2012, Action, Adventure, Albert Finney, Edward Norton, Jeremy Renner, Mystery, Rachel Weisz, Suspense, The Bourne Legacy, Tom Gilroy

The Bourne Legacy (2012)

Leave a comment

the bourne legacy movie posterFans of the Jason Bourne Trilogy (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum) will, in all likelihood, enjoy The Matt Damon-less The Bourne Legacy. However, I’m wondering how many new fans this movie will attract. Director Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, Duplicity) repeatedly references Jason Bourne in this movie. Those looking to enter the franchise and think that this is the right time because Jeremy Renner (The Town, The Hurt Locker) is cast in the lead role instead of Damon will be disappointed if they don’t do their homework ahead of time. I would have been very frustrated watching this movie without seeing the other three first. I would have wanted to understand better what was going on. In The Bourne Legacy, Gilroy doesn’t seem interested in recapping a story that has already been told. You are out of luck if you have not seen a previous Bourne movie or need to research. Gilroy feels it’s not his job to keep you informed. For those wishing to see this movie without seeing any of the predecessors or if it has been a while since you’ve seen The Bourne Ultimatum, I suggest you visit this site first. The Bourne Legacy Primer: Five Things to Know Before Seeing the Franchise’s Latest Flick – E! Online. Even if you saw The Bourne Ultimatum the night before seeing this movie, I’d recommend checking out this link. It won’t hurt to do so.

This story takes place after Jason Bourne has gone rogue and is looking to expose the Treadstone Operation. The CIA has already caught a whiff of the story and is digging deeper. Retired Colonel Eric Byer (Edward Norton – American History X, Fight Club) heads a new program called Outcome, similar to Treadstone with one major exception. The Treadstone program trained its agents to be assassins. The outcome is more involved with espionage programs. While killing is often still a requirement of its agents, it is not its sole purpose. However, the programs fall under the same branch of the U.S. Military, and Byer feels the need to shut down the entire program and temporarily hide its blueprints and intelligence. As a result, all of the agents in the Outcome program need to be eliminated. This involves substituting two pills that the agents must take to help them maintain their physical and mental advantages and their dexterity, endurance, reflexes, etc., with one new super pill. The new pill results in the agents dying within a few hours of intake.

Aaron Cross (Renner) is an agent on a training mission in northern Alaska. The film spends 30 minutes going back and forth between scenes involving Aaron fighting wolves, jumping between mountain cliffs, navigating through the Alaskan wilderness, and scenes involving the steps that Byer must go through to shut down the program. The problem with eliminating Cross is he’s off the grid. Whereas Byer knows exactly where his other agents are, all he knows about Aaron is that he’s in Alaska. However, Aaron, like all agents, has a monitoring chip installed in his body and, after seeing the post of an agent he was staying with destroyed by a tracking drone, knows that something is not right and that the company is trying to eliminate him.

The game begins with cat and mouse. Aaron needs not only to survive but needs to get his medicine to combat the withdrawal symptoms he knows he will soon experience. Enter Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz – The Fountain, The Lovely Bones), a research scientist in the program who is one of a few who administer and monitor the drugs that each agent takes. Through reasons which won’t be discussed here, Aaron needs her, and she needs him. Weisz’s acting was terrible in this movie for the most part. I didn’t think she was believable, and even the talented Renner couldn’t carry her through scenes requiring extended dialogue periods. When she and Renner tried to have serious conversations, I couldn’t help but shake my head and wonder how she got cast in this role.

The Bourne Legacy is a decent watch. It would be an even better popcorn flick if the two-hour and 15-minute run time could be reduced to 1 hour and 40 minutes. It’s way too long. The movie is not going to win any awards. The acting is below average. As mentioned above, Weisz was miscast, and so was Norton. I am not a fan of Norton at all anymore. As good as he was early on in his career, most notably with Primal Fear, American History X, and The 25th Hour, he’s just an annoyance anytime I see him on the screen now. The action scenes fail in comparison to the previous movies. The plot is more complex than it needs to be. The chase scenes, in obvious attempts to live up to the predecessors, are long and unbelievable. The one great thing that I will say about it is that it uses state-of-the-art technology. It’s 2012, and The Bourne Legacy uses 2012 surveillance techniques to track Cross and Shearing. The technology identifies potential suspects in one scene and eliminates others from a pool of previously unknown individuals. At first, you wonder how Byer and his crew can catch a scent of the trial and follow it to its correct destination as quickly as possible. But before you can question it, you convince yourself that this is the day and age we live in now, and this is possible.

If you’re a fan of the series, see this movie. I’d see this movie. There will be more in this franchise, and it will likely result in Bourne and Cross being in the same movie together. If you think the Bourne movies are okay or haven’t seen any of them, don’t make this one your first. You’ll be frustrated and disappointed.

Plot 6.5/10
Character Development 6.5/10
Character Chemistry 6/10
Acting 6.5/10
Screenplay 6/10
Directing  7.5/10
Cinematography 8.5/10
Sound 7/10
Hook and Reel 7.5/10 (I liked it, but I could see how most would think the beginning is too slow and too long)
Universal Relevance 6/10 (been there, done that…in hundreds of movies and television shows)
68%

Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.