The Bourne Legacy

There’s the old gag about boffins being rebuffed by would be investor’s with the line “You’ve invented something that doesn’t need to be invented”. Tweak that analogy a bit and you’ve got a good description of The Bourne Legacy, i.e. a new Bourne film that explains and expands on the background of the previous three films when it isn’t necessary. The hook for this film is the tag-line: “There was never just one”. A mildly intriguing statement, but Tony Gilroy’s film starts off slow and just never gets going. This is a Matt Damon free production (apart from the odd image) with Jeremy Renner taking over as the lead. In the film Renner plays Aaron Cross, a member of the black ops programme, who goes on the run due to Bourne’s past actions (there’s a partial overlap time line wise with the previous films). Gilroy was the writer / co-writer of the previous three films, so it can’t be denied he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. However this film is so talk heavy in revealing further layers in the Bourne universe that the action segments of the film appear to have been added on as an afterthought, which might explain why they rarely raise the pulse. On the acting front this is the biggest attempt yet to shift Renner onto the A-list, but again he fails to show the star wattage that made people sit up and take notice of him in The Hurt Locker and the change of front man here (so to speak) just hasn’t worked. Hollywood loves to kill the goose that laid the golden egg so after three great films it’s no surprise they couldn’t just leave the story be. However, if this film was to be viewed as a necessity, then it should have had an ending that either had you looking back and nodding your head at the retrospective aspect of the films or on the edge of your seat baying for a further instalment. The final scene provokes neither of those emotions. I think I’ll leave the last word to Paul Greengrass who years ago cracked that if a fourth Bourne movie was ever to be green lit it would have to be called "The Bourne Redundancy". Touche, Paul.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Devoted fans may get some kicks from this, but in reality the first three films were the legacy. Rating: 5/10.