The Bourne Legacy
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Oscar Isaac, Stacy Keach, Albert Finney, Scott Glenn, David Strathairn, Joan Allen
Director: Tony Gilroy
Fast-paced and emotionally nuanced, Tony (“Michael Clayton,” “Duplicity”) Gilroy's powerfully staged spy thriller-actioner has little in common with Eric Van Lustbader 's 2004 novel The Bourne Legacy, fourth in the series created by Robert Ludlum. Lustbader shared an agent with Ludlum, and reinvented the series after Ludlum's death in 2001,writing as many as seven books about the titular spy. Gilroy's film credits Ludlum as the inspiration for the 2012 spin-off.
If the Bourne trilogy found the titular amnesiac CIA operative unravelling the truth about his past, the fourth film in the franchise features a new hero Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) whose life-or-death stakes are triggered by the events of the first three films:The Bourne Identity (2002) directed by Doug Liman, The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) both helmed by Paul Greengrass. Tony Gilroy co-scripted all three box office hits and was retained to direct the new film which he has co-written with his brother Dan.
Expanding the Bourne universe with a slew of new characters like virologist Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz ) Retired Adm. Mark Turso, USN (Stacy Keach) and ruthless USAF Col (retd). Eric Byer (played by Edward Norton) Gilroy presents the time and tested combination of international espionage, intrigue and plenty of action.
The story kicks off with a heart-stopping assassination then cuts to Renner ( replacing Matt Damon as the central character but NOT the titular spy) as he encounters an enigmatic agent in the snowswept wilds of Alaska. What follows next is mayhem, murder, and deception in a complex narrative that tries to resolve the plot complications in a story that hints that our desperate hero from the Trilogy is still at large on the planet.
Renner's character, Aaron Cross is less conflicted; he and his lab-configured confreres reminded me of "Universal Soldier", Roland Emmerich's 1992 sci-fi actioner about America's Viet Nam casualties who are reanimated as near-perfect (meaning robotic) soldiers.
In The Bourne Legacy, Aaron Cross is one of select genetically "enhanced" subjects in a secret CIA-authorized program code-named Outcome, an evolution of the previous films’ Treadstone and Blackbriar projects, which Bourne exposed in “Ultimatum.” Now, Dr Shearing seems to be loathe to go public even as she and Cross discuss the imperatives of science (but not ethics), talking to the media among other alternatives. Bu these are few and far between. Cross's exit from the program provokes a frenzied rush to destroy the evidence, which includes eliminating both Outcome recruits and researchers. In the Alaskan wilderness, Cross narrowly escapes a drone attack and later, saves deus ex machina mode, Dr. Shearing (Rachel Weisz) in one of the film's best scenes. Like the previous three films, the fourth also criss-crosses the globe with Cross and Shearing eventually proceeding to Manila to ensure a sequel.Hopefully, a spate which could even have Bourne crossing Cross's path somewhere in the course of their globe-trotting.
Legacy's music score is pulsating, the camerawork excellent; Renner is remarkable as Aaron Cross but franchise veterans Albert Finney, David Strathairn and Scott Glenn don't have much to do except to make sure that the rogue agent ( Cross ) is eliminated. Joan Allen is wasted in a blink and miss part. And the talented Mr Norton could have been better employed as the self-righteous agent who believes his actions are "morally indefensible and absolutely necessary." Deja vu set in here for me. For, like many other Hollywood films, Gilroy's Legacy too critiques the lack of a moral sensibility in state-run intelligence operations.
18.08.2012 | Ronita Torcato's blog
Cat. : Aaron Cross Alaska Albert Finney America Bourne BOURNE LEGACY Robert Ludlum SPY ACTION THRILLER Central Intelligence Agency Dan David Strathairn Director Doug Liman Edward Norton Employment Relation Eric Byer Eric Van Lustbader Eric Van Lustbader Family Relation Film Human Interest Human Interest Jason Bourne Jeremy Renner Jeremy Renner Joan Allen Literature Manila Mark Turso Marta Shearing Matt Damon operative Oscar Isaac Paul Greengrass Person Career Rachel Weisz Robert Ludlum Robert Ludlum Roland Emmerich Scott Glenn Spy Stacy Keach Technology Technology The Bourne Identity The Bourne Legacy The Bourne Supremacy The Bourne Ultimatum Tony Gilroy Tony Gilroy Universal Soldier