Based on his prior efforts, Matt Damon didn’t come to mind as the actor I’d cast as an expert assassin back in the early 21st century. However, he took on that kind of role in 2002’s The Bourne Identity, a film that proved just successful enough to spawn a popular franchise of films.

A ship in the Mediterranean finds Jason Bourne (Damon) floating in the sea, apparently near death with bullets in his back. When the boat’s doctor pulls out the slugs, he finds an odd one that displays text. Bourne wakes up and goes a little nutso, as he also reveals he can’t remember much.

Bourne remains on the ship and helps out, but he grows frustrated as his memory fails to return. When the boat docks, he heads off on his own and goes to Switzerland, the location mentioned in the capsule’s text. There he discovers he possesses some surprising abilities.

In the meantime, we see the goings on at the CIA’s headquarters. African businessman Wombosi (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) claims he survived a CIA assassination attempt and will write a book about the agency’s work in Africa. Director Abbott (Brian Cox) chats with chief Conklin (Chris Cooper) about a failed mission.

Back in Switzerland, Bourne checks out his safe deposit box at the bank cited in the capsule. There he discovers his name plus a bunch of aliases and a gun as he quickly figures out that he led some sort of undercover life.

Bourne leaves, but his presence doesn’t go undetected, as authorities tail him. He slips into the US Embassy, where those forces also attempt to detain him. Bourne uses his skills to escape, and he bribes Marie (Franka Potente) to drive him to Paris.

While this occurs, the spooks back in Langley go ballistic over Bourne’s reappearance. They activate all sorts of operatives to go after Bourne, a list that includes “The Professor” (Clive Owen). Their mission? Make Bourne dead as soon as possible.

That nutshells your plot. For the rest of the film, Bourne attempts to learn about himself while he also gets to know sexy Marie. Oh, and he wants to stay alive and ahead of the assassins.

With a résumé that includes flicks like Go and Swingers, director Doug Liman seemed like an unusual choice to take on a big-time spy flick like Identity. However, that background worked well, as it meant that Liman could bring an unusual viewpoint to the scene. The film displays a mild edge that makes it a little different.

Not that one should expect some sort of reinvention of the genre, as Identity remains a fairly standard spy thriller. The usual elements emerge slowly as the lead character works his way toward some sort of resolution that will impact on a bigger picture.

Unlike something such as the Jack Ryan flicks, however, Identity sticks with a more personal scope. For Bource, it’s really just about figuring out who he is.

That smaller scale makes Identity pleasing. It acts as a good introduction to the character and allows us greater scope for future flicks.

In the disc’s supplements, Damon claims that he didn’t think they’d make a sequel to Identity, but I don’t really believe him. Given that it’s the first in a series of novels and that works so hard to set up various characters, it would’ve been nonsensical for them not to produce more Bourne films.

Damon creates a credible action hero. It helps that Jason is supposed to seem somewhat confused and befuddled during much of the movie, as it might be harder to accept Damon as a slick and confident killer from minute one. We get to watch him ease into his skills, and Damon makes the transition well. He also adds depth to the role as he tries to recover his identity, for we actually buy that his abilities surprise him.

Identity mainly seems tight and engaging. It presents good action scenes portrayed without too much muss or fuss. Liman doesn’t go overboard with these sequences, as he keeps them on an appealingly small scale. Events play out in a reasonably real-life dimension that makes them distinctive when compared to the usual enormous package of explosions and battles.

If I had to find flaws with The Bourne Identity, I’d say that it’s a little too low-key at times, and it also doesn’t give solid actors like Cox and Cooper much to do. Nonetheless, these remain fairly small negatives, as the overall package works well.

The Bourne Identity appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though mostly good, the image seemed less consistent than I’d like.

Sharpness usually appeared fine. A few shots appeared slightly soft, but those occurred infrequently. Instead, the majority of the film seemed concise and well-defined. I noticed no jagged edges or moiré effects, but light edge haloes appeared through parts of the film. I sensed some digital noise reduction as well, and that gave the movie a slightly flat feel. In terms of print flaws, I saw a couple of small specks but nothing more.

As befit an edgy thriller, Identity presented a fairly stylized set of tones at times that favored blue-green. The disc replicated the various visuals reasonably well. The hues always came across as well rendered and rich. Blacks looked deep and firm, while low-light shots depicted the action cleanly and accurately. With the edge haloes and noise reduction, this was a “B-“ presentation.

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of The Bourne Identity nicely complemented the movie. All five channels provided a lot of information through most of the movie. Music showed good stereo presence and separation and also used the surrounds neatly.

For example, before Bourne came under attack in his flat, the rear speakers featured percussive music that added to the paranoid feeling. Effects blasted from all around us much of the time, especially during the action sequences. The front channels showed solid breadth and movement, while the surrounds kicked in a wealth of unique information that blended cleanly with the forward spectrum.

Audio quality seemed positive as well. Speech sounded natural and warm, and I noticed no signs of edginess or problems related to intelligibility. Music seemed clear and lively, as the techno-oriented score presented the right level of crunch and fuzz.

Effects appeared distinct and accurate and packed a solid punch as well. The movie presented very solid dynamics, with clean highs and some powerful but tight bass. The soundtrack of Identity provided a fine complement for the action that accentuated the material.

How does the Blu-ray compare to the 2004 DVD version? Audio showed more pep and range, while visuals appeared cleaner and tighter. Though the Blu-ray wasn’t great, it did improve on the DVD.

