The Bourne Supremacy was released to theaters in 2004. Paul Greengrass replaced Doug Liman as the director. In this film Jason Bourne is prompted out of hiding when he is implicated in the theft of classified information and an assassin is sent to kill him but kills Marie instead. Thinking Treadstone is behind the assassination Bourne sets out to bring them to justice. Meanwhile CIA Deputy director Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) investigates the robbery and tries to take down Bourne once and for all.
Overall this film is less character driven then the first one. Maria's death early on in the film causes Bourne to seek vengeance and I think part of the reason that there is less character exploration here is that she is not around to interact with him. With that said Supremacy does build on Bourne's arc in the first film in a few important ways. For one thing he is no longer content to live out his life in obscurity and ignore his past. He now sets out to confront both his enemies and his inner demons. By the end of the film he also shows a certain impulse to atone for his past sins, which are expounded on in this movie.
If the first film had somewhat problematic action scenes this one is much worse in that regard. While the car chase at the beginning and Bourne's escape from hotel in the middle of the film are fairly coherent his fight with Jarda and the chase at the end are pretty muddled and hard to follow. At the same time Supremacy feels more confident than Identity which is appropriate I suppose as Jason himself feels more confident and efficient than in the first outing. It has tighter pacing and doesn't stretch suspension of disbelief as much. It also has better intrigue with the addition of Pamela Landy, played with steely resolve by Joan Allen who butts head with Ward Abbott, Brian Cox's slimey, perpetually nervous Deputy Director returning from the first film. Finally Supremacy features the most emotionally resonant (and overall awesome) ending to any of the films in the series. Moby's Extreme Ways was never put to better use.
Though, in my opinion, not quite as good as it's predecessor, Supremacy is still a solid sequel which expands upon the original and, in some ways, even improves upon it.
Score: 8.5/10
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