The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format)
Picture:
B+/B- Sound: A-/B- Extras: C+ Film: C+
NOTE: This version has been discontinued, but
reissued on Blu-ray, which you can read more about at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8085/The+Bourne+Trilogy+(Identity/Supr
Following
the revival of James Bond, the Jason Bourne films have been very successful in
shedding their Cold War origins just enough to become a series of hit feature
films. However, in both cases, it has
been a mix of good and bad films. The
first two Pierce Brosnan films worked better than the silly second two before
he was gone. While the Bonds were only coming
out three years at a time and actors were being switched, Matt Damon became the
new Jason Bourne (following a TV stint by Richard Chamberlain) and the result
has been a surprise trilogy of hit films.
Now the
third and possibly final film, The Bourne
Ultimatum (2007) has arrived, was a big hit and is now on HD-DVD and
DVD. The HD version even has a DVD
flipside and Paul Greengrass is fortunately back to continue directing over the
uneven Doug Liman. In my opinion, the
first film was overrated by took advantage of a genre gap, the second was a big
comeback film and this third film is sadly repeating too much of the second
film down to the Moby hit (Moby had already done a nice reinterpretation of The
Bond Theme back in 1997) recycled again.
Recycled is ultimately the key word Ultimatum
can be summed up with.
Sure, the
money is here, but that is not matched by the script. The origins of the character in the book were
that Bourne was made to fight a Soviet threat of their own real-life,
well-known attempts to create supermen.
Dealt with just fine in the first film, they should have just left well
enough alone and tied his true identity to something else instead of yet
another origins bit (played out in current Superhero films already) that
becomes more contrived (even contradicting the first film if you think about
it) wrapping up what the makers see as the story despite any other books in the
series or new ideas. Now that it is a
hit, we’ll see if they really stop.
I think
they can go for at least one more film.
Julia Styles, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, Paddy Constantine, Joan
Allen and Albert Finney also star.
The 1080p
VC-1 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is well shot by Director of
Photography Oliver Wood, who does not overdo any distortion or styling (say
versus the film version of S.W.A.T.) and is very good looking as have the
previous HD versions of the film. The
anamorphically enhanced DVD version on the flipside looks good for that format
too. Note in both cases, there is more color
than you might first notice.
Unlike
the mere Dolby Digital Plus on the first two HD versions of this trilogy,
Universal has finally made this film available with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and it is
easily the best sounding of the three and in general the best sounding in the
series. John Powell’s score is not bad
and both soundfield and directionality is very accurate, making it more than
competitive with similar Spy or even Superhero genre releases.
Extras
include deleted scenes, featurettes Man
on the Move: Jason Bourne, Rooftop
Pursuit, Planning The Punches, Driving School, New York Chase, a feature-length audio commentary track by
Greengrass, then HD-exclusive U-Control offers additional interactive access
with clips, a look at the Volkswagen in the film, Blackbriar Files and Be
Bourne Spy Training abilities test, viewers complete tasks to test their
spy skills.
- Nicholas Sheffo
