After well-received supporting roles in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and The Avengers, Jeremy Renner was keenly positioned to establish himself as Hollywood’s next major action star with a headlining role in The Bourne Legacy, which expands the Bourne universe by focusing on Aaron Cross, the last surviving agent of the experimental Outcome program. When the events of The Bourne Ultimatum force CIA brass to pull the plug on their black ops programs and start eliminating the evidence, Cross finds himself on the run from the very agency that created him.
Along for the ride is Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), a scientist that helped develop the pharmacology program that has enhanced the minds and bodies of the Outcome agents over the past four years. With her inside knowledge of Outcome’s development and her history with its participants, Colonel Eric Byer (Edward Norton) considers her a loose end, but the assassination team he sends to take care of her finds itself ill-prepared to deal with the program’s top agent.
Renner does an admirable job presenting himself as a wholly different sort of agent than Bourne, but the physical and mental enhancements Cross has undergone continually find him several steps ahead of his pursuers. He dispatches attackers with such lethal efficiency that he rarely even breaks a sweat, and even after he’s taken two bullets he barely slows down, making it nearly impossible to build any sort of tension in the film’s smattering of action scenes.
There’s plenty of information thrown at the viewer over the course of The Bourne Legacy‘s running time (which needlessly exceeds two hours), but fans of the Bourne trilogy are likely to wonder what has become of the white-knuckle action and suspense the series is known for. These core elements have been pushed aside to allow for expository conversations in dimly lit offices and flashbacks to events from the original films, and while the climactic 20-minute chase sequence through the streets of Manila is thrilling enough, the preposterous escape robs the entire third act of its credibility. And let’s not get started on that ridiculously abrupt ending…
SECOND OPINION
The Bourne Legacy is the perfect example of why doing multiple sequels to a franchise gets a bad reputation in Hollywood. This installment is completely unnecessary, feels out of place when compared to its predecessors and adds very little to the mythology of the series – certainly not enough to justify its existence. Jeremy Renner brings a lot of personality to his portrayal of Aaron Cross, probably more than the script actually contained, but is shackled with a mediocre & surprisingly low-on-action film in the obvious cash grab of this franchise extender. While Renner was good enough for me to have interest in a Bourne/Cross team-up, Matt Damon was wise to stay away from this one.
2.5 stars
— Kyle