A little more than a week ago in a dark movie theatre, I realized what I want to be when I grow up.

I want to be Jason Bourne.

Well, not completely. I could do without having to kill people. That would be bad. And I don’t want people chasing me all over the place all the time. I’m paranoid enough as it is.

But has there ever been a cooler movie character than Jason Bourne? At this point, I don’t think so.

Some people would, of course, point out James Bond. I think the Bourne-Bond debate could actually go on until the end of time. In fact, it could be on the test when you get to Heaven.

But I think Bourne has surpassed Bond for one simple reason – they didn’t go overboard. Sure, they did with the whole sneaking into locked-down government buildings, but Bond does that kind of stuff too.

He just does it without ruffling his hair, with a martini in his hand that he doesn’t spill and with gadgets that just defy the imagination.

Bourne used t-shirts on his hands so he didn’t cut himself while vaulting walls that had broken glass on top of them.

Oh, by the way if you feel I am giving away “spoilers,” tough. The movie has been out for a while.

Anyway, the simplicity of Bourne’s approach has me transfixed whenever I watch the movies. In such an age of technology, he has Julia Stiles do a lot of that work.

Oh, and she’s uber-cute which doesn’t hurt in the whole debate. Sure, Bond had some attractive women in his movies, but they kept changing. When I put a Bourne flick in, I know I will see Julia. That is a big plus.

I also know who I will see playing the main character. Some people may like the variety that the Bond movies offer with 53 different people playing the title role over the years, but it doesn’t always work for me.

A lot of this has to do with the fact that there were a lot of Bond books written while the original Bourne author only wrote three books featuring the character.

Sure, the books and movies differ wildly, and another author has picked up the character since the movies made such a big splash, but I hope those just get ignored in the long run and the series ends with this latest movies.

Yeah, it would be fun to watch Jason Bourne chase down the bad guys every few years or so, but it would get emptier and emptier each time, I think. And they’d eventually have to compensate for Matt Damon getting older or pick another actor, and that just wouldn’t work.

Besides, the way movies get re-made these days, the original Bourne movie, released in 2002, should be done again any day now.

Well, not really, but it seems that way some time. I just hope they leave well enough alone and let us enjoy the trilogy because that will really add fuel to the debate.

Bourne or Bond? Bond or Bourne? You might really need to know the right answer one day.