My friend Kirby was prepared to make a joke that if someone called the Bourne series (or for that matter Lord of the Rings) the best trilogy of the 21st Century, he’d suggest the Vengence trilogy by Chan Wook-Park. He’s got taste. And that’s about as negative as I can be about the Bourne franchise, as it’s proven to be remarkably consistent in its goodness.

In fact, in retrospect, it might be fair to say the slightest of the three is the first, even if it still has the series two best scenes (Bourne realizing he’s got super-powers, and the shootout with the Professor). What Paul Greengrass did was take the series into a post 9/11 world, and did so with such success that it’s his tone that now dominates. If Identity is a bit route and Supremacy was shaky, it still delivered, and with Ultimatum, the man owned it. Now together, it’s amazing how entertaining these films are and how much better they are than the re-launched James Bond franchise. These re films for the modern era that deliver some of the best action of the 21^st century.

Universal has released the trilogy as a three disc Blu-ray set, which includes almost everything that’s ever been included with the previous (and numerous) releases of the films. There is some missing content, but nothing too worrisome (the biggest complaint is the lack of theatrical trailer). It's a handsome package and the films are well worth picking up. That is, if you don't already have the films. But the 1080 transfers and DTS HD 5.1 are excellent.

What I love about these movies is Damon's Bourne, it's a fairly brilliant action movie conceit and seems somewhat ironic that it's been twinned with the release schedule of the Spider-Man trilogy. Bourne is of similar situation, learning that with great killing power comes responsibility. The franchise, which is uniformly excellent, has its two best scenes in the first film. One is when Bourne grabs a baton and beats the shit out of two cops without knowing how he did it, the second being the demise of Clive Owen, playing a fellow agent of Treadstone. After being shotgunned, Owen loses his shit and says "Look at this, look at what they make you give." It's one of the great action movie punches. The premise is of course that Jason Bourne wakes up with amnesia in the middle of the sea and is rescued by some fishermen. He only knows about a bank account number and that he was shot at least twice. He goes to the bank to find that he has piles of money, and fake ID’s. He then recruits Marie (Franka Potente) to get him to his home in France, but being alive messes with the government agents who trained him too be a killing machine.

Some hay is made on the disc about how the film was concerned about September 11th, and they worried it might be too dark. What's interesting is that Identity is decidedly a pre-9/11 film, while its sequels are not. And that's not just because Paul Greengrass is behind them. These are politically smart films: Liman was informed by his father's involvement in the Oliver North trial, while Greengrass is a politically savvy man himself. But the first film is the most classically fun of the bunch.

The second film may be the weakest of the franchise, if only because Greengrass offers more command in the third film. This though is a minor complaint. The film also offers one of the most surprising deaths in cinema history, as a character who was billed higher than one would expect. But the film about constant movement, something refined in the third film to amazing ends, and Greengrass delivers a couple of stunning set pieces, with the fight in the house (with Bourne using a newspaper to fatal ends), and the end car chase, which redefines the amount of abuse a car can take and still be functional.

Digression: How many bullets does it take to blow up a car in a movie?

Answer: As many as the plot requires.

There’s very little plot in the second film, but has Pamela Landry (Joan Allen) stepping in for Chris Cooper’s now dead Conklin  as the head of a government agency that may have had something to do with Bourne. Brian Cox’s Abbot then becomes the bad American guy as Bourne is being hunted by the American government and by a Russian killer (Karl Urban). Bourne just wanted to be left alone with Marie, but instead he must put together the memories of his first assignment and atone for it.

For Ultimatum Greengrass takes up in the middle of the second film, Bourne recovers from the near ending in what amounts to a nested sequel (thanks, Kung Fu Monkey), as he ends up talking to a journalist Simon Ross (Paddy Considine) who has found out about Blackbriar, which is essentially Treadstone 2.0. It seems there’s a new man in charge CIA Deputy Director Noah Vossen (David Straitharn) who is doing the same things, but now more under the sort of Bushie “with us or against us, no act is too gruesome if it saves the lives of patriots” sensibilities. Working in Bourne’s favor is returner Pamela Landry, who is brought in by director Ezra Kramer (Scott Glenn).

Bourne is tagged after trying to protect Ross, and is then led to one of the men who first conditioned him in Spain. There he’s reteamed with Nikki Parsons (Julia Stiles), who then also becomes a target of the CIA. But it’s back in New York where he can find out who he really is, and how Bourne was… born, but Paz (Edgar Ramirez) is on his trail.

