I dunno if 1999 is “way before”. That’s only three years. I wasn’t trying to nail the very first movie that started the trend, just an early example. Bourne specifically I know influenced the next few James Bond movies and they toned down the saturation directly because of Bourne, and it kept spreading.
The dark muted limited-colors thing started way before 2002
Here’s a random example, the matrix from 1999
https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/r_aina/43070750/172261/172261_original.png
I dunno if 1999 is “way before”. That’s only three years. I wasn’t trying to nail the very first movie that started the trend, just an early example. Bourne specifically I know influenced the next few James Bond movies and they toned down the saturation directly because of Bourne, and it kept spreading.