Brie Austin

The Bourne Legacy: Movie Reviews

The Bourne Legacy is Smart, Fast, and Furious!

In this latest follow-up to the Bourne trilogy, Jason (Matt Damon) is absent, though mentioned. It is because he is still at large — spotted in New York though again eluding capture –, and that Pamela Landy (Joan Allen, who appears in a cameo) is talking about Treadstone to a Senate committee, that the current crop of morally bankrupt, overly paranoid intelligence agency taskmasters (led by Edward Norton as Retired Col. Eric Byer, USAF) is in panic and the basis that sets the Bourne Legacy into motion.

Critics have been too quick to base the new film on the previous series, comparing the characters of Jason Bourne and Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) in manner and motivations.

To do so completely misses the point of The Bourne legacy: the writers were not attempting to recreate Jason Bourne.  These are two different characters from different government–sponsored black-op programs (Bourne, a product of Treadstone, and Cross, the product of Outcome), in other circumstances; Bourne leads us on an action-packed quest to regain his memory and discover why people are trying to kill him after he failed a mission; Cross in a race to get his “Chems” before he loses his enhanced mental and physical abilities before he’s killed in an effort by the powers that be to shut down the program he is apart of.

The Bourne Legacy begins in back-and-forth sequence cuts: Cross in Alaska on a training mission, while the intelligence team overseeing the Outcome program systematically kills off the agents — and anyone else — associated with the program.

Slowly, the dual stories converge as Cross arrives just in time to save Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weitz) in a mutual effort of self-preservation (he needs her for his “chems,” and she needs him for her survival: she too was targeted for death).

In Bourne form, the action scenes were explosive, frantic, and suspenseful, without any throwaway scenes; there was no action just for the sake of an action scene to fill the moment.

While the Bourne Trilogy was great (I’m a huge fan), it shouldn’t shake fans that the Bourne Legacy is slightly different.  Writers Tony and Dan Gilroy have written a good story that was well-director Tony Gilroy. They attempt, — and succeed –, to expand the dynamics of the original plot line by laying the groundwork to imagine a political and legal component in subsequent films as Landy takes on the machine that is now out to destroy her credibility and brand her a traitor of the United States.

While Cross doesn’t evolve much throughout the film as Jason Bourne did, Dr. Shearing does in a way that Marie didn’t. She goes from an innocent victim with an edge to a can-do survivalist, best revealed when she fights back against a pursuing assassin during a motorcycle chase—the film’s best action scene. The writers have again provided unknown opportunities for her to emerge in subsequent episodes.

As I spoke with viewers afterward, some thought they preferred the previous Bourne films, while others were still unsure. No one outwardly expressed any dislike or disappointment.

More info at Internet Movie Database

About Brie Austin

Co-author of I'd Do It Again, he is a columnist/reporter for a variety of magazines in the areas of music, lifestyle, nightlife, travel and business. He also writes business documents and creates copy for websites.