Review - The Bourne Legacy

Not Really Bourne But Fun Anyway

Jason Bourne and the Bourne series has set the standard for action movies in recent years, but with no Jason Bourne in a movie with his name in the title…you just scratch your head.

Jason Bourne is still on the loose, but there are others in the “program” that are doing the same things that Bourne was accomplishing. Now, with the lid ready to be blown off the program every one is struggling with the dismantling of the program and the removal of everyone who knows anything about it.

Enter Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) as one of those others that is in the midst of a punishment for thinking. EVERYONE is targeted by Eric Byer (Edward Norton) regardless of where they are located. Agent after agent is removed from the equation but the missile that heads to remove Aaron hits after he is out in the Alaskan wilderness.

On the other side of the country is Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz). She heads the lab that the agents check in at for updated research. The government attempts to neutralize her facility and now she is a Doctor on the run.

Aaron will eventually have to hook up with Marta, she has the meds he needs, to survive the attack and free themselves from the government. In a jaunt that will take them around the world, can they get the materials they need to survive and find a way off the grid?

The biggest problem with this film is it is a movie with a main character in the title that really doesn’t exist. And because of its linkage to the originally series, you expect something that never really materializes, but is that fair?

On it’s own, The Bourne Legacy is a decent action movie. Yes there are points I would change including a meandering beginning and some over the top situations. But the biggest things I would change is the title and make is something else.

Renner is ok as Aaron Cross. I like him better in many of his other roles, but he his someone who carries the mystery with him as he goes forward. But many of the mystery the Matt Damon was able to carry in the first films canNOT be carried here simply because of what you know he knows from the get go.

Sure the chemistry between Renner and Weisz doesn’t work the greatest; sure I have issues with the leaps the plot takes at points. But if this movie carried the title of Agent X or something else, I think we’d all have a better impression. With a Bourne movie…we simply expect more.

B / B-

The Bourne Legacy

Universal Pictures

Director: Tony Gilroy

Cast: Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton

Rating: PG-13 for violence and action sequences.

Runtime: 2 hours 15 minutes