REVIEW OF THE BOURNE LEGACY

About This Movie:

Following in the wake of Jason
Bourne's burning of the Blackbriar program in The Bourne Ultimatum, Tony Gilroy's new entry in
the franchise pulls back the curtain on the other CIA intelligence programs
that have been operating in the shadows and now fear exposure; specifically,
Operation Outcome, a highly advanced iteration of the original Treadstone
program.

After Colonel Eric Byer (Edward Norton)—operator
of Outcome and mastermind behind all of the assassin programs, including
Treadstone—discovers that Bourne has exposed Blackbriar, he is forced to
liquidate his own program, eliminating all knowledgeable personnel. But when an
asset from the program escapes, the CIA will find they have a whole new
liability on their hands: agent Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner).
With Byer and the full power of the CIA hot on his heels, Cross will have to
use every skill in his arsenal to avoid capture and stay alive.

What Is Good About The Movie:

When agent
Aaron Cross plunges into icy waters in the opening moments of the brisk and
satisfying spy thriller The Bourne Legacy, the scene serves two
purposes: to commemorate the superb and well-loved trilogy that came before, in
which Matt Damon, as the man called Jason Bourne, made his first appearance in The
Bourne Identity, fished out of the Mediterranean Sea with bullets in his
back; and to baptize Jeremy Renner as the action-hero heir worthy of leading
the franchise forward.

The symbolism works elegantly. Renner's Cross is a conflicted hero
built to take advantage of the Hurt Locker star's best qualities as
an actor — his default intensity, the way he conveys that complicated mental
calculations are taking place under cover of watchful stillness, even
underwater. Director and co-writer Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton) has
custom-tailored The Bourne Legacy for the present by opening
up the narrative. Unnerving scenes of backroom operations among shadowy
governmental and private-enterprise types reveal the machinations of a much
bigger, more nefarious tangle of players than previously imagined. There are
mystery men running the country — and, by remote control, the world. This movie
recommends worrying.

What Is Bad About The Movie:

When I first heard there was
another Bourne installment, this time without Matt Damon, I figured someone
either wrote a good script to carry on a new story line, or the studio wanted
to churn out a guaranteed cash cow under the title of a proved and successful
action series. Writer/director Tony Gilroy wrote the scripts for the first
three Bourne films, but this is his first time behind the camera in the series.
After enduring a painfully slow beginning, The Bourne Legacy reveals it is set
at the same point in time as The Bourne Ultimatum.

Unfortunately, The Bourne
Legacy noticeably lacks the quality script and thrilling action sequences of
that first film. The chase scenes in the new film are edited so atrociously,
especially during motorcycle elements, that they are almost impossible to
logically follow. You know they are weaving in and out of traffic, there are
near misses, and flying bullets; but there are only quick glimpses of that on
the screen in the midst of the unsteady camera work and split-second jump cuts.



Renner and Weisz do
their best to remake a film which was already pretty great. Yes, they have new
names and faces, but they are running from the same agency, dodging the same
bullets, but this time they have a higher chromosomal level on their side. The
Bourne Legacy has potential, but I can’t help but wonder if it will be known as
that film that derailed the very respectable Bourne franchise. 

Overall Grade:

B-