Bourne Supremacy

After really liking Bourne Identity, I was quite looking forward to this. I ended up not liking Supremacy nearly as much, though, partly because I felt as if I’d been misled. The blurb for Supremacy said that Franka Potente returned more or less as Bourne’s sidekick. However, considering that she was dead within 20 minutes from the start of the movie, her “return” felt more like a way to just slap her name on the movie.

Her being killed so early in the movie also irked me because I’d really liked the interplay being Marie and Bourne. In Identity, she’d kept him in line to some extent, and Marie was someone Bourne could talk to. Marie being killed so early in Supremacy led to Bourne going solo the rest of the movie, which I didn’t find nearly as interesting. There were lots (and lots) of shots of him walking quickly and looking serious, but little dialogue between him and anyone else, besides him consistently asking “Why are you trying to kill me?” and saying “This ends now!” (Didn’t you say that in the first one, Bourne?)

What the movie lacked in dialogue, they tried to make up for with perhaps one of the longest car chase scenes I’ve ever watched. So long, in fact that, despite cars being smashed, guns being fired, and other such things, I became bored. Yes, yes, Bourne has just pulled off some amazing stunts with an old busted up taxi; movie along, please. 5 minutes later: oh, we’re still doing the car chase? Wake me up when it’s over.

My biggest problem with Supremacy is that it just felt like more of the same. I obviously expected Supremacy to be a continuation of Identity – it’s a sequel, after all – but not to such an extent. It felt like they’d taken Identity, swapped out a few characters, and left the plot more or less the same. Bourne’s a badass, someone’s trying to kill him, and he’s pissed. More, please.

Kudos to the makers, however, for continuing the coolness of including multiple languages in the movie; Russian makes the list this time. My Russian was woefully inadequate to understand what they were saying, but the actors’ pronunciation seemed pretty good, at least far better than I’ve heard elsewhere (Stargate SG-1 comes to mind). I didn’t even recognize Karl Urban, who played the Russian killer Kirill, as the same fellow who played Eomer in The Two Towers and The Return of the King.

The Kite Runner

I have very little to say about this one other than that it was an excellent movie. I don’t want to say much about it because its greatness lies solely in the story, and if I go blathering about it, I’ll spoil all sorts of things. Suffice to say, even if you’re not crazy about moies which are largely subtitled, you should watch this movie. I’m usually not one to get all emotional over movies, but there were a few bits in this one that made me really sad and really happy. The ending is awesome. If you’ve not seen it, I strongly recommend you do so.

Next to be watched via Netflix: Hotel Rwanda and Changeling.