2 out of 5

Director: Paul Greengrass

And this one tips the scales just a bit too much. Bourne started with a good blend of formulas given a pretty standard treatment by Doug Liman, then given a shot of adrenaline for its sequel, helmed by Greengrass. Ultimatum suffers a bit from over-the-topness, and it just hasn’t been long enough between films for it to feel necessary (thinking of Die Hard 4 when I say that) nor has enough time passed in film world – since this takes right after film 2, almost (the plot is still about the gov tying up loose ends related to this dang Bourne spy program) – for Jason Bourne, super spy, to suddenly become Jason Bourne super super spy. Unbelievable stunts are captured with shaky-cam precision by Greengrass – I’m split with his use of the tool because when the action is up close, he uses it perfectly, it really captures the intensity, but when backing up to shoot car chases, it feels a little silly, culminating in a post-crash moment where the cameraman appears to stay in one spot and… just shake the camera. Cooool… Anyhow, these unbelievable things happen, and our upgraded super super spy just gets up, brushes himself off, and walks away. As the series has built itself around being a constant chase, to up the ante requires even still moments to be like chases, which leads to some leaps in believability, where we can accomplish momentous things just by looking around and spotting one person in a crowd. Is it still a good flick? Definitely. But watched in sequence it’s neither as balanced as the first or as gritty as the second. It feels more like a required sequel than anything else.