Damon's Bourne is a bit of a woobie, isn't he? Chamberlain's wasn't, and I never got that vibe from the book. But a dangerous woobie -- I had no sympathy for Franka when she balked at the return of "Treadstone." He didn't bring them back. Remember the first movie, honey? Kind of not his fault.

Oh, totally dangerous. My exact words to Hec were something like "He's my murderingest woobie ever!"

I did have sympathy--I knew the rational reaction, given everything that had happened previously, would have been to listen to him, do what he says, and don't fuckin' argue and hem and haw; but her reaction felt emotionally true enough to me that I let it slide. All the badness had been several years ago; they'd been drifting and anonymous and happily, lovingly wrapped up in each other in a sort of nomadic domestic bliss for so long. She'd just been wandering through the market, pondering the dark ugly mystery of his past, but also picking up food for the dinner they'd be eating in their shabby chic little beach house. Her reaction felt to me like the kind of horrified "No no no it's not fucking fair!" railing against fate before buckling down and doing it that there should've been time for.

It felt awful and emotionally gut-punchy to me to see that even as she was complaining and protesting, she was also swapping seats and seamlessly taking the wheel. Even while part of her was kicking and screaming in protest, another part of her was already working as a team with him, not letting the grief and upset stop her from doing what needed to be done. And if the Russian had shot but missed, she would've been fine. Or, not fine, but anyhow running, no longer griping, an effective partner to Jason, and not dead.

I really would have liked to enjoy The Bourne Identity, but since I spent most of the action scenes looking away, so as not to be sick, it wasn't quite the ideal experience for me.

Maybe it would be better on DVD.

But, JZ, it wasn't over -- she was the one encouraging him to write the dreams down -- he'd wanted to ignore them. Fact is, when your nefariously programmed assassin boyfriend says jump, don't ask how high. It's need to know only. Please don't try to talk him out of the whole jumping plan either. I know she said he didn't have to, and he took that to heart and didn't execute people, but she seemed to be saying he didn't have to be in that life. Much less choice there. And that was what bothered me.

All you Blade II haters are crazy and wrongheaded.

Loved Blade. Loved Blade II even more. It's the better movie. Neither of them are great cinema, but both are well done and enjoyable.

And Blade II is better.

Oh, I know it wasn't the smart reaction on her part, but it was, frankly, very likely the reaction I'd have had in her place. She should have known better, and many of her actions indicate clearly that part of her DID know better, and she still, when the crisis moment came, couldn't stop herself from wanting it to be not that, wanting it to be safe and normal and a situation where you quit a job and it's over and done and you don't have to run forever.

A stupid, flawed, ultimately fatal reaction, but one that happened to be stupid and flawed in a way I painfully, uncomfortably recognized. YStupid&FlawedMV.

I know who ita wants to be her boyfriend.

Shut up, bon. It is possible that I fancy I might do a decent job at it. And probably therefore never get the chance.

JZ, it's perhaps (ahem) likely that I am more likely to get mad at myself in a scenario like that, for not knowing better. I'm also strangely bound to keep all that to myself, because it's my flaw, and it's not the other person's fault.

I read her comment not that he could choose whether to be who he was--an ex-assassin--but that he could choose how he behaved from this point on. His training was part of him, butit didn't have to define him. Thus not shooting the oh-hot Karl Urban when he had the chance, and finding the daughter to reveal the truth to. He couldn't change what he'd done, but he could change what hedid from now on.

But Robin, that comment didn't have any applicability at the time she said it. He didn't have any choice but to run and defend then. How the comment was later applied, sure. But can that been how it was intended? Why give it then, when it's not much more than distraction.