he title “The Bourne Supremacy” title may be misleading – the title character struggles to stay one leap and turn ahead of those who look for him – but the film does reign supreme as a tight, suspenseful thriller.

The story picks up two years after the conclusion of 2002’s “The Bourne Identity,” its predecessor. Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), an amnesiac former CIA assassin, is living with his girlfriend, Marie (Franka Potente), in India, but a plan gone awry leaves Bourne on his own.

A division of the CIA under project leader Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) takes a renewed interest in Bourne after he is framed for a double murder in Berlin, and Bourne sets off on a country-hopping game of cat and mouse to escape his followers and recover more of his past.

The film’s chase scenes, whether by car or foot, are amazing. A careening car hunt through Moscow might make more than a few hearts skip a beat. Damon works better in an action-drama than he ever did in a comedy. Remember “Stuck on You,” anyone?

Mystery and intrigue take the back seat here. One can easily identify the villains early in the film. Bourne doesn’t learn enough about his history to make the amnesia story gripping as in “The Bourne Identity.” However, paranoia and suspense lay thick over Bourne’s dark world.

Occasionally, the dialogue suffers from tired lines (“Everything you say sounds like you read it in book”), but on the whole, the film is briskly paced and engaging.

As the second installment of a movie trilogy based on the spy novels by Robert Ludlum, “The Bourne Supremacy” ups the ante for the next Bourne film. It maintains the substance of first film while adding its own stylistic touches.

British director Paul Greengrass, new to the “Bourne” scene, wisely keeps the focus on Damon’s intense, tight-lipped character and on the human interactions at the CIA base rather than on flashy techno-gadgets and ridiculous martial arts sequences.

James Bond may have to watch out – a new kind of spy hero is on the rise, and he even has Bond’s initials.