The Bourne Legacy (2012)

Dir: Tony Gilroy

Stars: Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz

“Legacy” is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days, but it’s certainly the most optimistic adjective possible to describe Tony Gilroy’s latest installment to the somewhat redundant Bourne Franchise. Perhaps “The Bourne Entropy”, “The Bourne Afterthought” or even the less subtle “The Bourne We Need F*cking Money” would’ve been or more apt title. Regardless, “The Bourne Legacy” is a mostly enjoyable, moderately intelligent action-thriller – the only real flaw of which is its somewhat pedestrian, even unnecessary connection to the rest of the series. But then again, we’ve all got mortgages to pay, and standard issue complaints about unoriginality in the film industry are rather unoriginal themselves, but I digress.

The plot of Legacy is somewhat familiar to any fan of the Bourne Franchise, and at this point one starts to wonder what percentage of the United States’ covert ops budget goes to hunting down rogue superspies. Action hero de-jour Jeremy Renner plays Aaron Cross; bestubbled assassin whose presence is quite refreshingly more charismatic than that of his predecessor Matt Damon. The film runs parallel to the events of “The Bourne Supremacy” – the second installment in the series. While events of Bourne 2 and 3 are casually referenced (usually via the medium of conveniently placed news items), Cross flees the CIA’s rather heavy-handed strategy of murdering the shit out of everyone involved in Operation Treadstone – one of many operations name-dropped by the series, but this one was apparently responsible for Jason Bourne. Accompanied by rather pretty scientist Rachel Weisz (also rather unnecessarily in the crosshairs of sinister spooks), Cross gets up to the same globe-trotting, neck punching hijinks that made it acceptable to cast Matt Damon in an action movie.

“The Bourne Legacy” does exactly what you’d expect from a Bourne film – almost to the point it feels more like a remake than a sequel. Inevitably returning are the impressive stunts, the gritty violence, the familiar back and forth between the CIA control room and the action, and of course the toe-tapping, knee slapping ominous cello-heavy score by James Newton Howard. However, what separates “The Bourne Legacy” from the rest of the series (aside from the obvious switch in protagonist) is the directionless, and somewhat pointless plot. It’s difficult to ignore how significantly less interesting Cross’ struggle against the man is in relation to Bourne’s, and the movie sometimes feels like you’re watching a half-decent episode of “Bourne: The TV Series” (side note: that should totally be a thing). It’s compelling, mostly enjoyable, but ultimately falls short of anything too impressive due to its obvious subservience to the source material. In spite of this, its positives outweigh its negatives, and one might even go as far to call it a champion of unnecessary sequels. Worth a watch, but it probably doesn’t belong in the Bourne box set.