This film is based on the third and last of Robert Ludlum’s Bourne novels. It brings Bourne and the viewer full circle, revealing his identity and his creation. In the first film, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is found near death with no memory of his identity or how he came to be floating in the ocean. He’s instinctively driven to uncover his past. He’s led to a Swiss safe deposit box in which he discovers his photo on a number of passports, each with a different name. He finds an ally in Marie Kreutz, (Franka Potente), a German woman living in Paris. He battles shadowy figures within the CIA who want him eliminated. Ultimately, after eradicating or exposing the unscrupulous within the Agency and gaining the assurance from the people associated with the Treadstone project that he’ll be left alone, he retreats to a remote part of the world with Kreutz, hoping to stay anonymous and unnoticed.

When director Paul Greengrass replaced Doug Liman for The Bourne Supremacy, he ramped up the action and the lethality. The couple’s tranquility is shattered when an assassin catches up to Bourne and Kreutz becomes collateral damage. Bourne assumes that Treadstone has betrayed him and brings the fight to them. His foe within the Agency is Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), who suspects that Bourne was responsible for the deaths of two CIA agents in Berlin. Landy is aided by the former head of Treadstone, Ward Abbott (Brian Cox), who has an agenda of his own. A fledgling agent working for Landy, Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles), becomes both a threat and a sympathetic ally. The film climaxes with a chase and firefight in Moscow, where Bourne once again defeats overwhelming odds to survive.

The visuals changed in the second film. Hand held and shoulder mounted camera work added a sense of immediacy but also evoke an irritating sense of vertigo. The motion on the big screen simply becomes annoying. Director Paul Greengrass returns for this third film, his jerky and unsettling camera work intact. His intent seems to be to ramp up the action sequences, both dramatically and quantitatively. And that’s where I felt he went too far; my biggest complaint about The Bourne Ultimatum is that it’s so long on action that there’s little time left for deviousness and twisting plotlines.

The film picks up the action ten minutes after the events of The Bourne Supremacy end. Bourne flees from the Russian authorities, eludes them, and escapes Moscow (we don’t know how until it’s revealed in the supplements indirectly). By the way, the unemployed Bourne has been on the run for three years and travels all over the world freely; how does he pay for all that?

The Bourne Ultimatum is essentially a series of action sequences set in various locations - Moscow, Berlin, Madrid, Tangier, Paris, London, New York - with short intervals of exposition in between to move the plot along. Bourne’s greatest nemesis is now CIA Deputy Director Noah Vosen (David Strathairn), who runs the program that Bourne will expose if he’s successful in discovering the truth about his past. Conspiring with Vosen is CIA Director Ezra Kramer (Scott Glenn), vulnerable for his authorizing the program. Skeptical, potentially confused, and with mixed loyalties are Landy and Parsons. Bourne will persist and uncover documents about the program responsible for his situation and the man who made him what he is, Dr. Albert Hirsch (Albert Finney).

By now, if you’re possibly wondering why I’ve consumed so much space discussing events in the first two films and have been so meager with my comments about the third. It’s simply because the intricacies of the third film’s plot consume so little screen time that any more in-depth critique would give away entirely too much. But lest I’ve created the impression that I didn’t enjoy The Bourne Ultimatum, allow me to allay those fears right now.

The Bourne Ultimatum is a terrific action fest, briskly paced, and overflowing with how-did-they-do-that moments. For example, there is a rooftop chase sequence in which Bourne ultimately leaps from a roof through a window one floor below. The camera follows his jump. How did they do that? (All is revealed in the supplements.) If you are immune to the irritatingly jerky camera work, this film delivers almost non- stop action for 116 minutes. One could make the argument that the groundwork was laid in the first two films and now it’s time for balls-to-the-wall action. Taken in the context of the trilogy, this is a suitable climax.

The Video: How Does The Disk Look?

