THE BOURNE LEGACYWhen: Opens August 16
Where: On general release
Review: Daniel Paproth
Matt Damon’s name has become so synonymous with the Bourne film series that this fourth installment, the first without Damon, feels like a slightly inferior reboot of the hugely successful franchise. Replacing Damon in the lead role is Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol), who plays Aaron Cross, a man on the run from the CIA.
When we are introduced to Cross at the beginning of the film, he is climbing out of glacial waters and preparing himself for a trek through ice-capped mountains en route to a fellow agent’s isolated cottage, fighting off wolves on the way. So far, so good.
Now pay attention: Cross is an agent who was genetically enhanced through a CIA program named ‘Operation Outcome’, which Jason Bourne publicly exposed at the end of The Bourne Ultimatum. The government organisation now believes it’s time to shut down the program once and for all – by killing off its agents one by one. Cross keeps himself fit and healthy using two medications – “blues” and “greens” – as his fellow agents are ruthlessly terminated.
Renner is solid in the role, delivering his dialogue with aplomb and looking the part in the sprawling action sequences, but there’s no escaping that he is not quite as engaging as Matt Damon.
Thankfully Rachel Weisz’s turn as the innocent scientist-cum-lifesaver Dr Marta Shearling gives the film some emotional weight, with her breathless performance ticking all the boxes. In one tense scene, Dr Shearling is ambushed by assassins posing as psychologists sent by the CIA. Cross shows up to save her from certain death, stalking them one by one and brutally killing them before they can do the same.
Other elements don’t fare quite as well. The fast-paced, scientific dialogue may leave some viewers scratching their heads. A flashback sequence shows Cross as a younger man being interrogated after a savage beating, and is never revisited or explained. Australian actor Shane Jacobson, of Kenny fame, inexplicably shows up as a factory boss in the Philippines and is hugely out-of-place amid the American and south-east Asian accents. Even Edward Norton, playing the film’s central antagonist Eric Byer, can’t bring enough to the table to ever seem like a real threat.
Directed by Tony Gilroy, the co-writer of the first three films, Legacy is perfectly enjoyable, but ultimately undercut by a baffling plot, under-developed characters and a sloppy ending.
