Bourne Supremacy, The (UK)

The Bourne Identity was one of the standout films of 2002. Doug Liman`s direction was snappy and the plot was complex and felt tinged with realism. The Bourne Supremacy is probably better, all-told, despite having much less dialogue. Even more than before, the audience is not spoon-fed information and the path of Jason Bourne is complex, completely logical, but complex. Bourne is an adult character with adult emotions and the strengths of The Bourne Supremacy exposes many of the weaknesses of the latest similarly-flash Bond spy-thrillers.

Here every character has some level of development, even if it`s just stereotyping from the flashy and abrasive interrogator to the careerist CIA agent, and this is imbued both by the script and the variety of excellent performances from the actors. Brian Cox is particularly superb as Ward Abbott, whilst Joan Allen is an excellent addition to the stable of CIA personnel.

Bourne has backstory and for anyone approaching this film I would strongly recommend visiting the earlier film first. For those who enjoyed the first film this is a sequel that exceeds the technical and storytelling achievements of the first and it wettens the appetite for the next installment in The Bourne Ultimatum (due in 2007). Brilliantly, if disconcertingly, directed - The Bourne Supremacy is an enormous achievement in film storytelling that fits a twenty-first century, complex world that is distrusting of government and authority and Jason Bourne, as a character, is set to become a movie great.

The DVD is a good, if annoyingly bitty, package. There is a feature commentary by the director, Paul Greengrass where he talks about the characters, development of the storyline and the general achievements of the film. Whilst occassionally a little too gushing, it really is informative and to his credit, he keeps talking through most of it.

There are a number of featurettes (9 in fact) which never outstay their welcome - in fact, some of the better ones, particularly the casting one, could easily run for an extra three or four minutes. Taken together they create an excellent overview of the creative process although the focus is often on the stunts when it would be nice to hear more about the writing of the film.

The other bulky extra is the collection of deleted scenes (presented with timecoding beneath the picture). Few add much to our understanding of the film with the exception of a long, dialoguey scene intended to come at the end of the film (sensibly removed to keep the pace up). Two of the scenes do show us a lot more of the wonderful Brian Cox. It is a shame that there is no commentary option for these or an introduction by the director.

It is really only a lack of material about the writing process that lets down the package. If you liked the original this is indispensible. The thriller genre at its best.