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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Amph The Bourne Series (Identity, Supremacy, Ultimatum, Legacy, & Jason Bourne)

Discussion in 'Community' started by JediTrilobite, May 23, 2004.

  1. KnightWriter

    KnightWriter Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 6, 2001
    Can't say I minded the lack of detail. The uncertainty and ambiguity is a positive to me.
     
  2. EHT

    EHT Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 13, 2007
    Would "doing assassin things" include assassinating people? Because he doesn't actually do that at all, in any of the three movies, except in flashbacks to his pre-amnesia activities.
     
  3. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001

    I feel like this could be a spoiler for the new film, albeit unintentionally.
     
  4. EHT

    EHT Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 13, 2007
     
    Darth_Furio likes this.
  5. EHT

    EHT Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 13, 2007
  6. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    I saw an extended trailer. At some point they could, you know, try something new with the films.

    Just saying.
     
  7. DebonaireNerd

    DebonaireNerd Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 9, 2012

    I was about to say, they could call it Call Of Duty because not only would it suit the "creative" consistency but it would rake in the obvious dollars they covet.
     
  8. soitscometothis

    soitscometothis Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 2003
    They are. They're moving into Bond territory with Bourne actually working for the government to help save the world rather than simply dealing with his own problems. It's a pretty big shift for the films, imo.
     
    EHT likes this.
  9. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    Did anything in the trailer look different though? They still talk complete cod**** that morons will think is proper government/spy speak (no intelligence officer in the history of ever has said "off the grid"). There's still "OH MY GOD IT'S HIM HE'LL KILL US ALL" and him saying "I'm not that guy anymore" before killing people like that guy.

    As bad as SPECTRE was, and as plot-hole friendly as Skyfall was, they at least didn't just keep remaking Casino Royale. Which is... what's happened here. Remaking the first Bourne film with charitable use of Parkinsons-addled cameramen and faux-jargonistic scripts tacked on.

    I liked the first one, despite the total divorce from the Ludlum novel (Bourne still hunting Carlos was awesome). The rest you're just left wondering if it's a meta prank from Greenarse and Damon.
     
  10. soitscometothis

    soitscometothis Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 2003
    Well I loved the first Bourne, and I hated the second, it pretty much killed the franchise for me. The books may not have been much cop, but at least they were pretty consistent with the characterisations and mythology; the films have been struggling to stretch the whole memory-loss chased-by-the-government thing out as far as possible because frankly, that's the only real identity they've got. But, like I said, they're now moving into Bond territory. I imagine they're quite nervous.
     
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  11. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    I still giggle uncontrollably at the dialogue in the first trailer. "WE'VE BEEN HACKED . . . IT COULD BE WORSE THAN SNOWDEN." (So topical!) "OH MY GOD IT'S JASON BOURNE!" (That's, what, like 90% of the sequels' dialogue?) "HE'S SEEN THINGS. HE KNOWS THINGS." And then him punching the stupid shirtless dude like he's ****ing Superman or something. It's so hilarious. It's like they've just started parodying themselves.
     
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  12. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    Pitch meeting:

    "Guys, ok, imagine Bourne is off the grid, but the grid goes down so he has to grid up to quant the grid"

    Studio exec: What does 'quant the grid" even mean?
    Studio exec 2: Who knows, it sounds accurate though

    "So Bourne is back on the grid, but someone hacked the grid and downgraded its memory so its only running 256K encryption. It gets hacked, worse than Snowden, which causes Bourne to be off the grid again.

    Annoyed at the fluctuations in their internets, Bourne travels to Europe..."

    Studio exec: Where in Europe?

    "Doesn't matter, it's all the same to the audience. Anyway he travels to Europe to take down the people that took down the grid that he wanted taken down."

    //applause
     
  13. Alpha-Red

    Alpha-Red Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Apr 25, 2004
    Mmm, I liked the second one along with the first. It's the third film that jumped the shark for me. I don't even know what they were thinking with the fourth...and I am not looking forward to this new one.
     
  14. EHT

    EHT Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 13, 2007
    Some new stuff, a lot of repeated stuff, in this "Exclusive Preview" that was just published yesterday:

     
  15. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    I just saw this.

    It was utterly, laughably, pretentiously, pompously crap.

    The best/worst part is knowing Damon and Greenarse probably spent a good 16 hours slapping each other's backs at how modern and relevant and accurate the film was.

    You could seriously spent the money you would otherwise spend on a ticket giving a homeless person a meal, or paying a coworker to beat you up, and both are infinitely better options.
     
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  16. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
  17. ShaneP

    ShaneP Ex-Mod Officio star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 26, 2001
    I have no interest in seeing this, not after the last few Bourne films. They just started repeating themselves early in the series and I lost interest.
     
  18. KnightWriter

    KnightWriter Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 6, 2001
    My appreciation for the first three films is known here, and I'll say again that Oliver Wood's absence in this latest film is obvious. I have no interest in seeing it.
     
