Recently I
reviewed The Campaign and while it was a decent movie, I needed to see
an action movie to offset the comedy of Ferrell and Galifianakis;
so I chose The Bourne Legacy. Direced by Tony Gilroy, the screen writer
for the previous three Bourne films, the film features Jeremy Renner (The
Hurt Locker and The Town), Edward Norton (Fight Club), and
Rachel Weisz (The Mummy) in an attempt to re-boot the Bourne series.
The film’s story runs parallel to
the original movies and focuses the tagline “there was never just one” Bourne.
The plot revolves around the protagonist, Aaron Cross (Renner), trying to
figure out the secrets behind the program he is a part of, Operation Outcome,
and the mystery pills he is taking and desperately needs more of. Along the way he
finds one of his doctors, Dr. Marta Shearing (Weisz), who is being targeted by
the CIA in an attempt to dissolve and cover up Outcome, the program both Shearing and
Cross are with. The film’s antagonist, Eric Byer (Norton), is the head of
National Research Assay Group and trying to handle the problem both Cross and
Bourne are causing. The bulk of the film features Cross and Shearing running from
police led by Byer’s group and resources.
One problem the movie has is that it
spends a little too much time explaining the backstory of the previous movies
and how this one relates to the others. Although it was helpful at times, it
was mostly unnecessary. The film should have focused less on Bourne and let
viewers connect the dots between the movies. Another problem is that Renner is
no Damon. Even though Renner does a good job of playing his part, his character
is nowhere near as deep as the character of Bourne. The film also spends a
little too much time on exposition instead of the action that was shown off in
the trailers. I realize the story is important to a film such as this one but
the action in the movie is really good. It keeps you on the edge of your seat
and the scenes are not completely ruined by the trailers, which is why the
small amount of action scenes is disappointing.
Now despite the negatives mentioned
above, the film has a large amount of ‘selling points’ that outnumber the
negatives. For one, the film is about two hours and twenty minutes in length
but feels much shorter; which is a positive thing. The movie feels long but
not too long and there are not many scenes that make you think “I could do
without this.” As I mentioned above, the film could have left out some of the ‘Bourne
connection’ scenes but nothing more than that. Also mentioned above, the action
is very good and fits the cliché “keeping you on the edge of your seat.” For three, some of the
best scenes of the movie are the expositional ones featuring Cross and
Shearing both Renner and Weisz respectively do an amazing job of truly immersing the audience in their characters problems.
Overall,
the film is a very good action/drama movie follow-up to The Dark Knight
Rises and one that fans of both action and drama movies will enjoy. While it will
not be movie the year contender (I mean it doesn’t have a single chance), it is a movie
that I highly suggest seeing.
7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment