The Bourne Ultimatum

There is nothing more fun than watching a book come to life on the big screen. While the movie never does the book justice, it’s always fun to tease the mind’s eye. If this summer’s Harry Potter is one of the best examples of a movie that artistically captures the essence of the book, certainly The Bourne Ultimatum is the worst example.

In mid-July Eve plopped a 632 paperback on my lap and said “read it before the movie comes out.” Well I don’t easily plow through 632 page books, but since I didn’t recall ever reading the famous Ludlum, I accepted the challenge. It wasn’t until this weekend that I finally finished the book and my reward was to see the movie before it finally fades from the local movies.

I wasn’t impressed with Robert Ludlum, at least as evidenced by this book. It was slow and at times rather repetitive. I guess by now I’m sort of a connoisseur of the spy genre and this certainly wouldn’t make anyone’s top ten. Nevertheless, there were elements that were interesting and at least a few times I asked myself, I wonder how they’ll handle this on the big screen. I plowed ahead despite its mediocrity with the promise of a reward.

Let’s now review what the movie and book have in common. Well, there’s the title and the name of main character. That’s it. No really, that’s it!

I kept looking at the cover of the book, which shows the back of Matt Damon’s looking on at the New York skyline. It should have dawned on me that the plot never makes its way to New York. There’s Boston, the Caribbean, Virginia, Paris and Moscow while the movie centers around Spain, Italy, Morocco and New York. I have to admit that there is one plot similarity—hope I don’t spoil either the book or the movie for you—Bourne has memory problems. But as the movie and book progress and the memory becomes more clear it gets clear about two completely different things.

Both book and movie are forgettable. Despite my frustration with the thin unrecognizable nine chase scene plot, the sound, editing and cinematography were some of the best I’ve seen. I guess I might have a chance to hate it all over again when the Academy Awards roll around.

September 3, 2007