Review of The Bourne Legacy (2012) by Allan C — 09 Aug 2013

Something of a spin-off from the previous Bourne films, this one taking place parallel to the third Bourne film, "The Bourne Ultimatum." I actually prefer Jeremy Renner as an action hero to Matt Damon, who for whatever reason I'm not that big a fan of onscreen (though I quite like his outspoken attitude offscreen), but this film pales in comparison to the previous Bourne films.

Director Tony Gilroy, who wrote the previous Bourne films, definitely has some action chops, delivering a particularly good motorcycle chase near the end of the film, but maybe it was the torn-from-the-headlines topics (Wikileaks-like whisteblowing, drones, etc.

.) that put me off. Maybe it was too much of an uncomfortable mix of James Bond fantasy and "Tinker, Tailor, Solder, Spy" realism that didn't quite mesh for me. Still, the film is a lot better than most Hollywood action garbage, so it's certainly worth checking out.