MovieChat Forums > The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) Discussion > Why the handheld camera ? Why ?

Why the handheld camera ? Why ?

posted 12 years ago by minidodo
35 replies | jump to latest

This was the perfect movie! Probably the best in the trilogy!

1) Who wants to make a realistic, entertaining action block buster more realistic, to the point of overdoing it ?
2) And who still thinks hand held camera adds real realism ? Yes, in 1997, it was different. But now ?
3) We don't look at the world thru a hand held camera. Yes, our head is not perfectly stationary.. but its not like our head is tied to the chair while watching cinema - its still moving. Our eyes gives us a pretty neat view of the world... which a hand held doesn't.
4) After 2 hours my eyes get tired and it doesn't make for a pleasant viewing.

My vote: Hand held camera has served its purpose in cinematic history.. it reminded us realism is good. But on the net, it reduces the end user experience. And it no longer adds the realism its supposed to.

What do you think ?

[–] ilovelctr 9 years ago

Yes I have to agree the shaky camera work is too excessive.

But somehow I found it more tolerable than in The Bourne Supremacy, maybe not on the whole though, because that one had more steady shots. But the fact that they ruined the hand-to-hand combat between Jason and another agent in the second film with exaggerating camera shakes annoys me the most, while at least most action sequences in the third film are identifiable. Surely I hope the fifth film won't have so many shaky camera works but it's Paul Greengrass again to direct the movie so it's a bad bet to make.

[–] MaDJiK 9 years ago

+1
I use to remove 2 points when the camera shakes, but for this one I remove 4 points and vote 3/10. This is even worse than the previous.
This is unprofessional and ridiculous.

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[–] dharmacrown 9 years ago

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[–] !!!deleted!!! (55817158) 8 years ago

Handheld camera is perfectly fine and can be used to great effect. Shaky-cam on the other hand is horrible and any director who uses it in excess should be instantly fired and sent back to school to learn how to shoot a scene. There is a huge difference between handheld and shaky camera work.