Tony Gilroy's "The Bourne Legacy"

Deviss wrote:“He's Treadstone without the inconsistencies.”

Unfortunately for "The Bourne Legacy" there were a handful of inconsistencies.

I can vaguely remember when the first Teaser debuted here on MovieWeb. I can also remember, with better clarity, how excited I was for this movie to release. Going from what was given to us in the Teaser, and the subsequent full-length Trailer released some time later, this movie was to be a continuation of what happened in the three previous Bourne Movies. At least... that's what I thought until I saw either the first or second full-length Trailer. After that, I knew that what I originally thought I would be getting wasn't actuality. Just simple supposition instead.

I suppose I should say now, clarify where I stand, that I enjoyed "The Bourne Legacy" as a casual Sunday-afternoon viewing experience. Because, to be honest, that's when and how I saw it. After its initial release weekend went by, and I started to hear and read peoples' thoughts on it, the level of excitement I originally had gradually subsided. While I wasn't "chomping at the bit" to get into my nearest theater, I wasn't about to turn down an opportunity to see it.

---

Taking place somewhere between the events of "Supremacy" and "Ultimatum", "Legacy" brings us into the story of one Aaron Cross/Kenneth Kitsom (Jeremy Renner) and Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), with cameo appearances from previous Bourne characters Pamela Landy, Noah Vosen, and Dr. Albert Hirsch (Joan Allen, David Strathairn, and Albert Finney, respectively).

Legacy begins similarly to that of "The Bourne Identity", showing us a figure, in a body of water. Only in the beginning of "Legacy" the body of water Cross was in wasn't thrashing about during a storm. It was calm, tranquil, with seemingly nothing moving at all. Which made me question for a half-second if the projector was working properly. But once Cross dove deeper into the Alaskan river in which he was submerged, grabbing a metal tube, I sat back in my seat, relieved.

My relief however didn't stay with me as long as I would have liked. As the Movie played out before me, my mind began to bring up questions that, unfortunately, half of which went unanswered. The other half of those questions were either answered by means the Movie didn't provide, or I pieced them together on the drive home. The most glaring unanswered question was in regards to the film's ending, which, as in my other reviews, I will not Spoil for any reader. I will say however it left me somewhat frustrated, with a dash of confusion tossed it to boot.

Now, I didn't outright "hate" this Movie, but I also didn't "love" it either. It was just "okay". In the time since leaving the theater and coming home, thereby being able to absorb and understand what I had seen, I'm seeing myself being firmly planted directly between the two. Mr. Renner and Ms. Weisz were good, but not great, at the performances they gave. I primarily wanted to see this Movie for Renner, who has been on my radar ever since I saw him in 2003's "S.W.A.T.". If it ever comes around to happening, and if they get a better Director, I would seriously consider seeing another "Bourne" Movie starring Renner. And I even found myself believing their seemingly expedited "romance" could happen, given the particular set of circ*mstances they found themselves in.

Some of the other things that took place in the Movie, why a certain scientist commits the actions he does and the actions of a handful of the film's characters near the end, just didn't make any sense to me. Perhaps if we'd have seen the aforementioned scientist meeting with Eric Byer (Edward Norton), or if the Director would have spent more time on the closing scenes, these inconsistencies wouldn't be so glaring. Maybe the people at Relativity Media or Universal should've given a call to Doug Liman and asked if he was busy, or negotiated with Paul Greengrass better than they obviously didn't. What they shouldn't have done was bump Tony Gilroy up from Screenwriting to Directing. At least, not so soon.

Having rewatched both the Teaser and first full-length Trailer for this Movie, it's become more obvious to me that, much like Prometheus, the Trailers promised us something different than what we actually ended up getting.

Another reviewer here on MovieWeb, Huntsman said it best in the title of his review of this Movie: "It was like they were trying to force a round peg into a squre hole with this story and film."

This was a review by tMG. Thank you very much for reading.

frang wrote:I think I'll give this one a pass and either watch it on cable TV or rent the DVD.