Paul Greengrass, the brilliant director of The Bourne Ultimatum, is such a breath of fresh air. He should be able to make any movie he wants. I can’t even imagine what he could do with a daring, original screenplay. He takes a movie like this, which could’ve been a rather uninteresting chase movie in the hands of a different director, and turns it into pure gold, delivering some of the best rough and tough action scenes I’ve seen in a long time. This movie almost seems like an after thought compared to his last movie, the absolutely enthralling masterpiece United 93, which rightfully got Greengrass his first Oscar nomination and was my pick for the best film of 2006. Even so, The Bourne Ultimatum is a lot of fun and probably the best action movie so far this year.

This final (?) chapter of the Bourne series wraps up questions we’ve had since the first movie, and it features plenty of dual personalities, the good and bad and morally corrupt of the CIA. Jason Bourne has always wanted nothing more than to go about his life not being pursued by the CIA, but he’s back in the limelight this time when he wants to find out exactly how and why he became a killer and who he was before this tortured life.

This may be the first time Matt Damon has actually scared me on screen. Well, the first time since Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back anyway (”Don’t you look at me, don’t you fucking look at me!”). He’s a mean physical force to be reckoned with in this thing. There’s a fight with an equally tough opponent that is one of the most startling and breathless fights I’ve seen on screen, and what’s more, you actually buy that it’s him on screen. His focus here, the complete black hole of pain and sorrow regarding his love’s death and his life’s forgotten past, is all performed at the right level. Joan Allen is always a joy to see (if you haven’t seen Upside of Anger, go rent it for her ingenious performance), and she gets even more to do here than she did in the last film. Her allegiance to Jason Bourne makes for a really compelling watch. Julia Stiles, who seems to only do good work in these movies, may do her best work yet in this installment, even getting involved in the film’s main chase and delivering a sweet moment of serenity in the film’s closing moments. A new face in the series, David Straithairn, also chews the scenery as a really despicable guy who wants Bourne dead at any cost.

The Bourne trilogy has been of the best trilogies in recent memory, really high in quality, never faltering in its story-telling, delivering brilliant action scenes every step of the way. At the same time, I really hope the filmmakers stop while they’re ahead and leave the series behind as of now. The Bourne Ultimatum marks a fitting end to the main thread of questions we’ve had since the first movie, and now there’s really nowhere else for the story to go. I feel like there’s nowhere else to go but down if the series were to continue. Even though the new installment is doing very well at the box office (was there any doubt?), it’s time to put the series to rest. Paul Greengrass, Matt Damon, and the original’s director Doug Liman have done commendable work, giving us three summers of refreshing, thrilling films that don’t rely on big bloated special effects or mindless chases (well, I guess the chases are a little bit mindless, but of the better mindless kind). This one caps off the summer with great style and flash, and it will go down as one of the few truly great films of the summer.

3 1/2 stars (out of 4)