s struggle with amnesia from UCLA psychologist Reef Karim; “Matching Identities: Casting” focuses on the casting of the film’s primary roles; “Keeping It Real” explores how Greengrass and his team brought a new kinetic visual style to the film, which is also a major theme in “Blowing Things Up,” which shows how the production focused on actual pyrotechnics, rather than digital effects; “On the Move With Jason Bourne” shows us the film’s various exotic locations; “Bourne to Be Wild: Fight Training” profiles Matt Damon’s training in hand-to-hand fighting techniques; “Crash Cam: Racing Through the Streets of Moscow” and “The Go-Mobile Revs Up the Action” give us the opportunity to see how stunt coordinators planned and executed the film’s climactic chase sequence; and “Anatomy of a Scene: The Explosive Bridge Chase Scene” shows the extensive behind-the-scenes planning and filming of the bridge chase scene. Also included are five deleted scenes, one of which all pretty much explains the film’s entire plot and may be useful to those who found it somewhat confusing.

Overall Rating: (3.5)

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