So what happens when Matt Damon decides he doesn’t want to do another “Bourne” movie? You have to get inventive. So instead of going the James Bond route and recasting the role, the high-up mucky mucks at Universal decided to do something intriguing: Tell a parallel story line that occurs right along side the previous films. A sort of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” except instead of Hamlet you get super-human CIA operatives. Luckily the concept for “The Bourne Legacy” works and you don’t need a Jason Bourne to make a Jason Bourne movie. Sorry Matt.
They should have had the film narrated by the guy from the old “Superfriends” cartoons: “Meanwhile… In Alaska, Aaron Cross (Renner) is a pill popping Operation Outcome agent who seems to need something to do.” Operation Outcome is the same project that birthed Bourne I think. There are so many Operations (Operation Treadstone, Operation Blackbriar, Operation Lexus…) that it is hard to keep track at times. As Bourne goes rogue and threatens to expose all the secret little dealings for the CIA, Col. Eric Byer (Edward Norton) decides to eradicate the entire operation.
Of course our new hero gets away in dramatic style that involves a wolf wrestling match. He quickly seeks out his medication that puts the “super” in “super human agent” and joins up with Dr. Marta Shering (Rachel Weitz) who works in the chem. lab that produces his little blue pills (if there is some Viagra subtext there, I will ignore it). Turns out that pills are actually made in the Philippines so off we go on a globe trotting adventure.
This franchise extension’s success can be credited to Tony Gilroy. Gilroy has written all of the “Bourne” scripts and takes over as director this time around. He gives the film a narrative cohesiveness while borrowing the look of the previous films (shaky cameras zooming all around the action). Like those before it, “Legacy” spends equal time in control rooms searching for Cross mixed with Cross and Shering running from killer agents. The action is firmly set in the real world (with exception taken in the final motorcycle chase) and much of the running and jumping plays like a Hardcore Parkour video you can find on Youtube. Fun stuff.
More importantly, characters are fully fleshed out and Renner makes for a stellar leading man once again. Renner gives Cross a certain desperation that humanizes the superhero. There is also a playfulness to the character that cuts the edge when needed. While Renner gives you a reason to watch, Rachel Weitz delivers the best performance in the film. Her Dr Shering is never comfortable with the action movie she’s been pulled into and she spends much of the film rigid, pale and exhausted. She is the relatable eye we see this amped up world through and she grounds the film, not an easy feat.
While you will see cameos from some of the actors found in the previous Bourne films, Jason only makes appearances through still photos. I was glad that we didn’t see the back of some double’s head running through the New York streets. Since this was a Bourne film without a Bourne in it, maybe next go around we can skip the needless moniker and just call it “The Cross Conspiracy” or something.