In a summer of sequels and trilogies, The Bourne Ultimatum fits the general description, but does manage to step out of the rut that some of the other third-in-the-trilogy films have fallen. Further, it manages to work as a stand-alone film, without the requirement of having seen the previous installments, reading the book or graphic novel, or the like.
Jason Bourne is in Russia, fleeing police, and after nearly being cornered, gets the drop on the two cops, and he walks away. In London, newspaper reporter Ross gets the Bourne story from someone, but is killed without revealing his source, though Bourne figures out who it was, but the CIA kills him before Bourne can chat with him. (CIA boss Noah is outside the letter of the law and orders hits at will, as part of his interpretation of how he's permitted to run a black operations group.)
Bourne bumps into Nicky, from his past in secret agent training (a psychologist, if memory serves, though her role isn't really clear in this film, nor does it much matter to the plot, honestly); they seem to have a past that she remembers, though he doesn't. They continue to track the news leak from London to Morocco, and New York.
Right from opening titles, things are moving at a fast-pace, whether it's the cops chasing Bourne, the CIA assets going after him, or Bourne tangling with whomever crossed his path and doesn't wish him well. Each of the characters is clear enough as to their role and what side of the fence (pro or anti-Bourne), so even without the background of the first two films, you don't get the sense of confusion. (Wish I could have said the same for sitting through the latest Harry Potter installment; not reading the book or remaining awake for the previous films left me utterly lost.)
Some of the consistency amongst films, if you've managed to catch all three, can be credited to a consistency of production crews; producer Doug Liman has stuck through all three films, and director Paul Greengrass the last two movies.
Curiously, it felt as though despite the Robert Ludlum novels kept the Bourne stories to three books, the film didn't end up in a tidy little package -- there seemed to be room for exploring a fourth in the series. Given Ludlum's death in 2001, there won't be any more books, but by the same token, the films strayed far enough from the original novels where developing a continuation of the story wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility.
And from the sense of the film, its tempo and performances, I would be quite pleased if we were able to see Jason Bourne, aka David Webb, surface yet again in a few years to carry on the Bourne stories. This one is worth catch on the big screen, certainly.
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