I think it ’s lucky that I had just watch out Bourne Ultimatum the night before I watched Bourne Legacy because if I had n’t , the first one-half of this spinoff flick would have made almost no sense . Tony Gilroy , who drop a line the first three films , ingest over as director on Legacy — and it shows . The motion picture is slavishly bound to even the most minor patch points of Ultimatum , and in fact takes place for the most part at the same time . What that means , unluckily , is that Gilroy spends so much clock time assay to shoehorn brand - new character Aaron ( Jeremy Renner ) into the Bourne universe that the pic teetertotter on the threshold of incoherence . Though there are some coolheaded new elements in this taradiddle , like genetically - adapted superagents , the exciting fight scenes are weighed down by all the Bourne plot luggage this movie is dribble around .
In other discussion , Bourne Legacy is an aim deterrent example in how to screw up a reboot .
Chasing Chems
One of the things that ’s appealing about the Bourne pic is that they ’ve always get for more realism than your typical spy - fi movie . Jason Bourne drives crappy cars in chase picture , and shoots the bad guy with whatever rifle happens to be lying around . He ’s badass because he ’s resourceful — even though he remembers nothing about his past as an assassin , you’re able to still imagine him using a sharpened credit carte to get out of an armored car . Another part of this reality was seeing the disorganisation in the intelligence agencies who were supposed to be responsible for for Bourne . As CIA directors and other angry suits sent various superbad agents after Bourne , we would see these IC bureaucrat in tense conversation that revealed what a mess these agencies had created for themselves , and how privacy actually undermines internal security system . The result was a pleasing blend of game activity , psychological dramatic event , and puss of Aaron Sorkin - esque dialogue back in Washington and Langley .
We have all of that in Bourne Legacy , but Aaron ’s story is a lot less compelling than Bourne ’s was . Instead of writhe with amnesia and powers he does n’t see , Aaron ’s main job is that he is a less - than - healthy cat who has been souped up with “ green pills ” that make him some kind of spy genius . When a reporter from The Guardian ( remember him from Ultimatum ? ) threatens to run a narrative on the secret undertaking that created Bourne , an Air Force intelligence guy cable called Byer ( Ed Norton ) come in to clean house up the CIA ’s mess . Or the NSA . Or whatever the hell it is . And you jazz what “ clean up ” way . He and his team have to defeat all the remaining super - agents , include Aaron .
Which is how Aaron , after battling a wolf and climbing a bunch of mount , find himself hunt away from Byer ’s guys with no “ chems . ” It ’s a race against sentence — will he be able to get more greens before his brain go into shutdown ? It ’s essentially Flowers for Algernon or Limitless cross with gaining control the flag . Which is really kind of a with child idea . It takes Aaron into the scary macrocosm of Marta ( Rachel Weisz ) , a virtuously vacant research scientist working on the government activity ’s experiments into neural programming and transmissible enhancement . It gives this serial publication a welcome pane of unearthly futurism . But instead of taking the opportunity to build an intriguing conspiracy tale around the anovulatory drug , director Gilroy turns the pill deputation into just one level in an overwhelmingly boring game .
A Psychological Thriller Without Psychology
I love Edward Norton , but I could n’t help but express mirth out loud when Byer struts into yet another inexplicably longsighted encounter between intelligence agency suits , and tell snippily , “ I need a crisis suite ! ” Huh ? That ’s a matter ? A thing we worry about ? I almost expect him to follow up with a postulation for M&Ms with all the yellow candy taken out . Far too much of this motion picture is devoted to the suits sit at their calculator looking at bad jpegs of Aaron and Marta and yelling into their headset . There are multiple scene where we see them tracking Aaron , and we hear like six mass in a quarrel barking the same instructions into their headphone , presumably plug into up with different way . “ I need all the surveillance footage from that freeway ! ” “ Yes , all the footage ! ” “ Get me that footage now ! ” “ Do you have the footage ? I involve it . ”
Yes , this is probably more realistic than one guy with a glowing cabinet using planet to zoom in on Aaron ’s exact positioning . But it ’s no fun to watch out , and slow up the activity right smart down . I think part of the job , as I tell earlier , is that Aaron ’s quandary is less sympathetic and compelling than Bourne ’s was . We do sympathize with his desire to stay smart and inviolable without MEd , but it does n’t feel as vital as Bourne ’s moral struggle to understand who he was and why he killed so remorselessly .
As Aaron and Marta get closer to their destination — a situation where they can hook him up with his greenish “ chems ” — we get the usual Bourne second where the CIA send another badass agent after the effective guy . In previous films , these last bosses were played by charismatic types like Clive Owen and Karl Urban . But this prison term we get a guy who might be magnetic — if he were in reality given any line of merchandise or allowed to be anything other than a golem . Called only LARX # 3 ( Louis Ozawa Changchien ) , he ’s the result of bourn - style experimentation in an unregulated facility in Thailand . Wordlessly , # 3 pursue Aaron and Marta through motorbike chases and half-baked metropolis street in Manila . And the longer this goes on , the less we care . The whole final routine of the cinema feel like a sadly rote actioner accentuate by abbreviated coup d’oeil of Edward Norton and David Strathairn doing headset acting .
In the oddment , confederacy thriller like the Bourne series depend on a compelling central theatrical role , and possibly a magnetise bad guy wire . Yes , a film like Bourne Legacy is unquestionably an action film , but it ’s also a psychological suspense tarradiddle . It ’s about what ’s happening inside Aaron ’s mind , as well as how many bridges he can rise and how many intelligence agent he can piss off . When we are n’t given any rationality to manage about Aaron , or even to be peculiar about what ’s in his thinker , the whole film falls aside .
Jeremy Renner
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , skill , and culture news in your inbox daily .
News from the future , give birth to your present .
You May Also Like
