Review of The Bourne Legacy (2012) by Neocomp92 — 07 Sep 2012

Wow, I thought the reviews were misleading, especially given how Bourne has to compete with Batman, and that Retner's previous film, Mission Impossible, was IMHO underwhelmingly reviewed at this site. But this time they got it right.

Both Bourne and TDKR are films generally for fans of the series only. Anyone not privy to The Bourne Ultimatum is going to get a bit lost in Legacy. Luckily the film does a bit of hand-holding. But the first few minutes can be confusing, and in general the film suffers from somewhat mediocre storytelling.

Retner does a good impression of a Bourne-esque hero, which tries to be this offshoot of Treadstone, but ultimately the whole film was trying to achieve the Bourne trilogy in 2 hours. And unlike Batman, which tried to approach the story via a new method of exposition, this film suffers from recycling plot points, general characters, and even action sequences from the previous movies. Its as if it tries to be a homage, but ultimately it is made to look like it can't survive on its own without hearkening back to Matt Damon's time.

Characters are not very memorable apart from Cross. Like I said, the characters look recycled, and unoriginal. Fans of the series can only recall these people from previous movies, like its a homage.

The story, despite the exposition, does expand upon Ultimatum. Ultimately, Legacy does show the fallout of Ultimatum, both during the film (but parallel using Cross POV), and shortly after the film. It does feel like a sequel is in the horizon, and it does feel like Jason Bourne's saga is not going to end in New York.

Overall it is not a very bad movie, but only to fans of the series. Again the whole setup feels like a throwback to the Damon era, whilst trying to establish a mythos on its own. Unfortunately Cross would at best come out as a Bourne without the amnesia or struggle with his emotions, and his life's story would not be any different (some say even ripping off) from Bourne.