The train station sequence where Bourne must navigate Ross (a complete amateur who makes all the wrong decisions, or that is to say, doesn’t take Bourne on his word) away from all the agents looking to kill him is just a masterful piece of action filmmaking. The pacing is brilliant, and Greengrass knows how to keep building tension until he delivers the first fight scene. It’s one of the most expertly choreograph set pieces of action ever, and Greengrass handles it like a pro, which now reduces the criticisms that Greengrass let the second unit handle everything in the second film to mere speculation. The man knows his game, or learned it.

It’s strange then that the film was circled by production troubles, and the script was (in many ways) written as they went. So now there’s even more reason to hate the situation that led to this writer’s strike: Films like this are fudged (again, blame the producers). But Greengrass’s great gift to cinema is that he keeps the action at a constant clip, so it just keeps going and going. It’s a perpetual motion machine of set piece after set piece, with believable and visceral excitements. I remember seeing it for the first time and cackling with each new bit. But the film holds up on repeat viewings.

But beside Greengrass, who is a champ, some credit must go to Matt Damon, who has become one of the most striking and interesting leading men in Hollywood today. With a great nose for projects, he’s one of the few stars you can count on to deliver quality product, period. Or at least since Bagger Vance.

All of the films are presented widescreen (2.35:1) and DTS-HD audio. All of the films look excellent, these films have been well looked after, and these appear to be improvements (albeit slight) over the HD-DVD versions. All have PIP’s, with Ultimatum’s the most thorough (the Identity track is very weak). All have text tracks that act as trivia files as about the characters and locations, and “Bourne Orientation” which I found to be a tedious reciting of the actions of the film again.. All of this was included on the HD-DVD releases.

The first film comes with a commentary track by Doug Liman recycled from the first SD disc. Then other recycled bits "The Ludlum Identity" (13 min.), "The Ludlum Supremacy" (13 min.) and "The Ludlum Ultimatum" (24 min.), discusses the author of the novels on which the films are based, which is kind of ironic as they took so little at the end. There's an alternate opening and ending with an introduction (11 min)  along with Four deleted scenes (7 min.) and an extended sequence (1 min.) everything cut was terrible, and the wrap-around opening and closer would have changed the direction of the sequels. "The Birth of The Bourne Identity" (15 min.)  is a more standard making of, while "The Bourne Mastermind" (6 min.) offers more on Ludlum that is a little redundant, but that’s what happens when you double dip repeated. "Access Granted" (4 min.) is an interview with Gilroy , while "From Identity to Supremacy" (4 min.) is a promo for the sequel, while "The Bourne Diagnosis" (3 min.) offers psychoanalysis. Yuck. "Cloak and Dagger" (6 min.) talks to a CIA agent, while "Inside a Fight Sequence" (5 min.) gives Damon credit for doing much of his own stunts. Rounding out the first film is a music video.

Supremacy comes with a Greengrass commentary, and Six deleted scenes (11 min.) that were smart to be cut, while "Matching Identities" (5 min.) about the changes made for the sequel. "Keeping It Real" (5 min.) gives Greengrass its attention. "Blowing Things Up" (4 min.) talks up one of the locations, while "On the Move With Jason Bourne" (5 min.) shows how the film globe hops. "Bourne to Be Wild" (4 min.) talks up the hand to hand, while "Crash Cam" (6 min.) talks up the car stunts. "The Go-Mobile Revs Up The Action" (7 min.) follows in line with that. "Anatomy of a Scene" (5 min.) gives the bridge chase a go-over, while "Scoring With John Powell" (5 min.) gives the composer his due. "The Bourne Mastermind" (5 min.) and "The Bourne Diagnosis" (5 min.) offer more psychobabble and Ludlum love.

Extras on Ultimatum include a commentary by Greengrass, deleted scenes (12 min.) all of which are negligible. “Man on the Move: Jason Bourne” covers five of the locations where shooting took place (24 min.), while “Rooftop Pursuit” (6 min.) focuses on the foot chase in the middle of the film. Planning the Punches (5 min.) focuses on the fighting styles, while “Driving School” (3 min.) focuses on the final car chase. And then there’s "New York Chase" (11 min.), which is pretty self-explanatory. And there’s a trivia game.

All the films have BD-Live content, currently unavailable, but will offer my chat, and my movie commentary, along with what looks like an online game.