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Matt Damon is one of the more unexpected action heroes. Granted, he's not quite as unlikely as Danny DeVito but the 'Good Will Hunting' star always seems more comfortable playing slightly geeky, socially uncomfortable, bookish types.

Yet he is one of the reasons the 'Bourne' series is much more than your typical Hollywood shoot-'em-up. With a limited framework — alternating between confusion, desperation, and anger — he provides a vulnerable humanity to the films.

But that's not why most people are drawn into the cinema — they want to see explosions, high speed chases, car crashes, and plenty of ass-kicking. That's where director Paul Greengrass steps in. Taking over the reigns of the franchise with the second film 'The Bourne Supremacy', the Englishman injected a raw, visceral realism to a genre where John McClane thinks nothing of jumping onto the wing of a fighter jet, or James Bond resuscitates himself with a defribillator conveniently housed in his Aston Martin's glove compartment.

Eschewing CGI in favour of handheld, guerrilla style cinematography and real stunts, he hits you straight between the eyes, helping to disguise the formulaic nature of the stories — the amnesiac assassin running and fighting, pausing only briefly for "who am I" moments.

So it's crucial that Damon and Greengrass are back for round three, bringing the rogue hero back to find answers about who and what he is — and who made him that way.

This need for closure is what made Greengrass want to return to the series.

"Bourne is a real man in a real world in pursuit of a mythic quest," he reckons.

"What’s wonderful is that it’s an oppositional story. Is he a killer, or was he made to be a killer? There is an underlying feeling that Bourne is one of us, and he’s running away from ‘them.’ He’s trying to get the answers, and he doesn’t trust them. They’re all bad, and the system’s corrupted. To convey that with a sense of excitement in a very contemporary landscape is great fun."

And Damon again brings to the third production the quiet intensity and quest for truth he first infused into Bourne several years ago.

"Matt’s unfailingly accurate," says the director. "There’s something about him that makes audiences know he is a good guy. He’s a wonderful player of parts where the character is actually very dark. There’s a yearning in that character to be good that speaks to people."

In 2002’s 'The Bourne Identity', he tried to discover who he was. In 2004’s 'The Bourne Supremacy', he exacted revenge for what was done to him. Now, he is coming home and has only these words for his pursuers: “I remember everything.”

We find Bourne living as a man without a country or a past. Subjected to brutal training he doesn’t remember by people he can’t identify, Bourne was turned into a sophisticated human weapon — the toughest target the CIA has ever tracked. Since he was discovered floating in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Italy several years ago, he has been on a desperate quest to learn who he is and discover who taught him how to kill.

After his lover, Marie, died from an assassin’s bullet, however, all Bourne wanted was revenge. Once he found it, what he craved was to forever disappear and forget the life stolen from him. But now, in 'The Bourne Ultimatum', a front-page story in a London newspaper that speculates about his existence ends that hope, and he finds himself once again a target.

Treadstone, the top-secret black-ops program that created this super-assassin, is now defunct. It has been reimagined as the joint Department of Defense program Blackbriar, with a new generation of trained killers — hidden from domestic or foreign oversight — at the government’s disposal. To them, Bourne is a $30-million malfunctioning threat who must be taken out, once and for all. To him, they are the only link to a life he has tried in vain to forget.

Bourne has reached the end of the line. This time, he will not stop at his former masters’ empty promises or even with the killing of those who relentlessly pursue him.

His quest will take him from Moscow, Paris and Madrid to London and Tangier — evading, outsmarting and outmanoeuvring Blackbriar operatives, federal agents and local police every step of the way — in a desperate quest to find answers to questions that haunt him.

Bourne’s journey will ultimately lead him to where it all began and where it must come to an end: the streets of New York City.

And, if the previous entries are anything to go by, there will be plenty of ass kicking and innovative thrills along the way.

Reckons Greengrass: "These movies are redefining the genre and giving it a more human, realistic feeling. You have that visceral quality allied to a story; it feels like it’s unfolding right in front of you, so you invest in it as if it’s almost a live event. You’ve got a ringside view of Jason Bourne in action. You become an active participant in the film, rather than just sitting back and watching a lot of visual effects and big explosions."

What the international critics are saying

"We've waited all summer for a wild ride to grab us with more than jolts. Now it's here. Hang on." – Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE

"A knockout roller-coaster ride custom-made for adrenaline junkies, it’s easily the savviest and most satisfying spy movie in years, besting both of its preceding 'Bournes' — 'Identity' and 'Supremacy'." - Rex Reed, NEW YORK OBSERVER

"Damon's minimalist style is key to why the Bourne movies have become an oasis from other blockbuster action fare; freed from the bells and whistles of computer-generated effects... and they've succeeded in bringing the genre back down to earth." - Scott Tobias, ONION AV CLUB

"The third and purportedly final instalment in the mountingly exciting series is a pounding, pulsating thriller that provides an almost constant adrenaline surge for nearly two hours." - Todd McCarthy, VARIETY

"The payoff Bourne fans have been waiting for." - James Dyer, EMPIRE