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Identity and Supremacy, I think it's fair to say. Bourne has a certain vulnerability and both cat and mouse are sympathetic and compelling characters. By the time I got to Ultimatum and beyond it felt mostly like it was milking the franchise and covering the same ground over and over.

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A note here: The Bourne Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum are based in books (which have a better, richer and kinda different story when compared to the movies ).

I would reccomend having a look at them.

I read Bourne Supremacy and could barely stop laughing from all the hoary Chinese stereotypes. Ludlum’s editor must have been on vacation. Any of the Matarese books were better than that one.

e: NYT in 1986 agrees with me. - https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/09/books/chopping-down-a-for...

If you want a good series that's more "realistic" but along the same lines of interesting cat / mouse play, check out the John Rain series by Barry Eisler. It's extremely, meticulously well researched.

Oh, and it's more recent, so you can see how it works with modern day technology rearing its head.

Ludlums books often had issues with the final act, he didn't seem comfortable with endings so things often just get very extreme and almost "and then the world blew up" at the end.

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