Talking of Matt Damon and the Bourne movies, he’s signed up for the third, The Bourne Ultimatum.
What I hope that doesn’t mean is that the camera will be even more shaky, even more closed in on the action and even more difficult to follow. See the thing I found about the latter half of the The Bourne Supremacy was exactly that, you found it very hard to follow what was going on, and to be honest the action could have been taking place anywhere.
During the big chase scene you would see the back of a Policeman’s jacket with the word Police flashing back and forth and all over the place, then it would cut to Damon’s face as he bounded along with the camera jiggling some more, back to the Policeman, back to Damon, all close up wobbling shots. It was hard to tell if they were chasing each other and if they were even in the same city! In the car chase scene it was the same, fast cuts back and forth with close ups on the drivers faces, before you knew it the car had crashed. It crossed the NYPD Blue camera school line.
I know lot’s of people liked it, some of my friends loved it, and I’m not against the NYPD Blue school of filming in fact I love that show, it was just way overdone here. Style over substance I’m afraid for me, there was a big failure to think of the audience and how it would look on a big screen.
Looks like more of the same though with Paul Greengrass returning after his Watchmen outing, and that could spell good or bad news for the comic adaptation. A return to familiar ground to recover his career, or just because he wants to write the next one? Also back is the same writer Tony Gilroy, so it will be a good story filming styles aside.
