The Bourne Legacy

The Legacy continues!
I confess I am addicted to this series of movies, but this one is quite different as it delves into the science behind the agents in the 'Program'. Don't expect Jeremy Renner to replace Matt Damon, as this is not the intent. Renner is quite a good actor in his own right, and has risen in the ranks of action stars recently, most notably as 'Hawkeye' in the Avengers. The Bourne Legacy starts slow, but picks up tempo quite quickly as it intertwines with the plot of the Bourne Ultimatum. There is a great supporting cast including Edward Norton and Rachel Weisz. The car chase is replaced by motorcycles, but in all a great follow up to the previous three movies. If you liked them, this will not disappoint.

A movie in search of a director
Other reviewers have already recounted much of the plot. So, I'll skip that and go to a critique of the production itself.

I gave this an overall rating of four stars because I found the movie to be interesting, engaging, with a good story and some really good action scenes. I found that I cared about the primary characters - Renner and Weisz. This tells me that the characters were fairly well developed and interesting

Renner's character, Aaron Cross, would have been more compelling if more of his backstory came out sooner, and if his pathetic origin were presented differently. I think Weisz' character could have used more backstory too - all I know about her is that she's an attractive scientist with a top secret clearance.

The story is really good. But this movie could have been a classic if the plot were tightened up and presented differently - too much dialogue where 'showing' instead of 'talking' would have got it across to the viewer better...

A clue for the 5th Bourne movie?
When the doctor (talented Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz) puts Aaron Cross (equally-excellent 2-time Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner) "under" in order to perform medical tests on him, she asks him to count backwards from 100. Probably very few people realized that he said, "You are beautiful...ninety-nine...ninety-eight...ninety-seven...." IN RUSSIAN. When non-native speakers of a language have to "think arithmetic," they almost always revert to their native language. Hmm... Perhaps there is more to Aaron Cross than meets the eye???

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