Bond with a conscious

Lovers: taken from IMDB
“Always seen the books but never read them - now I will. This is a great cloak and dagger spy story that really works in this format. Matt Damon is not the perfect Jason Bourne, as he just seems a bit 'young' to forfill the role of bond like super-spy. However is acting skills are classy enough that he carries it off well. The story is very fluid and the action is well-paced. Easy to follow and yet never boring, it really shows how a great story is the best place to start with a movie. Done in a very tasteful manner that makes it believable and engaging. I consider myself a 'fussy' movie viewer, but this really was entertaining, even the second and third times!”

I agree I like the bourne movies overall, though I do have a problem with this review. He mentions that he has never read the books then goes on to say how Matt Damon is not the perfect Jason Bourne?

Haters: again taken from IMDB
“I figured this was a can't miss movie. Doug Liman is a great director and it seemed like the cast was pretty strong. However, what a standard, paint by the numbers, average at best, spy thriller. Do we really have to wait two hours for the happy ending that we all know is coming in the end? The scenes of Europe were nice, but hardly enough. Added to the problems of this movie is the fact that Matt Damon is just not that strong of actor, he seems to be void of any real charisma. The guy is plastic and unless you are a 14 year old girl, not worthy of your time. In this movie we get to see him kind of interact with a romantic interest, however it is tacked on and less than steamy. Talk about going through the motions. The bad guys have no redeeming qualities, the good guy is a saint, yata yata. What shocked me was why this movie was getting such high marks, it was "Ronin" without the action. Once again, mediocrity is praised as good and good is praised as great. Well, this movie was not great or even that good. Sadly lacking”

Well now a rather harsh review here I think, what’s so wrong with a happy ending? Despite being predictable I felt like our hero deserved some emotional payback. The scenes of Europe; the whole film was in Europe!? Now we come to the problem of acting, Matt Damon I think does really well in this film; he is not playing Bond and does not need charisma. He showed confusion, guilt and vulnerability; a bond with a conscious if you will. I wouldn’t really say there were any romance in it, just one love scene if you can call it that and a rather sickly sweet ending.

What I thought:
The Bourne Identity is like an origin movie in reverse and like any origin story it suffers from having to set up our characters motives. Most of the time you just want to see your main character hit the ground running, saying that Identity is a great film just not as good as what Paul Greengrass does with the trilogy. Identity is a great action movie with hold your breath moments and cool characters and it single handily dragged Bond into the 21st Century!