I was a bit disappointed with the look of the DVD, but on HD DVD the film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1 is presented in a much better looking high definition transfer compressed with the VC-1 video CODEC. It’s sharp and usually quite detailed, although finely grained textures aren’t quite up to snuff. Small object detail is very fine. The video dynamic range is quite good, but like on the DVD, shadow detail is somewhat suppressed, perhaps an artistic decisions to keep things mysterious. With the erratic and always unstable, handheld camera techniques, it’s hard to lock onto objects to assess quality. Chroma is stylized, with manipulation by the director to create a feeling of harshness, so don’t expect the flesh tones to be very warm. Regardless, the palette suits the film and is consistent with the series.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track is excellent. The surrounds are used aggressively to immerse the viewer in the action and the acoustic ambiance. Enable EX decoding for the most satisfying experience. With fast attack times and good dynamic range, the sound effects are delightfully visceral. Deep bass is present, adding to the impact of the onscreen action. John Powell’s orchestral score is nicely conveyed across a broad soundstage. The dialog remains crystal clear throughout. I very much enjoyed the clarity and improved timbre of this track compared to the Dolby Digital track on the DVD. Very well done.

There is an alternate English track in Dolby Digital Plus 5.1; that’s the format for the optional French track, as well. Optional subtitles include English SDH and French.

The Supplements: What Goodies Are there?

You’ll find that Universal is sharing the supplements between the DVD and the HD DVD, but then the studio added quite a bit more material to the HD DVD. We begin with director Paul Greengrass in his feature-length commentary. I found his early statement that the film must both stand on its own and work in the context of all three films to be a bit odd; as I mentioned in my review, I thought there was far too little plot. He discusses casting, the nature of the characters, and some technical aspects of the film, but I found that he spent entirely too much time describing the onscreen action and character motivation. Also, be prepared for some gaps as he lapses into silences from time to time.

I rarely say this, but this collection of eight deleted scenes (12:22) would have been welcome editions to the final cut; they are not action-oriented, they are plot-oriented. I must mention that there was one involving Landy that I couldn’t fit into the context of the theatrical cut.

The Man on the Move: Jason Bourne (23:57) is a five-part featurette that looks at the production in five different locations. Lots of behind- the-scenes footage makes this an interesting short that is a substantial cut above EPK.

This is followed by a number of short vignettes that address various aspects of the production. Rooftop Pursuit (5:40) is a short featurette that reveals how that sequence was created, from the silicon mounted breakaway glass to the amazing cablecam that follows the action. The Planning the Punches (5:00) featurette demonstrates the fight training and choreography for the close quarters battle in Tangier. Driving School (3:24) is another very short featurette; this one shows us Matt Damon’s stunt driving training. And the New York Chase (10:47) featurette places the focus on the car chase and crash action sequence in New York City.

The audio/video commentary is the now familiar HD DVD picture-in-picture feature. Expect behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with cast and crew. Although there is some overlap with the more conventional features, you’ll find quite a bit of informative information about the production. The PiP window is nicely coordinated with the context of the onscreen action.

You’ll recall from an earlier Bourne film that an agent must be hyper-observant, able to notice many small details in his or her surroundings: those that can pose a threat and those that might help if a quick withdrawal becomes necessary. In this interactive game, you’re expected to absorb each of several scenes in great detail; you’ll then be quizzed to test your powers of observation. Ultimately, the disc will score your performance.

The Blackbriar Files is text and graphics displayed as subtitles throughout the film. Consider this a trivia track. This is a supplement the highly detail-oriented will enjoy.

If I thought the disc’s list price was reduced by including what is essentially an advertisement for a Volkswagen Toureag, I wouldn’t mind. But Get More Info doesn’t seem to have made the HD DVD any more of a bargain.

And let’s not forget the usual Universal MyScenes feature that allows the viewer to bookmark favorite scenes for random access.

The 116-minute film is organized into twenty chapters.

Final Thoughts

Robert Ludlum died in 2001. But just as Kingsley Amis and Raymond Benson picked up the legacy of James Bond when Ian Fleming died, Eric Van Lustbader has continued the Bourne saga with The Bourne Legacy (2004) and The Bourne Betrayal (2007). Might we expect more Bourne films? The Bourne Ultimatum grossed $438 million dollars at the box office worldwide, so it’s a distinct possibility. A great action film, a terrific transfer, an even better audio track, and some interesting supplements make this an easy recommendation.

Here’s a note about the apparent duplicate Buy Guide. Our I.T. people are still hard at work on a large project and have not yet had the time to modify the underlying site database formatting code to accommodate the new 0-to- 10 rating scales. So until they do, for HD on disc, I’ll insert this note and a Buy Guide at the end of the review text and leave the conventional 0-to-5 Buy Guide blank.