The Bourne Legacy

When you watch “The Bourne Legacy,” released in 2012, you’re puzzled and confused in the first third of the movie. Who is Aaron Cross, played by Jeremy Renner, and why is he floating shirtless in the Alaskan sea in this freezing cold weather, going up mountainous regions and fist-fighting wolves? What is wrong with Colonel Eric Byer, played by Edward Norton, who is always in front of a computer, shouting orders and pointing his finger at everyone? Why is Dr. Marta Shearing, played by Rachel Weisz, with her lab coat in this scientific lab so essential? Also, how come there is no Matt Damon?

The actor from the last three Bourne films was not casted in the fourth entry in this series. You will miss him in this one. Given the mission to move forward with the franchise’s story without Damon, writer-director Tony Gilroy misses something completely single-minded than the clichéd reboot tool. He tells fans a similar story, going on at the same time as what transpired in “The Bourne Ultimatum,” where the government says they want to eliminate every one of the super agents they created for doing cool missions (a new, more enhanced group is going to replace them).

Rene Rodriguez stated in her review, “But Cross, who is one of the soldiers deemed obsolete, isn’t willing to go quietly. In his previous movies, Gilroy (Duplicity, Michael Clayton) displayed a flair for tangled, playful narratives that rewarded close attention and doled out wonderful third-act bombs of surprise.” One of the letdowns in this movie that there isn’t much to do in a movie underneath a messy, busy façade. Once they start the narrative piece, the movie does the familiar Bourne formula of government authorities trying to hunt their rouge agents. Once in a while, they enlist an experienced person.

Renner can kill it in supporting roles (The Avengers, Mission Impossible: Rouge Nation), but he can’t play a main role: He doesn’t have what is needed to play in a huge movie like the Bourne sequels, and he gets lost in the sauce. On a similar note, Weisz’s Dr. Shearing, who doesn’t understand why her colleagues are now wanting to kill her, is a great character and is not your typical damsel-in-distress than you could have imagined. In one of the highlights of the movie, she does find out the company psychiatrist who goes to her house to see her mental condition that might have another, more evil plan. Rodriguez credits, “Weisz plays the scene so well, you actually believe her character is in mortal peril, even though she hasn’t been in the movie nearly long enough to get bumped off.”

Rodriguez said, “Besides, The Bourne Legacy isn’t the sort of picture that takes risks, other than to see just how loud James Newton Howard’s score can go without causing permanent deafness in the audience. There is one fabulous set piece in the movie, a methodical mass-murder/suicide that is shot and edited with harrowing, horrifying expertise.” As good of a writer that he is, Gilroy is also a skilled filmmaker. The last half-hour of the movie is one giant action scene in Manila – a chase done on foot, car and motorcycle – that had to be extremely challenging to film and even more of a challenge to edit. It looks great, but it’s also hard to watch, because when you reach that part “The Bourne Legacy” proves to you that there are no surprises anywhere, no more innovative stories to be made from this movie. The stunts, admittedly, looks tiring. I guess you might wonder why Damon never appeared in this movie.

Overall, even though I wasn’t as engaged in this movie as I was with the previous three installments, I do give this movie credit for trying. Overall, this was a nice movie that I think it was definitely worth checking out, so watch it and give it a chance. The movie is not entirely bad. I understand that this movie might be an adaptation on a book that doesn’t have Jason Bourne since I think his story was done in the books, but I can’t say for sure since I never read the series. However, if this movie was going to start a new series of stories in the Bourne series, than I give it credit for making a nice starting point, although I think future sequels with Cross’s character was scrapped since I think people wanted Jason Bourne again.

If you want to know how it ended up with fans wanting Jason Bourne back in the movies, find out next week in the finale to “Jason Bourne Month.”