The Bourne Legacy

Edward Norton Week

August 16, 2012

The Bourne Legacy:

The Bourne Legacy is the somewhat reboot, somewhat sequel to the Bourne trilogy, and is also Edward Norton’s latest movie. It starts Jeremy Renner as the replacement for Matt Damon, and sometimes seem like a pointless attempt to capitalize on the first three movies success. However, this is still a great action movie, and the dialogue in this movie is much better than the dialogue in the other movies.

Performances: Jeremy Renner plays Aaron Cross, a CIA assassin with ties to Jason Bourne and the Treadstone and Black Briar programs. Jeremy Renner is a great actor, evidenced by his Oscar nominations for both Best Actor in the Hurt Locker and Best Supporting Actor for The Town. He is also an action star involved in two of the biggest movie series right now. That being said however, he still can’t pull off all of the action scenes as well as Matt Damon could, and that is because he isn’t giving as much time to develop as a character. This could be contradicted by giving the point that we had three movies with Jason Bourne, but only one movie so far with Aaron Cross. This is a valid point, and based off that Aaron Cross does seem to be a really great character. Edward Norton plays the villain, a CIA officer trying to clean up the mess with the whole Jason Bourne affair, and in order to do that he wants to kill all of the agents working for his program. He isn’t given as much screen time as he should be, but he still seems to be a great villain with the added grace of Edward Norton.

Plot: This movie has two big action sequences. The first happens when Renner is trying to save Rachel Weis’ doctor character from assassins sent by Norton, and the second occurs when they are trying to escape from a treadstone type assassin sent by the CIA to kill them. They are both stand out action sequences, and rival scenes from both Supremacy and Ultimatum. However, the rest of the movie seems to be a lot of talking and discussing about what the CIA have done to Renner, by turning him into the perfect assassin by giving him “chems”. These pills play a huge part in the plot, and most times seem to be just a stupid macguffin. However, whenever the film stops talking and just gets into the action, it becomes truly great. I really like the interaction between Renner and Weisz though, and also Norton plays a good villain when it comes to his interactions with Aaron Cross, he was better than any of the original trilogy villains. The only thing that I think they should have added to the plot would be an ending scene showing a figure on laptop, looking up Cross. Than they show you his front and it’s Jason Bourne, in hiding, and he just flashes a nice smile. This would have been the perfect way to set up a sequel with both Cross and Bourne in it, which I think is the best way to go with inevitable sequel that will be made.

Entertainment: Both of the action scenes in this movie are great, they are better than any action scene in Identity, but the scenes in Supremacy and Ultimatum may just beat them out. However, they work really really well for the movie, and it makes the movie easy to watch. The rest of the film seems to be only talking and running, and there never seems to be just enough action going on the for the regular film goers to enjoy. I really enjoy the interaction between Renner and Weisz however. Rachel Weisz is the best female lead in any of the Bourne films, she seems to actually be doing things instead of just having to be saved by Cross. Also, I really enjoy the scenes with Norton, and this is one of his better movie roles, but he is still pretty forgettable.

Overall: The Bourne Legacy is a good action movie, with both action scenes and scenes with chemistry between the leads. However, it never seems to be better than Supremacy and Ultimatum, because Jason Bourne is absent. That is only because we aren’t given enough time with Cross. He isn’t as developed as much as he should be. This is a problem for the movie, but I’m sure with the sequel they can make it better. They need to include Bourne in the next film though, that would make it one hundred percent better. Overall, the Bourne Legacy is a good movie, but the lead is never as good as the lead in the first three movies, and the absence of any major mention of Jason Bourne’s whereabouts is a problem. This could be a good angle to play out in the next movie, and I’m sure that with more time developing Cross he can become just as good a lead as Jason Bourne is.

Overall Grade: B-