"The Bourne Legacy" (Spoilers)

[Guardsman Bass]

I just saw it today.

It was . . . alright. I enjoyed most of the action, including the multiple fight scenes and the epic motorcycle chase scene. Jeremy Renner does a pretty good job of replacing Damon as the main "Bourne-ish" character, and I wouldn't have recognized Rachel Weisz as the main female character if I didn't already know from wikipedia (she completely drops her accent).

On the other hand,

1. The film is a serious slow-starter compared to the last film. They spend a ton of time setting everything up, including the multiple plots by the CIA guy played by Ed Norton to completely clear up all the "Outcome" agents, personnel, and scientists. It's probably almost 20-30 minutes at least into the film before shit starts blowing up, which is unusual for a Bourne movie. That said, we learn more about the program.

2. A lot of it felt like it was re-treading Bourne plots from the previous movies, but that may just be an artifact of it being an action thriller like the first three movies.

3. The ending is incredibly abrupt. We get a big chase scene, Weisz and Renner get on a boat piloted by a Filipino captain, the CIA appears to be turning the tide on the inquiry into Blackbriar, and then . . . done? They're just on a boat to parts unknown, and that's it? I know it's incredibly obvious that this movie is going to have a sequel if it's successful (which it is), but it was still jarring.

4. If you thought the twists and turns of Bourne's escape and the CIA's attempts to track him in The Bourne Ultimatum were convoluted, this movie makes them seem almost stupidly straightforward - it takes the twisted plotting up to eleven. We've got Renner and Weisz escaping, the CIA carrying out a million covert assassination plots (including a brainwashed scientist committing a murder-suicide to wipe out the scientists with knowledge of the program), the CIA murdering their own Outcome agents, the use of virally-transmitted genetic engineering as the means to make the Outcome agents so super-human - the list goes on. It's pretty crazy.

It was worth seeing it, but I don't think I want to watch it again for a while.

[Block]

I liked it, but I think it was written to set up a new trilogy, this movie doesn't stand on its own like the others seemed to be able to do.