Bourne Identity Trailer - Oh PLEASE!!!!! (1 Viewer)

[GaryEA]

From what I understand, this Bourne bears only a passing resemblance to its literary roots.

Doesn't surprise me. Hollywood is hungry for franchises and it was just luck that Ludlum's character finally made it. They don't care if they steer away from the books; look at Clancy.

One of my other favorites just got greenlit; Burroughs's Mars series. I'm expecting that to turn into a flagrant misuse of CGI (would haved Harryhausen on that one).

Next thing you know, they'll be screwing up Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series just to get another fantasy series in.

Then, I'll really be pissed...

 

[John Blaze]

I have heard from people that the books are really good. James Bondish? However after seeing the trailer I was kinda down on the movie. Esp after Damon trying to get Jackie Chan on some bad guys. I really don't see him doing martial arts at all.

 

[Ted Todorov]

I liked the trailer -- it's on my to see list. The Sum of All Fears trailer on the other hand looked awful.

From what I understand, this Bourne bears only a passing resemblance to its literary roots.

Ludlum -- "literary"? Frankly, I think that good movies often get made by starting with badly written books (Kramer vs. Kramer) and then going their own way.
It's the good source material that leads to all sorts of trouble.
Ted

 

[Quentin]

Critics who have seen it and are beginning to leak their opinions seem to hold this film in high regard.

Many people I've spoken to, including writers, tell me it's pretty good. They classify it as a "thinking man's" action film and said it actually should have been released in the fall.

I didn't think it would be much, but now I'm very intrigued.

 

[chris c]

Did you see the same trailer I did? Perhaps I was anaesthetized as a result of the "from the director of swingers and go!"?

 

[Kenneth English]

I had the same reaction upon seeing the trailer: Damon looks completely out of his element playing a deep-cover assassin and super-soldier. He's far too callow and Frat boyish for these sort of roles. In the book(s) Bourne comes across as pretty dark and definitely dangerous. Not a man to be f***ed with. Someone like Mel Gibson or Eric Bana could pull it off nicely. Matt Damon just makes me think of Old Navy commercials (which makes him threatening in all the wrong ways... ).
As for the books themselves ( The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremecy and The Bourne Ultimatum ), they're OK junk-reading -- fast, unpretentious and completely forgettable. As for Ludlum, I agree with Stephen King who said that he has no style whatsoever. He's not much of a writer but he sure can twist the hell out of a plot.

 

[Marko_J]

I LOVED Ludllum, and Bourne in this book wasn't aware of who he is, so he can be confused fratboy that Damon will make him look like...

The Sum Of All Fears is my favorite book by Clancy, but I can't picture affleck replacing Harison Ford as Jack Ryan - he is totaly out of his league and he looks childish to me...

 

[Seth Paxton]

While we derail into SOAFears - I think Affleck does have a "young Alec Baldwin" look and I thought Baldwin was great in the role as well. Sure it's different than Ford, but this will be a young Ryan learning the lessons that will make him into the Ford version later.
I realize they had to change the structure of the book to match the younger Affleck's presense or whatever other reasons they were using, but as long as they match the same tone/style of the previous three films it should be okay.
And again, I understand where people are coming from on Damon, but as I pointed out he has been playing the "changed identity" character in most of his films, with Ripley being a rather close fit in terms of fitting in within a European setting.
I DON'T see him as a Tom Cruise/MI1 type of hero, but from the trailers I wasn't sure that was the intent anyway. So, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Marko_J]

But Affleck can't become Harison b/c the chronology isn't right.

Patriot games were before SOAF, as well as clear and present danger...

For Bourne - I think that Damon can pull it off, and it seems to me that it's close to the book - it's not James Bond, it's real spy movie...

 

[Ross Williams]

For some behind the scenes stuff and a positive review, read THIS.

 

[Sam Hatch]

Man, can they possibly give Franka Potente any LESS credit for being in this film? Lola Rennt's gotten her quite the fanbase over here, but the marketers are acting as if people will actually commit suicide if they see a non-star (and German to boot!) name in the credits!

The poster I saw the other day had Matt's image taking up almost all of the one-sheet. There's a tiny little picture of him with Franke in the lower right corner. And is there a nice splash of 'Matt Damon....Franka Potente' at the top? No, just 'Matt Damon is Jason Bourne'. Hell, whey didn't they just put Matt's name up there twice, or better yet a huge disclaimer of 'Not Starring Any Relatively Unknown German Actresses...Honest!'

I know marketers think Americans are complete xenophobes, but don't they realize that there are people out there (like myself) who are going to see the movie because of Potente, and not Damon!??

Btw, has everyone noticed the insane proliferation of 'Lola' references in American film/TV/radio? Apart from film trailers, the first ad I saw for the TV show Alias had the girl with red hair, 'Survivor' was ripping off the music one year, hell even Loveline uses the score when they go to commercial break sometimes.