The Bourne Legacy (2012)
Director: Tony Gilroy
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton
Ugh. Maybe if I wasn't a pretty serious fan of the Bourne series, this movie would have been acceptable. Unfortunately for Bourne Legacy, I'm really into these movies and am rather upset to see the legacy (har har) of the original Bourne trilogy besmirched by this far inferior psuedo-sequel. If The Bourne Legacy was a generic actioner with no connection to the original Matt Damon series, my criticisms would be far less harsh. But as a sequel to those great movies, Legacy just seems wholly uneccesary.
As luck would have it, I had recently re-watched all three Matt Damon Bourne movies prior to this one, which proved to be both good and bad. On the one hand, I was able to fully comprehend the story and the chronology of this movie (and the timeline of these Bourne movies is now pretty screwy: the third movie takes place partially during the second, and this one takes places partially during the third one). This movie does a pretty solid job of dropping in references to the overall Bourne mythology in order to make the story all seem connected. That was much appreciated.
But that brings me to the negative aspect of having recently watched the original trilogy: I really missed Matt Damon in this movie. Watching this movie back-to-back with the Damon flicks really shines a light on how lacking Jeremy Renner is in the charisma department compared to Jason Bourne himself. Every time a picture of Bourne popped up on screen, or his name was mentioned, I wanted Damon to just show up out of nowhere and kick this Bourne wannabe's ass. Unfortunately, it never happened. There is some obvious intention on the part of Hollywood to make Jeremy Renner a big action star, and after having seen three movies in which he plays a prominent role in the last half-year or so, I can confidently say I'm not buying. I haven't seen Hurt Locker, and he could be very good in that, but for now Renner remains just another forgettable Hollywood leading man to me.
Sadly, Matt Damon not showing up to save the day was the least of the problems I had with Bourne Legacy. Aaron Cross, in addition to being a painfully generic protagonist, lacks the cleverness of Jason Bourne that really made him so appealing. Sure it was fun to watch Bourne kick ass, but I really enjoyed when he created some gadget on the fly, escaped danger by outsmarting his pursuers, or just did something really cool or inventive that you never saw coming. There is precious little of that here, although Cross does have one good moment near the very beginning of the movie when he disposes of a tracking device in a clever way.
In addition, Cross just don't kick ass as satisfyingly as Jason Bourne. Given the generic nature of the characters and plot in this movie, the one way Bourne Legacy could have really redeemed itself is with some great action sequences. But the movie fails to please on that front, as well. Each Matt Damon Bourne movie had at least one signature fight or chase sequence that stuck with you long after seeing the movie. Bourne Legacy has zero. On top of that, the entire final fifteen to twenty minutes of the movie is a painful re-hash of the Morocco segment from Bourne Ultimatum. The main character in an Asian setting, jumping from roof to roof while evading police and a rival assassin (the worst villain in Bourne history, by the way, hands down) while attempting to save his girlfriend? And a motorcycle chase? It all went beyond homage into blatant rip-off territory.
Bourne Legacy in general has a "been there, done that" vibe, except the first time around was much better. The movie was directed by Tony Gilroy, who wrote the first three Bourne movies and was obviously very conscious of disturbing the main Bourne "canon", if you will. For that reason, pretty much the entire movies takes place parallel to the events of Ultimatum, and the overall story is advanced very little, if it all. We do however get introduced to more mysterious government programs (yay!). With Treadstone, Blackbriar, Outcome, and now LARX, I've totally lost track of all these shadowy government programs, and I'm also beginning to wonder exactly how the bad guys continue to get funding for them.
Edward Norton plays a villainous higher-up in one of these shadowy organizations who is apparently higher up the food chain than the government bad guys we were introduced to in the first three movies. This is all beginning to resemble 24 (in a bad way), when every time we thought we knew who the bad guy was, another more higher-ranking bad guy would come out of the woodwork to threaten Jack Bauer. On the plus side, at least Edward Norton isn't an old white guy. I was starting to have trouble telling all the old white guy villains in this series apart. We also get a sub-plot involving super-soldiers, and "chems" some agents are taking that enhance strength and intelligence. I'm not familiar with the original Ludlum novels, so this may be all coming from the book for all I know, but it all seems a little too comic book-y for my tastes.
In closing, Bourne Legacy may be worth watching for Bourne completists who want to frustrate themselves, but for all others I recommend staying away. The plot and the action are just too generic. Bourne Legacy is akin to a Batman comic that takes place in Gotham City, but follows some no-name loser around, and you only occasionally see teasing flashes of the Batman himself. Instead of making a Bourne movie without Bourne, the creators of Bourne Legacy would have been wise to branch out and explore a different, completely unrelated part of the Bourne universe. They could have even cast a male lead who isn't a bland, brown-haired white guy for a change. In any event, hopefully Matt Damon will be back for the next movie, and we can get a true Bourne sequel that actually advances the story (and hopefully grounds it a bit more after this super-pill craziness). Until then, I hope Aaron Cross and his girlfriend find a home on that boat, and are never heard from in the Bourne series again.
Verdict: 6/10
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