The Bourne Ultimatum

Wow, they really went all out for that one. I would have given it five stars, but I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending. I was hoping I could say that was the right ending, and that they should have stopped here. But I don't feel it was. I realize the next two movies are disliked, but I think their existence would be easier to dismiss if the last scenes in this movie were more definitive.

Nicky has always intrigued and confused me. Mostly because she is even more laconic than Bourne is. Why is she helping him? It's suggested, but not made explicit, that she is his long-lost love. Her dyeing and cutting her hair in the scene mirroring Bourne's falling in love with Marie in the first picture cinches that fact.

I like that both she and Pam help Bourne. But Pam tries her damnedest to do it within the confines of the law.

I like the assassin at the end asking Bourne why he didn't take the shot. And he didn't just so the guy would ask himself that. It's the right question.

I also appreciated Bourne refusing to kill the villain in revenge for the canny reason that's he'd get a star on the wall, and be buried with full honors if he was killed before this all got out. I like that reason. It's not that Bourne is too good to kill him. It's that the death is too good for him. Hope he enjoys prison instead.

So yeah, that was the best of the three original movies. It flew by the quickest, and I wish I could say it was perfect. But I felt like we were left with plenty of unfinished business. When you end a major trilogy to a franchise, you need to end it. Not look towards sequels and spin-offs that might never happen. People seem to hate the spin-off and the sequel. I suspect I won't hate them simply because the franchise set them up instead of closing things off here. We'll see. ****1/2.