BLU-RAY REVIEW

Bourne Supremacy, The

Featured In Issue 139, March/April 2009

Picture5
Sound5
WSR Score5
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
(Catalog Number):
61106536
(MPAA Rating):
PG-13
(Rating Reason):
Violence and intense action, and brief language
(Retail Price):
$119.98
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Dual Layer (BD-50)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
109
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
Not Indicated
(Theatrical Year):
2004
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
01/27/09
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
Paul Greengrass
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
DTS HD Lossless 5.1, DTS 5.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(French Language):
(Spanish Language):
(Chinese Language):
(Subtitles):
(Cantonese Language):
(Mandarin Language):
(Japanese Language):
(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

Jason Bourne (Damon) is living his life in seclusion but always on the lookout for those who are after him. After his worst fears are realized and his girlfriend is killed, Jason leaves his idyllic existence to chase after the person who destroyed his life. Determined not to let anything get in his way, Jason's thirst for revenge is so strong that he won't give up until he has won. Get ready for one wild car chase after another in The Bourne Supremacy, the second film in the series based on the novel by Robert Ludlum. (Tricia Spears)

Special features include audio commentary with Director Paul Greengrass; six deleted scenes (SD 10:46); several featurettes: Matching Identities: Casting (SD 05:23), Keeping It Real—a look at the film's edgy and kinetic visual style (SD 04:58), Blowing Things Up explores some of Supremacy's pyrotechnical sequences and how they were created (SD 04:00), On The Move With Jason Bourne is a travel guide to the film's many fascinating locations (SD 04:46), Bourne To Be Wild: Fight Training—Matt Damon's fight training (SD 04:21), Crash Cam: Racing Through The Streets Of Moscow—a look into how the stunt-coordinators plan and apply the high-speed chase scenes (SD 05:58), The Bourne Mastermind (Part 2) with author Robert Ludlum (SD), and The Bourne Diagnosis (Part 2)—with the cast and filmmakers assessing the Bourne series (SD 05:39), The Go-Mobile Revs Up The Action—driver seat experience (SD 06:49), Anatomy Of A Scene: The Explosive Bridge Chase Scene (SD 04:41), and Scoring With John Powell—a look into the suspense-heightening music (SD 04:46). Plus Universal's exclusive U-Control picture-in-picture reminders, the Bourne card battle strategy game, a Supremacy dossier, and BD-Live interactivity.

The 1080p VC-1 picture quality is identical to the previously reviewed HD DVD edition. The 2.35:1 picture looks quite detailed, with nicely rendered textures in the backgrounds. The picture lacks a smooth, polished look; as an intentionally harsh, gritty appearance seems more visually complementary to the thrilling subject matter. The color scheme can be generally well balanced, though, a few scenes have a green tinge. While some scenes seem a bit desaturated, hues can be nicely saturated, with undefined and endless blacks. Film grain is often noticed in the source element. Fleshtones, at times, exhibit a warm orange hue. The picture is extremely clean and solid, with no bothersome edge halos or VC-1 compression problems, for a completely satisfying visual experience. (Suzanne Hodges/Gary Reber)

As with the DVD and HD DVD previously reviewed, imaging around the room is fantastic in this DTS-HD Master Audio™ 5.1-channel encoding, with an impressively wide front soundstage, convincing side-to-side and front/back pans, and a fluid clean fidelity that is further enhanced by the lossless advanced audio codec. Bass is deep, tight, and persistent, often dropping below 25 Hz in each of the main channels, and solid throughout in the LFE .1 channel. The well-executed imaging around the room creates an impressively dynamic spatial dimensionality that really gives a "being there" experience. Dialogue sounds very smooth and natural, with impressive fidelity, though, is still wanting in spatial integration at times. This is an incredibly detailed and creative soundtrack that does a good job of enveloping the audience into the story and the action. (Danny Richelieu/Gary Reber)