Review of The Bourne Legacy (2012) by Stevenf — 21 Feb 2013

Bourne is back. Well sort of, his picture is anyway, and his 'legacy' is also there.

Through studio and talent communication breakdown, Matt Damon did not return to this fourth instalment as Jason Bourne, he has been replaced by Jeremy Renner who plays a different lead in the film. Director Paul Greengrass also didn't return. Tony Gilroy, who was screenwriter for the first three instalments, has taken directorial duties, and well, he has muddled things a little bit.

Let me say that for the first half hour I was completely oblivious as to what was going on, there was a lot of coded talk, but the gist is that Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) is an Operation Outcome member, something similar to Treadstone from the previous films. There is, however, much more detail in this film has to what makes these people able to do what they are doing, and Cross is training in Alaska when the brains at Outcome decide to shutdown, due to the events surrounding Jason Bourne and the revelations of Treadstone to the media, because this film takes place during and after the events of Ultimatum. They have to take pills, or chems, in order to enhance their abilities, and after Cross escapes his own assassination, he meets Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz) who has escaped from her lab, which tested the participants for Outcome, after a colleague was chemically forced to murder all the lab doctors, as Eric Byer (Edward Norton) and his associates are attempting to erase any clues to Outcomes existence, again due to the media report into Treadstone.

The film falters in many aspects due to it being its own worst enemy, the dialogue is often constricted to the point where the audience themselves shouldn't be a part of whats going on, the camera work in the climatic chase scene was very Quantum of Solace, there was just too many cuts to make out a full picture. For its winning formula, there is a different sense of realism to this, they have taken the original films and gave them a full explanation, albeit a very confusing one.

Renner is excellent as Cross, you can still see his skills of Hawkeye from the Avengers but his confident speech from the Hurt Locker. Rachel Weisz plays the damsel in distress who finds her stride in the last half hour, but the last half hour is taken up by a chase scene in the Philippines which simply far too long, it went on and on, and this was the part where there was just far too many cuts and tight corners to enjoy watching.

I hope there is a sequel, it was enjoyable to the point of it continuing the 'legacy' but it just wasn't as clean and forthright as its predecessors, some work is definitely needed.