Review of The Bourne Legacy (2012) by Clarisesamuels — 16 Dec 2012

The Bourne Legacy, the first Bourneless movie, does not do real justice to the franchise. Jeremy Renner, as Aaron Cross, does breathe new and intense life into a completely different character, with Rachel Weisz as the love interest he never makes love to, although Weisz is definitely the Bourne "girl.

" It's refreshing to see an actress over 40 playing any kind of girl, and Weisz is the appropriate age for an experienced research scientist with a PhD, playing the role of Dr. Marta Shearing. Nevertheless, Weisz's role is a classic damsel-in-distress, perhaps of a more subdued nature, because she doesn't have to scream even once.

If the director intended to develop her as a female kick-boxer, that never happened. She trembles when she holds a gun, emotionally she's capable of falling apart, and only at the end, she finally kicks the bad guy off his motorcycle.

At one point Aaron tells Marta, "You're a warrior." The viewers would say, "I don't think so." Weisz has to run a lot, and she has mastered a strong gait, almost like an Olympic sprinter which, again, seems to imply her character was in development for being a female soldier who can really kick derriere, but that plot thread never materialized.

She's following Aaron Cross around, always needing to be rescued at the eleventh hour, and only peripherally makes a contribution with her scientific knowledge regarding his medication and his condition.

Weisz is still effective, but if the director really wanted her to be the geeky scientist who does not consider the moral implications of her work, they should have downplayed her beauty. The United States government is, once again, an evil institution that cannot be trusted because they set up illegal, embarrassing spy rings that have to be disbanded, which means every undercover agent has to be killed.

Since Watergate, Hollywood continually depicts the American government as political leaders who would betray and murder their own people, rather than being the good guys who are the policemen and the protectors for the entire world.

The theme of an evil American government that cannot be trusted is tiresome, and it's getting old. The mastermind who betrays his own spy ring is played by Ed Norton, who depicts the character to perfection, even though the script does not give him much to work with.

The entire film is one big hunt-and-chase scene, first starting in Alaska, where it almost piques your interest, and ending in Manila, where it's a boring roof-jumping motorcycle chase that goes on for too long.

At one point, Weisz almost falls off the speeding motorcycle, and she seems to be holding on to a speeding bus until Renner pulls her back. Unless both vehicles were traveling at the exact same speed, that was physically impossible and she should have been yanked right out of her seat.

The worst sin--the director and scriptwriters did not know how to end the film. The main concern was to keep the plot open-ended for the next installment, so at the end the script is, quite literally, lost at sea.