  19. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    oh if you like 2 and 3, then you'll love this one. It has the same:

    * neatly conflicted hero, who can still bring the violence but adds the existential doubt so liberals can enjoy said violence;
    * Ridiculously heavy handed tone
    * Pretentious technobabble speak about being on/off a grid
    * Amazing insta-access cybertechnology
    * Confirmations about the protagonist knowing who he is, despite the plot requiring this to be not true
    * A threat that is linked to the threat Bourne wiped out in the first film, making its appearance in 2, 3 and now 4 akin to a novelty candle that, once blown out, re-ignites. Hilarious!
    * Layers of ham-fisted conspiracy which insult the audience (or, if you've switched your brain to airplane mode, "thrills the audience")
    * the same exotic locations as the other Bourne films
    * Officials crapping their trousers at the mention of Bourne by name, despite him being a fairly high profile secret
    * Senior officials suggesting he has to be brought in or put down
    * Seemingly endless parade of reasonably good actors to play senior CIA officials who knew about this highly elite, highly compartmentalised black ops programme that seemingly nobody else but the people in the previous film were involved it
    * Tactical teams of 4-6 burly blokes who spend most of their time masturbating over guns or working out, killing the boredom of only being deployed when an Asset Goes Rogue
    * Everyday items being used as weapons
    and most importantly
    * Cinematography by Michael J Fox

    "If you liked the arse-shatteringly pretentious Bourne Ultimatum or Supremacy, then you already like having smug Hollywood types patronise you so Jason Bourne is a film tailor made for your tastes!"
     
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  20. KnightWriter

    KnightWriter Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 6, 2001
    We've been over this before, Ender. No need to hash it out again.

    Oliver Wood did the cinematography for Supremacy and Ultimatum. He was absent for the latest film, and it shows.
     
  21. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    You said you weren't going to watch it, so um... yeah. i saw it. It does show. They still ruin what could be excellent action sequences with hyperintense cuts that have lost any visceral impact they might have.

    And yes we have, KW - I still don't understand how anyone can think the sequels were good, necessarily, well thought out or in any way worthy of Identity. But I don't understand why people like bourbon, tattoos, pickup trucks or wearing wife beaters either.
     
  22. KnightWriter

    KnightWriter Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 6, 2001
    I didn't see it. The trailer is enough for me to see what I need to see to make the observation. It's my background, you know? Not cinematography specifically, but certainly the visual arts in general.

    Edit: Also, it's not really the things you referred to that I noticed most. It's the radically different way of using light. It's obvious that completely different people handled the respective films.
     
  23. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    The look is brighter, with less saturated tones. But that doesn't change the director's style, and the fact each film is more preposterously silly than the original (which I think is actually a damned fine movie).
    I can't wait for the fifth one though, where the guy who had lunch 3 days a week 2 tables down from the former Head of Treadstone (who was of course never shown in any of the films to date) wants to call his new programme "BLACKBRIAR" and that means for no reason are the same countries - Germany, England - going to be a backdrop for a massive manhunt where every device is hacked and CCTV can insta-recognise faces now (which it couldn't between Bourne 4 and 5, like it couldn't between other Bournes) and teams Whiskey, Tango and Foxtrot are deployed so Bourne, who doesn't want to be that guy, can kick the absolute **** out of them and their comms can "do down" and he'll get to the boss fight, another Treadstone "Asset" who is 9/10ths as badarse as Bourne is.

    Of course, BLACKBRIAR is merely a plan to use a standardised record-keeping management tool across the whole agency, but at this point, nobody cares because OH JESUS *** IT'S JASON BOURNE.
     
  24. CT-867-5309

    CT-867-5309 Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jan 5, 2011
    Indeed, Identity is the best, and each following film is worse than the one before.

    I like Supremacy as an action schlock sequel, but I could recognize that it was the beginning of heavy handed nonsense; superficial but "cool" sounding buzzwords that easily describe (and dumb down) the life of a character like Bourne for people who fantasize about that life, focus on cheap shock thrills, CIA types speaking in cheap spy buzzwords for corrupt officials, and conspiracy revelation bombs. Ultimatum took this and ran with it, with what Havac described as "assassinate everyone in a fifty mile radius!" And, of course, shaky cam.

    I think the sequels appeal to people the same way Lost appealed to people; with the dumbest and most superficial thrills.

    I'll use a famous line from Supremacy that both epitomizes and succinctly describes how to tell the difference in quality between Identity and Supremacy:

    "It's easy. It's standing right next to it."

    *dial tone*

    Now let me finish on a one liner that will totally shock and thrill you, because you didn't know I was watching.

    "Get some rest, Bourne. You look tired."

    *ending theme song*
     
    Ender Sai likes this.
  25. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    Oh, I will so hack all your grids from every sector for that! Teams Foxtrot, Mike, Lima, deploy! Activate all assets!