People took four years to count before gaining one more chance to enter the Bourne universe. The Bourne Legacy is our current ticket to that entry, suddenly leading to an expanded world with more organizations; more agents; and more importantly for screenwriter-turned-director, Tony Gilroy, more stories to tell.
"There was never just one", the adverts were all slapped to our faces, chirping that Gilroy really wanted to expand the universe that Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) once popularized. The fourth movie will no longer count on Matt Damon however.
Enter a new agent Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) who, in the beginning of the movie, fights off wolves in a snow-coated setting. From then on, Cross is always looking for his "chems"; he finds biochemist and his attending M.D. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz) and seeks help.
Fast-forward to Manhattan wherein Retired Col. Eric Byer (Edward Norton, The Incredible Hulk), director of many programs that uses genetically enhanced agents (we learn this in the film that we are not limited to Treadstone and other programs that were prior introduced in the trilogy no more), and fidgets to an "imminent threat" that these programs may go public. He decides to shut down "Operation Outcome".
"Exterminating people in involvement with the program so unsuspecting America will stay unsuspecting" sounded a plan. And this included extermination of genetically enhanced agent Cross, who, in the first place, wanted continuity in his life by taking his "chems" regularly.
Gilroy is a very interesting scriptwriter and is an epitome of espionage thriller screenwriting. This fourth Bourne, however, as he took responsibility of sitting behind the camera, things went a wee messy. There's vivid difference among his work as writer and as director, and obviously, I prefer his work as former.
While its intricate script tightly written (co-written by Tony's brother, Dan Gilroy), Legacy is a little brittle in execution; forgivable whereas Gilroy (Tony) is only on his third directing feature. His first was Michael Clayton; his second was Duplicity. Both were good films while I have to prefer the former. It's easy to build action, but it goes a long way to hold it firmly, Gilroy should have known that.
Leads were all very good in their parts. First to mention is the formidable Renner who seemed to equal his performance in The Hurt Locker, a movie which brought home an Oscar. His physique is quite sculpted (he did most of the many practical stunts in the film) and though he lacked the Bourne sting in him, Renner had his own merits to be investing as a character, with constant vulnerability as he kept on searching for his "chems".
Weisz added an exemplar amount of emotion: not too much and not too less that it would fall short. Norton contributed ambivalence which I thought was essential to the movie.
(DP) Robert Elswit played very good with the imagery especially in the setting of Manila, wherein most of the stunts were most enthralling. He managed to make a distressed location a motley venue of kick-ass car-chases and big-them-ass motorbiking. Thanks also to the gritty editing of another Gilroy, John (Damn, this family is a cinematic talent!)
There's little action and in this that made the movie instantly dismissive when compared to the Bourne trilogy, but when one went hyper-analytical with it as a stand-alone movie, it's an espionage thriller that people rarely get.
Did I wish I was just watching a Damon Bourne movie? Yes, it had occurred to me. But am I invested to learn what will happen next to Aaron and Marta? No hesitation: it's a yes.
GRADE: B+
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