REVIEW: THE BOURNE LEGACY

Suffice it to say Mr. Jeremy Renner is having a moment.  After 2 Oscar nominations for work in action films, Hollywood clearly knew where to put him.  In a matter of recent months Renner has established himself as Hawkeye, the successor to Tom Cruise if he ever leaves the "Mission: Impossible" series (which he probably won't, now that he's got some free time on him) and now the successor to Matt Damon in the Bourne movies I've been watching in this last month to prepare myself for "The Bourne Legacy."

These spy-action movies are one of the best franchises put to film, and the hard work shows if you ever look at a Bourne behind-the-scenes extra, they actually go to these places Bourne goes: Paris, Tangier, Madrid.  It's hard work, especially for Damon, who was probably tired of playing his never-smiling (seriously, look it up, he doesn't smile at all for the last two movies) rogue agent who just wants to find out who he is.  America obviously will never tire of Matt Damon; he's like the cool guy at the party that both nerds and jocks can approach with ease.  If anyone is going to pick up where Bourne left off, it definitely had to be Renner.

Like "The Bourne Identity" before it, "Legacy" picks up with a strange man in the ocean.  Seconds into the opening credits later, we see Renner emerge not unlike Free Willy from the ocean into dry land, where he cools off and gets ready for an expedition onward into the mountains, where the camera pans out and you get your postcard-esque shot that shows how far this person has traveled.  Renner's Aaron Cross is revealed to be just as brutal as Bourne was, and shoved into his unfair situation just as he was back in the day.  To explain Damon's absence, Aaron Cross is portrayed as another agent coming along, the same time Bourne is running through New York, leaving it open if ever Damon wanted to hop back in to the franchise.

That's about all I can give you...or all that I can remember.  My memory isn't like Jason Bourne's though, the movie was just too confusing.  That's the big complaint with all these sophisticated spy dramas: even the brainiest of adults can leave the theater puzzled, trying to glue pieces of the plot together.  Tony Gilroy (who made the only movie I ever walked out of: "Duplicity," but I didn't hold that against the franchise's promise) directed this edition, and got rid of the shaky-cam cinematography that is so associated with the Bourne movies.  For younger people unfamiliar with the Bourne movies think "Hunger Games" and "Cloverfield."  For this viewer, I wouldn't mind if the plot was dumb-ed down if not just to tell a coherent story.  The movie also feels bloated at nearly two and a half hours, and the action scenes, while impressive and I'm sure hard to film, get a little dull after a while.

The supporting cast is uniformly good, with Edward Norton and Rachel Weisz making for good additions to the already impressive Bourne ensemble, even though Weisz's character can get a tad annoying when she's crying hysterically.  This movie is strictly for people who have seen the Damon trilogy, I should add.  Going into the complex story is enough, but going into it without any prior knowledge is like me watching a soccer game: you won't understand anything that's going on, but you'll be amused by the action parts.  The transition between this movie and "Ultimatum" really works well, and the writing, while confusing, is inspiring in parts.  Here's hoping Mr. Renner hasn't peaked with "The Bourne Legacy," because his next film coming out is "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters."  He plays Hansel.

Rating: 2.5/4 stars