Film Review -Bourne Legacy

Director: Tony Gilroy
Screenplay: Tony Gilroy, Dan Gilroy
Cast: Jeremy Renner, Racheal Weiz, Edward Norton
Genre: Action Thriller
Rating:**** ( Out of 10)
Venue: Ster Kinerkor Maerua Mall, Cine 4

Tony Gilroy expands the Bourne trilogy and brings Bourne movie fanatics the ‘Bourne Legacy’. The film is loosely based on the last events in the previous Bourne movie, the Bourne Ultimatum. British reporter Simon Ross who was writing an expose about Black Ops operations, Treadstone and Black Briar, is killed and Jason Bourne, former Treadstone operative got the file on Treadstone and Black Briar and gave it to Pamela Landy who then passed it to the media.
When the men behind Treadstone and Black Briar learn of this, they’re concerned how this will affect other operations they are running. They decide it is best to shut down all operations and make sure that everyone involved disappears. They try to take out Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) who is part of another operation called Outcome, but he manages to survive. He then seeks out Dr. Marta Shearing (Racheal Weiz) who worked on him when he began. It seems part of the programme is for all subjects to take regular medication but his has run out. This is why he seeks her.
It starts with Cross at a training camp in Alaska. He leaves the training site in search of his meds and ends up becoming a target when the men behind Treadstone direct a missile to kill one of their agents. Cross misses the bombing by a whisker when he decides to go and be on the look out. As he leaves the house, a missile lands on the building and kills the other agent. One would think that this is where the action starts but the movie drags on with scenes of Treadstone and Black Briar, with a lot of talking and therefore making the movie lose its plot. The particular scene where one of the scientists in Treadstone operations kills six of his co-workers is not as gruesome as it should be. There was so much screaming from the extras during the motorcycle chase and that makes the scenes not only unpleasant and annoying but fast and unrealistic as well.
Another annoying thing was the changes in the scenes between different countries, – one second we are in Seoul, Korea, the next we are in Pakistan really brings on an element of confusion.
The lines in the movie are not good, the characters are flying in and out of Manilla and the action scenes are rather hard to follow. One minute the characters are on a motorcycle and stuck between two moving vehicles whilst being chased by one of Treadstone’s henchmen, the next they are running around streets of Manilla, jumping off buildings and seemingly trying to find their way in the general confusion. Weiz does her best to portray the role of Marta Shearing dodging bullets from her psychopath co-worker.
The Bourne Legacy is a poorly constructed movie. I would have to say it is the most boring of the Bourne movies. It has a lot of talk and very little action but lots of deliberate confusion. The action was only towards the end of the movie with far-fetched stunts that made the scenes unbelievable. I feel it is a let down to all Bourne movie fanatics.
The ending is just flat. I waited for something meaningful to develop, or a twist in the tail, at least to save face for the movie but nothing came up. It was only when I heard the soundtrack get louder and the movie credits started rolling that I knew the movie had ended. The movie really is a let down and falls short of the glory that previous Bourne movies have evoked. A two-hour long movie with absolutely nothing nice about it, no action, no climax. I would say go watch it if you are a fan of the Bourne movies, but just don’t expect to be blown away because this is no legacy.