I thought that The Bourne Legacy was a great idea. Obviously great idea number one would have been to bring back the team of director Paul Greengrass and star Matt Damon from The Bourne Ultimatum. But bringing in the screenwriter from the first 3 films to direct and casting Jeremy Renner as the hero was a good plan B. Renner has slowly begun the process of becoming a bankable leading man. He broke through with an excellent Oscar nominated performance in The Hurt Locker, and has since had several great supporting turns in The Town, Mission Imposible: Ghost Protocol, and The Avengers. Now he has been given the keys to one of the most bankable action franchises as its new star, and the result of his first iteration is a worthy follow up to the Matt Damon predecessors.
The Bourne Legacy somewhat picks back up after the events of Ultimatum. Jason Bourne has exposed "the program", the government program that trains ruthless super spies, and the shadowy government leaders that run it are doing their best to cover their tracks. Legacy sets forth that Jason Bourne was merely the tip of the iceberg; that there are many other genetically enhanced superhuman spies out there. Jeremy Renner's Aaron Cross is one of these. Once Bourne exposes the government program that created these men, they quickly decide to erase every trace it existed, which includes Cross. Now Cross is on the run, getting help from a program doctor, Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz). Legacy unfolds like a chase film, very much in the style of the previous installments.
Jason Bourne is mentioned in passing almost throughout the entire film. I understood that Matt Damon was not going to be in this movie, and it was probably a smart move to not straight up replace him, like the James Bond franchise has done so successfully. Keeping Damon as Bourne leaves the possibility that he may come back to reprise his role in future installments, something I'm sure the studio is frothing at the mouth over. But it certainly feels like a tease to have the hero we have become attached to mentioned so much and have him not even make at the very least a cameo . Here's to hoping they can convince Damon to come back for a fifth installment alongside Renner, something that has huge potential.
Renner's Cross is great as the lead. He plays the role totally different than Damon did, which was to his benefit. Cross just has more personality than Bourne did. Bourne was a tortured soul, painfully robotic from the training he had been given in the program. Cross actually seems like a real person. He jokes, he's interested in people, and oozes charisma. This definitely works when he meets up with Shearing, the doctor helping him on the run. Renner and Weisz work very well together, and their scenes together are the highlight of the film.
The thing the Bourne series is known for is its frenetic action and chases, and Legacy does not disappoint. There are some great action scenes, including an incredible chase in the last 30 minutes. The action doesn't seem all that new, but that is because every action movie made in the past 8 years or so has taken influence from the Bourne series. Bourne pretty much single handedly caused MGM to retool the James Bond franchise to what it is today. So it's not Legacy's fault that the action scenes seem familiar, simply for the fact that the series has been extremely influential. Despite the familiarity, there it still plenty to see and love, and Renner is awesome throughout.
I will say that the pacing of Legacy was a bit off. The end is very abrupt. The main "bad guy" is introduced in the last 30 minutes and has no real explanation at all. Things happen and then all the sudden the movie is over. Endings should be given weight by how they have been led up to in the previous two acts, and it just didn't seem like what was happening should have ended the film. There are definitely exceptions to this rule (Pulp Fiction is a good example where it doesn't happen this way), but it usually behooves action movies to follow this pattern.
As far as seeing the first installments before this one, I wouldn't say that it's absolutely necessary, but if you want to be up on every intricacy of the plot, you should probably watch them first. I've seen all the Damon Bourne's multiple times, but not for a while, and I have to say I was a bit lost on a few of the references the characters make. I felt like this was a problem for Legacy. In an action chase film, there's no reason to be overly confusing in plot points. I guess a recent re-watch of Ultimatum would have helped, but this essentially being a new story to the franchise, prior viewings should not be required.
The rest of the cast is good to excellent, including Edward Norton. I don't understand why Norton has been relegated to supporting cast duties after the brilliant string of amazing performances he pulled off in the 90's (Primal Fear, Fight Club, and American History X to name a few), but I still liked him. The Bourne Legacy works as a great action film and a worthy installment of the Bourne franchise, and is certainly worth a trip to the theater.
3.5/5
The ensemble was chosen perfectly, and even though there is no Matt Damon, we still get plenty of great spots from Renner and his performance as Aaron Cross. I look forward to seeing what Gilroy does with this character in the future, but for now, I’m just glad he made it work. Good review Drew.
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