REVIEW: The Bourne Legacy

Courtesy of Universal

I gripe about sequels a lot, but I’m not inherently opposed to them (as my reviews of The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises prove). If there are legitimately more stories to tell about existing characters that reveal fresh a perspective, fantastic. You won’t hear a peep out of me. What’s irritating is when the sole purpose for making another installment is to add even more money to a studio’s already-healthy bottom line.

That brings me to The Bourne Legacy, the most blatant cash grab I’ve experienced in a while. Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass both declined to return, which makes sense considering they finished telling Jason Bourne’s story with The Bourne Ultimatum. Instead, the plot centers on Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner, not to blame for the flick’s mediocrity), another superspy who’s having his own Flowers for Algernon-meets-James Bond adventure concurrently with the previous movie.

Confused yet? I’m just getting started. Apparently there’s an even more sinister organization behind the series’ previous cloak-and-dagger baddies, and it doesn’t want its secrets exposed due to Bourne’s exploits. Led by Eric Byer (Edward Norton, terrific as usual), the group starts eliminating everyone involved in the conspiracy. Soon the only people left are Cross and a horrified scientist (Rachel Weisz), so they pair up to outwit their pursuers.

The Bourne Legacy is fine – pretty entertaining, but nothing you’ll be raving about a few days later. Tony Gilroy, pulling double-duty as director and screenwriter after penning the previous entries, mimics Greengrass’ style but fails to capture the substance behind it. There is a cool action sequence inside an old farmhouse, a terrifying workplace shooting, a couple of creative kills and great work by Renner and Norton that deserves a better vehicle. That’s about it.

But the plot is needlessly convoluted and, even worse, erases all the progress Bourne made in taking down the bad guys. It just feels unnecessarily cruel. Plus, the whole thing is a two-hour setup for yet another sequel. I get that the other flicks made mega-bucks, and there was clearly money left on the table based on last weekend’s box office numbers. But was it worth tarnishing the series’ legacy? Because that’s what happened.

The Bourne Legacy is rated PG-13 for violence and action sequences.

Grade: C+