for illo friday ... {emergency}

Some people would call this an emergency, although I think little girls with automatic weaponry are endearing.

Speaking of mayhem, last night I saw The Bourne Ultimatum, the conclusion of the three-part Bourne series. It's about a CIA operative who is afflicted with amnesia and a conscience; he alternately flees and hunts his past, trying at the same time to change his programmed (read: murderous) behaviour.

I don't normally go out for this kind of thing. In the past I've cringed inside at friends who jumped along to the hype of the Bond franchise. And while Jason Bourne has some of the secret-agent characteristics you'd expect – smart, tough, ruthless – what's ultimately more appealing about the Bourne series is the protagonist's flaws: his broken memory; his gravitation towards trouble, looking for answers; the fact that he get punched and kicked and shot and thrown from cars (in fact, he spends large parts of all three movies in some kind of physical distress); his inability to murder for the sake of convenience ...

This last installment was very dark and action-oriented. Bourne is mostly alone, mostly consumed by the pace of the plot. Nearly constant movement is punctuated by moments of tension and alienation. It's an enjoyable trajectory. In fact, the movie is entirely worth it for the sake of one fight scene alone (involving the cruel use of a book, no less).

Of the three movies, however, I'll always like the first one (The Bourne Identity) the best. It was a bit more stumbling, had the most heart. The hero blundered along with Franka Potente, discovered the ugly truth that he was an anti-hero, and tried to fix things anyway.