The Bourne Legacy Review

A franchise Bourne again, or is the series' legacy tarnished?
Jeremy Renner has a hell of a job bringing the Bourne film franchise back to the big screen after five years of radio silence, especially when this requires him to take over from Hollywood star Matt Damon. Does he manage it with aplomb and resurrect the fledging saga of Jason Bourne? The short answer: no. If anything, The Bourne Legacy is just as laden with convoluted plot twists, stereotypical action-thriller characterisations and overreliance on its predecessors as those instalments that have come before it, if not moreso than ever before. The movie's central premise revolves around Outcome agent Aaron Cross (Renner), who finds himself hunted by the CIA as the failure of Treadstone provokes the cancellation of every secret experiment the organisation have ever been a part of. Were this less-than-compelling initial storyline to develop into one where a real sense of danger and scale was captured in the later scenes of Legacy, the flick as a whole would be a far more effective piece, building its minor character arcs to an impressive and surprising crescendo. Sadly, that's not the case, quite the opposite- plot twists are far and few inbetween, and anything that happens to Renner's Cross you'll see coming from a mile off. Worse still, though Jeremy fills Matt's void well here, the supporting cast are more forgettable and lacklustre than ever, with even Edward Norton cruelly misused and underrepresented despite his enigmatic screen presence (it seems he just can't catch a break after The Incredible Hulk!). There's just no sense of cohesion to the way in which this essential reboot develops over the course of the over-lengthy two hour running time, a feeling that's especially enhanced by one of the most simple and silly endings I've seen on a movie for a long time. It's always a bad sign when a film that's so hell-bent on encouraging a follow-up doesn't encourage you to look forward to the sequel, and while I hate to say it, that's most certainly the case here. That neither myself or my fellow attendees to the screening could work out quite what we'd just seen speaks wonders for the convolutedness of the whole dull experience. The Bourne Legacy stands as one of the weakest movies I've seen this year, a real letdown for a franchise that once held such brimming promise. Let's get Mr Damon back ASAP if this series is to continue, eh?
2/5