When we head to the disc’s extras, we start with an audio commentary from director Doug Liman. He offers a running, screen-specific look at the source and its adaptation, cast and performances, sets and locations, story/character areas, stunts and action, how he came to the project and personal influences, music, editing and related topics.

For the most part, Liman offers a pretty good look at the film. The only real negative comes from dead air, as we get more than a few lapses in the commentary. However, those occur mostly during the early stages – once Liman gets into a groove, he provides a more consistent level of information and allows this to become a pretty solid chat.

A few featurettes related to the novel’s author ensue. We get The Ludlum Identity (12:49), The Ludlum Supremacy (12:41) and The Ludlum Ultimatum (23:57). In addition to archival comments from Ludlum himself, we hear from Liman, actor Matt Damon, director Paul Greengrass, friend/actor James Karen, literary agent Henry Morrison, Ludlum Entertainment CEO Jeffrey Weiner, author Eric Van Lustbader, producers Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley and Paul L. Sandberg and editor Martin Greenberg. Across these, we learn about Ludlum’s career and writing processes, his style, subject matter and personal views, aspects of the Bourne series and its move to the big screen. These elements mesh together to give us some good info about Ludlum and his creations.

Cut footage comes via an Alternate Opening (2:16) and an Alternate Ending (4:56). These deliver bookends that spell out some character areas. They’re interesting but unnecessary.

We can view these with or without an intro from producer Frank Marshall, co-writer Tony Gilroy and actor Brian Cox. Though the disc credits this option as “commentary”, it’s really a video introduction. The men offer some good notes about the unused sequences.

After this we find four Deleted Scenes. We get “Wombosi on the Private Jet” (0:59), “Bourne and Marie By the Side of the Road” (2:29), “Psychologist Discusses Bourne” (1:46) and “Bourne and Marie Practice on the Subway” (1:42). We also locate an Extended Farmhouse Sequence (0:58).

These present clips that expand our understanding of existing situations but don’t bring out anything really new. The best one adds to the scene in which Jason entreats Marie to drive him to Paris; her choice makes more sense with this material included.

The Birth of the Bourne Identity goes for 14 minutes, 32 seconds and features Liman, Damon, Potente, Marshall, Crowley, and actor Clive Owen. We learn about cast and crew, the novel’s adaptation, shooting in Europe, story/characters, stunts and action and related areas. Essentially a promotional featurette, “Birth” doesn’t seem bad, but it feels redundant, as we hear most of its info elsewhere.

Next we find The Bourne Mastermind: Robert Ludlum, a five-minute, 44-second featurette. We learn about the novel’s author through interviews with editor Martin Greenberg, actor/friend James Karen, and Ludlum himself in an archival clip. We learn about his early career and late start as a novelist as well as his take on his subject material. It’s not a deep program, but it offers a decent overview of the writer’s career.

Called Access Granted, the next component presents a four-minute, three-second interview with screenwriter Tony Gilroy. He goes over adaptation issues and the factors he wanted to stress in the movie. It’s a fairly useful look at the subject, though it also suffers from its brevity.

Another featurette called From Identity to Supremacy: Jason and Marie runs three minutes, 37 seconds. We hear from actors Matt Damon and Franka Potente as they chat a little about their experiences on Identity and set up the sequel. It lacks depth and mostly comes across as a way to promote the next flick.

For a look at the concepts behind the film, we go to The Bourne Diagnosis. The three-minute, 26-second program includes comments from psychiatrist Dr. Reef Karim. He adds a quick examination of Bourne’s amnesia in this mildly informative piece.

Another background featurette comes via the five-minute, 31-second Cloak and Dagger: Covert Ops. We hear from CIA officer Chase Brandon as he talks about the agency’s set-up, the work of field operatives, and his thoughts about depiction of various elements in the film. As with its predecessors, this show remains superficial, but it gives us an enjoyable and concise piece.

For another featurette, we find Inside a Fight Sequence. It runs four minutes, 43 seconds as we get a few comments from Damon about his training and working out the shots on the set. However, the primary attraction comes from the behind the scenes shots, as they let us see how things took place during the shoot. They make this a nice little clip.

We also find a music video for Moby’s “Extreme Ways”. It mostly features the usual movie clip/lip-synch combination common for videos from films.

Exclusive to the Blu-ray, U-Control breaks into three options. “Treadstone Files” gives us basics about locations, characters and other “Treadstone” elements, while “Bourne Orientation” offers more background for topics along the same lines. Both seem decent but not especially valuable.

Finally, “Picture-in-Picture” offers storyboards, behind the scenes footage, and inerviews. We hear from Doug Liman, Matt Damon, Tony Gilroy, Frank Marshall, Clive Owen, Franka Potente and Patrick Crowley. The comments look at story/characters, cast and performances, Liman’s approach to the material, training, action and stunts, and locations and shooting in Europe. A lot of this covers territory already touched upon elsewhere, but we still get some decent notes here.

When it showed theatrically in 2002, The Bourne Identity did little to entice me, which is why I didn’t see it until years later. I’m glad I finally did, as the movie presents an intriguing and well-made variation on the standard spy flick. The Blu-ray offers erratic but generally positive picture along with excellent audio and a nice set of supplements. Despite some minor problems with visuals, the Blu-ray delivers a nice version of an exciting movie.

To rate this film, visit the DVD review of THE BOURNE IDENTITY