Cinematic Releases: The Bourne Legacy

The Bourne Legacy is the latest installment in the franchise that introduced us to the kick ass, take no prisoners version of Matt Damon. Unfortunately, Damon is not back for the newest entry in the Bourne saga. Instead, we are given the currently over saturated Jeremy Renner playing another highly trained assassin from the program that built Bourne. This is cause for some confusing exposition and deep character flaws.

As a stand alone film, The Bourne Legacy is your run of the mill action flick that features a few good action sequences. However, it never reaches the heights of the other Bourne movies, struggling through chase sequence after chase sequence. For the most part, it's lacking the carefully crafted hand to hand combat and doesn't ever build a sense of urgency until the last twenty minutes in which we're handed one of the worst film endings I've ever seen.

The Bourne Legacy looked great from the beginning of the marketing campaign. It seemed like it would have the same look and feel as the Damon entries and may fall in line to create a new franchise. Instead, we're given a movie that falls below my level of acceptance for a great action thriller. Renner could excel in this role if he were given a stronger script. Sadly, this is just another case of misguided franchise milking. Sorry.