Some consider “The Bourne Legacy” to be a cinematic cheat,
nothing more than a greedy attempt by Universal Pictures to continue a hugely
successful franchise without its main stars (Matt Damon and director Paul
Greengrass). Truth be told however, Universal has done a good job making it
clear to audiences that this new chapter is not out to replace the character of
Jason Bourne or have an actor other than Damon playing him. Even though it
doesn’t break any new ground in the franchise and threatens to pale in
comparison the trilogy of films which preceded it, “The Bourne Legacy” proves
to be an exciting action flick that finds its own rhythm and goes with it.
Describing this movie is a little complicated as it cannot
easily be called a sequel or a prequel. This one is really more of a parallel
story or a “parallel-quel” if you will. Like “Paranormal Activity 2,” it
surrounds the events of the movie which came before it (in this case “The
Bourne Ultimatum”). With Jason Bourne systematically taking apart Operation
Blackbriar, “Legacy” looks to pull back the curtain to reveal that there were
several other secret government programs which trained American soldiers to do
their dirty work. The program focused on here is Operation Outcome which has
employed Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), an agent who’s not suffering from amnesia
but knows that he can be as easily expendable as Bourne.
In differentiating Aaron Cross as a character, it is shown
to us that Outcome agents are more like mice in a science lab as they are given
certain kinds of medication which help to give them increased mental and
physical abilities. There are no red or blue pills like there was in “The
Matrix,” but instead green and blue ones which Aaron needs to function. If he
misses a dose or doesn’t have access to a refill (which won’t be available to
him at the local drug store), he will end up going into serious withdrawal and
could die. Anyone who has had experience with certain medications, be it
anti-depressants or otherwise, can certainly understand how bad the withdrawal
part can get.
When the situation with Jason Bourne gets as explosive as it
did in the last film, retired Air Force Colonel Eric Byer (Edward Norton) is
brought in to contain the situation and decides that the agents in programs
like Outcome need to be eliminated for the government’s own protection. So
despite the agents allegiance to their countries, they are stabbed in the back and
assassinated in the coldest way possible. So that’s what it’s like to work at
NBC!
Cross himself narrowly escapes an assassination attempt and
ends up going on the run to escape detection and to find some more of those
pills before he experiences serious withdrawal. This has him traversing through
the Alaskan wilderness while being chased by wolves (lovers of those creatures
are not going to be happy with this movie) and going all the way to the
Philippines to get his pills. Don’t worry though because neither Cross or the
filmmakers are trying to make any sort of comment on the high prices of
American health care.
Joining him in his exploits is Marta Shearing (Rachel
Weisz), one of the doctors who helped Aaron achieve such amazing abilities
through the wonders of medicine. So as a result, the setup does have a ring
familiarity about it as Marta, like Franka
Potente’s character of Marie from “The Bourne Identity,” sees her life get
turned upside down and is forced to go on the run with Aaron. But whereas Marie
was an individual who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time, Marta does
have a stronger purpose as she is needed to keep Aaron from suffering without
his medication.
Now I could spend a lot of time comparing “The Bourne
Legacy” with the trilogy which came before it, but I’d rather not if I can help
it. Those three movies set a new standard for action movies which is extremely
hard to top, and that makes certain comparisons somewhat unfair. Paul
Greengrass at one time joked that doing another Jason Bourne movie might as
well have him calling it “The Bourne Redundancy,” and that could easily have
been the case here. Indeed, the setup is the same with two characters on the
run from a government that has betrayed them, but Gilroy does ground this story
in a reality that wasn’t as present in the previous movies.
Tony Gilroy has already made himself well known as one of
the main architects of the Jason Bourne movies with his involvement in writing
the screenplays for them, but his talents as a director were established before
that with “Michael Clayton” which was one of the best movies of 2007.
Gilroy does solid work in making this particular Bourne
movie stand out in a different way from the rest of the franchise, and (for
those who had issue with Greengrass’ camerawork) he doesn’t have the camera
shaking all over the place quite as much. Even if the lack of shaky camerawork
does somewhat impact the excitement we have while watching these action
sequences, they still prove to be more riveting than most other action movies
have had to offer in 2012 thus far. There’s one big crash towards the end (you’ll
know it when happens) which had me saying to myself “oh man that’s got to
hurt!” Keep in mind that is not a term I use regularly when watching an action
movie.
So who’s the better actor in the Bourne franchise, Damon or
Renner? At this point I don’t feel like figuring that one out. The important
thing is that Renner creates an intriguing enough character in Aaron Cross that
makes us want to follow him some more in the future. Renner has long since
acquitted himself as an actor in movies like “The Hurt Locker,” “The Town” and
“Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol,” and with “The Bourne Legacy” he gets a
lead role in a motion picture which is worthy of his talents.
And while her character yells a little more than I would
care for her to, Weisz is Renner’s equal in one scene to the next as she is
thrown into a situation which changes her life permanently. Weisz is a powerful
actress to say the least, and she keeps us hanging on during the movie’s more
intense sequences.
Edward Norton looks to be knocked down from his status as a
lead actor in movies here, but he creates a down to earth nemesis with his
character of Eric Byer. While Norton is not always known as one of the easiest
actors to deal with in Hollywood, we know that with him he will give a multi-dimensional
portrait of each character he ends up playing. Eric is not a man driven to do
evil, but one whose patriotism to his country forces him to do extreme things
in order to protect it. Nevertheless, Eric is a man who deserves whatever fate
is bound to come his way.
You also have to acknowledge actors like Oscar Isaac, Donna
Murphy, Zeljko Ivanek and Stacy Keach who took their small roles and made them
into compelling characters regardless of how short their screen time is. Other
actors who show to reprise their roles (however briefly) are David Strathairn,
Albert Finney, Scott Glenn and Joan Allen who once again proves with a single
line that her character of Deputy Director Pamela Landy is not a person to be
messed with.
I do have to say that I kind of missed John Powell’s brilliant
music from the past three movies, and the scoring duties this time are left to
Gilroy’s frequent composer James Newton Howard. Powell created adrenaline
pumping music for the previous three movies that fused orchestral and electronic
elements together to thrilling effect. Having said that, Howard is an excellent
composer in his own right, and he does give the movie the kinetic score it
deserves.
So it looks like the Bourne movie franchise just might
survive without Damon and Greengrass (at least for now). With “The Bourne
Legacy,” Tony Gilroy gives us a new chapter with a story that which in some
ways is more realistic than the ones which came before it. This may take fans
for a bit of a loop depending on what they expect, but it still manages to
deliver the goods all the same.
Still, it would have been nice for Aaron Cross to have his
own theme song at the movie’s end. Moby’s “Extreme Ways” is really Jason
Bourne’s theme, and it would have helped to set this chapter of the series
apart some more. How about “Renegade” by Styx?
* * * out of * * * *
