The Bourne Legacy

Let's not mince words - The Bourne Legacy is a desperate attempt by the studio to keep a franchise running, after its original star (Matt Damon) and director (Paul Greengrass) refused to do any more films. And as far as studio cash grabs go, this is one of the better ones. This is not a "reboot" of the franchise, like The Amazing Spider-Man from earlier this summer. Rather, it is a continuation of the story that focuses on a new main character, and a new storyline that Hollywood is obviously hoping will spin off into its own franchise.

That's not to say that there is no connection to the earlier movies. There are some cameos by characters from the earlier movies (including Joan Allen and David Strathairn), and the name "Jason Bourne" is brought up more than once. However, the focus this time around is how there was more than one agent designed to be perfect assassins for the CIA. As the film opens, the program that created these agents is about to be blown wide open, and the shady powers that be led by the especially shady Eric Byer (Edward Norton) has decided that the best course of action is to kill everyone involved with the project, and cover their tracks as quickly and as neatly as possible. The agent that this movie is concerned with is Aaron Cross, who is played by Jeremy Renner. As a replacement for Damon, Renner is more than effective, bringing the same kind of steely determination he brought to his roles in The Hurt Locker, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, and The Avengers.

Aaron is in Alaska at the start of the film on a training mission, when he starts running low on the medications to keep his body and special abilities in check. It's right about this time that he discovers that his superiors are trying to kill him, though he doesn't know why at first. His search for answers leads him to a scientist on the project named Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz). Her life is in danger also, when one of her fellow scientists suddenly goes on a killing spree in the middle of the lab for seemingly no reason. Turns out the powers that be have their hands in that, also. They want no one in the project left alive, not even the scientists who administer the meds. Aaron and Marta realize that they both can no longer trust anyone but each other, and go on a world-spanning search for the truth, which climaxes with a particularly strong foot and motorcycle chase sequence down the streets of Manila.

As a kick off to a possible new direction for the franchise, The Bourne Legacy has enough convoluted conspiracy plotting to keep fans happy with its twisty plot. Oddly, however, director and co-writer Tony Gilroy has scaled back the action a little. It's not that what action is in the movie does not impress. If anything, it's much better shot than Greengrass' trademark "shaky cam" style in the earlier movies. It's just that there's a lot less of it. The first major action sequence doesn't come in till a little over an hour in. With a running time that reaches just over two hours, the film probably could have been edited a little bit, but at least the movie's never boring. The first half entices us with its conspiracy plot, while the second half is more thrilling, with Aaron and Marta constantly on the run.

Taking over the reigns of the franchise, Jeremy Renner proves that he has both the acting and action talent to successfully take over for Damon, as if that was ever in any doubt, judging by his past works. Equally impressive is Rachel Weisz, who makes her character smarter than the typical damsel in distress she could have been written as. While she's clearly out of her element outrunning armed thugs and hired assassins, you get the sense that she can hold her own, and this will probably be expanded in the inevitable future sequels. And yes, don't think the studio is pretty much gunning for this movie to launch more Bourne movies. The ending doesn't so much wrap everything up, as it gives our heroes a chance to catch their breath before their next adventure.

So, back to my original point. Yes, The Bourne Legacy is an obvious cash grab, but it's one that's been thought out well enough that I didn't really mind. Besides, the original trilogy was not exactly faithful to the source novels by Robert Lindlum, so it's not exactly wrong for these movies to go off in their own direction, when they only had a loose connection to the books in the first place. This movie could possibly lead to some exciting directions, and it left me wanting to see more. In my book, that means the movie did its job.

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