Bourne Exposes the Sin Eaters
The Bourne Legacy shifts the blame from those bozos at the CIA to mysterious suit-wearing guys at the Pentagon and exposes a program designed to create genetically altered super soldiers. If you think that plot sounds like a paranoid liberal conspiracy theory or (alternately) a real science-based breach of national security that demands an investigation led by Congressman Peter King, then writer/director Tony Gilroy’s sequel/reboot/alternate storyline revival of the series is probably just going to make you mad(der than you already are most of the time).
For the rest of you Bourne fans, this movie pretty cleverly solves the problems created when both the star and the director quit and the studio had to figure out a way to keep the franchise going.
Gilroy, who also wrote the other three films in the series, famously complained that director Paul Greengrass shredded his plot details in pursuit of the furious handheld action style perfected in The Bourne Ultimatum. Gilroy abandons that style and very purposefully sets out to have his conspiracy theories make sense here; the first third of Legacy is happening simultaneously with the action in Ultimatum and it’s Jason Bourne’s NYC rampage and exposure of the Treadstone spy program that inspires the Pentagon to shut down its own Outcome program.
Outcome involves chemically enhanced soldiers who maintain their improvements with a strict pill regimen. There’s a lot of back-and-forth about how the military needs operatives willing to commit reprehensible acts for the collective good (“sin eaters”) and that’s how the suits justify Outcome’s wipeout.Jeremy Renner’s Aaron Cross spends most of the movie in withdrawals and determined to score; Rachel Weisz is the improbably attractive scientist who knows how to get him a permanent fix.
The first three quarters of the movie is lots of serious people having meetings, punctuated by a few explosions. That part totally works and brings to mind the best espionage movies from the ‘60s and ‘70s. Once Renner and Weisz escape from the drugs manufacturing facility, there’s a motorcycle chase through the streets of Manila that seems to last forever. It’s not awful, but you’ve seen better and then the movie just.…stops.
Jeremy Renner’s Aaron Cross isn’t as interesting as Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne. Tony Gilroy’s direction is no match for the visual style that Paul Greengrass brought to the series. Still, The Bourne Legacy is way better than The Green Zone, the movie Damon and Greengrass abandoned this series to make. The bad guys wear suits and the good guys wear uniforms (aside from one gratuitous swipe at Army recruiters late in the movie).
Definitely worth your $12 and definitely worth a sequel.
Under the Radar is commentary. We don’t report the news; we offer our take on what happened.
13 Comments
From the above description it does not sound all that interesting, and definitely NOT worth a sequel.
ANYTHING is better than Damon. I still remember how he whined about Bond copying Bourne.
Like Craig could stoop that low.….….….….
Damon lost me after that. I was pleased Renner was picked up as I might nod off with another whining Damon
performance.
we are expendable.……don’t you all get it!? THE GOVERNMENT DOESN’T CARE!
As a retired Army analyst I found the movie interesting. Looking forward to sequel. Movies often parallel reality.
***?
After watching young Damon, in all three of these movies, and then hearing about his political views, yea, it’s time for someone new. Lets hope this guy will do better—–a whole lot better.
I finally saw this movie. The begining is slow, because the outcome program has to be explained, the new characters have to be introduced, and this movie is supposed to pick up where Ultimatum left off. But the action does pick up. I enjoyed it none the less. I do however want to say, I liked the Green Zone as well. I say this because the storyline was about an event I was actually involved in. Deployed to Iraq in 2003 under the 4th Infantry Division.
I know, right? The whole review seems to (sort of) slam the movie but then the last sentence is a total reversal.
Still, I loved the Bourne movies (w/ Damon) so will give this a chance.
Stupid movie. Gilroy may have written the previous Bourne scripts but they were Ludlum stories. This script is NOT a Ludlum story and the movie suffers for it. Don’t waste your money, really.
Saw it . It was fun .some good scenery good action story line o.k..
In order to shorten the story series, the writers completely rewrote the Bourne story arc which kind of blew the whole thing for me after the second Bourne as I had been reading the books by then.
Then Damon blurts out his inane political views and that just tanked my interest level to zero.
The ‘government skulduggery’ meme is great for creating movie plots and story arcs so I hope this segue works as it will generate at least a couple more movies that one also hopes are ‘watchable’.
He’s right, big chase seen in Manila then the movie ends. It’s a good snack that make you want more. I like Renner, he has been getting some good parts and deserves a staring role. He was great in ‘The Town.’
Overall a C+. While the director/writer tried to explain and make sense of final Jason Bourne episode that ended in NYC and branch off with another Bourne-like agent he spent too much time in Alaska without advancing the story very much. The end sequence in Manila I thought was good and probably the highlight of the whole film. Renner is definitely a worthy replacement for Matt Damon.