I’ve always hated the unsteady cam – the handheld camera shot that makes me feel nauseated and queasy – but I have never seen it used as effectively as in The Bourne Ultimatum. This movie reaches action movie hall of fame-dom. Matt Damon is good, sure, but the real beauty of this movie comes from the masterful directing and editing. I was completely sucked in and riding an adrenaline rush from the first cut.
The way the scenes slice and tremble across the screen in the final car chase didn’t make me feel dizzy because I wasn’t watching a car chase; I was in the car chase; I was in the car, I was taking in flashes of cars swerving around me, and I was making split-second decisions about which direction to hurl the steering wheel. And when to drive off the roof.
And every time Damon, or any other character needed to lose a tail, he would look for the biggest crowd of people and slip away into anonymity. And the crowds were easy to find, in Paris, New York, Tangiers… Every megalopolis was presented with massive receding aerial views, which really pounded home the fact that each of these cities are home to tens of millions of people.