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 In
the wake of the decision by Matt Damon to not sign up to reprise the role of
amnesiac super-spy Jason Bourne in a fourth installment of the hugely successful
film franchise inspired by the best-selling novels by the late Robert Ludlum,
the producers of the series were left with the difficult decision of how to
proceed from there. They could have simply recast the role and continued on in
the manner of the James Bond films on the basis that the character was more
important than the person playing him. They could have gone the "Spider-Man"
route by rebooting the series and starting over again with newer and presumably
cheaper actors going through the now-familiar paces. They could have even simply
put the series to rest for the time being and sacrifice millions in potential
revenues rather than run the risk of ruining a good thing--an impulse that
hardly anyone in the entire history of Hollywood has even contemplated, let
alone acted upon.
Instead of picking any of these selections, the producers of "The Bourne Legacy"
have gone in yet another direction by crafting a new adventure that trades on
the good name that the Bourne series have developed among moviegoers over the
course of "The
Bourne Identity," "The Bourne Supremacy" and "The
Bourne Ultimatum"--the rare string of films that has actually gotten better
with each additional installment--without actually featuring the character of
Jason Bourne himself. Instead, while Bourne is doing his thing
off-screen--literally at one point--the film instead turns its focus onto a new
and never-before-seen character who is just as adept and highly skilled as
Bourne but who presumably costs less than the millions that might have been
required to lure Damon back into the fold. From a business standpoint, such a
decision makes sense--if audiences respond to it, Universal has not only
revamped a profitable franchise that might have otherwise withered away and they
have also left the door open for Damon to return to do a genuine Bourne story at
some point down the line if he wanted to return to the fold. From a creative
perspective, however, it is a slightly iffier proposition because while it
nowhere near the slapdash rip-off that its origins might suggest, it does lack
the punch and finesse of the earlier films and when all is said and done, all it
really does is remind viewers of just how good the previous Bourne adventures
really were.
If you recall--and you had better if you have any hope of understanding what the
hell is going on here at any given moment--"The
Bourne Ultimatum" ended with the top-secret government program, known as
Treadstone, that Bourne was a part of finally beginning to unravel as the result
of his tireless effort and facing intense government scrutiny. As it turns out,
Treadstone was only one of a series of similarly clandestine and quasi-legal
programs and the imminent revelations about that one could threaten to expose
the others as well and lead to all sorts of bad news for those behind them. Of
these other programs, the most troublesome is Outcome, in which the very genetic
structure of the participants has been altered by a regular pill regimen--the
green ones boost intelligence and the blue ones improve physical attributes--and
without them, they regress to their previous states, a move that the test
subjects seem unwilling to make. When a link between Treadstone and Outcome is
discovered, government troubleshooter Eric Byer (Edward Norton) is brought in to
shut the program down and to terminate all the loose ends with extreme
prejudice.
The one loose end they didn't count on, as Mr. Trailer Voice might say, is Aaron
Cross (Jeremy Renner), an Outcome operative who is in the middle of some vague
training exercise in the wilds of remote Alaska when he loses most of his stash
of pills in an accident. While returning to civilization for a new collection of
meds, he happens upon another Outcome test subject (Oscar Isaac), a meeting that
starts off on an uncomfortable note--neither one has ever actually met a fellow
member of the program--and then goes downhill when Byer sends out a drone to
kill them. Using methods that Liam Neeson would approve of, Aaron survives and
makes his way back to the mainland in the hopes of tracking down genetic
scientist Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz) and getting a new supply of the
medication. Of course, she is also a target of the cleanup program--she barely
survives a workplace shooting that eliminates every colleague hers with the
slightest connection to Outcome--and when he finally finds her, the two are once
again forced to go on the run. The bad news is that Marta does not have any more
of the pills but the good news is that it is possible to make the enhancements
of the pills permanent through the injection of a special serum. This leads to a
trip to the Philippines where the two attempt to infiltrate a top-secret
pharmaceutical lab to whip up and administer the serum before it is too late
while Byer does everything he can stop them before everything is finally
exposed.
The success of the previous Bourne films can basically be boiled down into three
key elements; screenplays that effectively blended together intelligently
conceived and well-plotted narratives of increased complexity, thrilling action
sequences and an ever-fascinating central character, direction (from Doug Liman
in "The
Bourne Identity" and Paul Greengrass in the subsequent entries) that
effectively kept the increasingly byzantine plots moving along with surprising
clarity and which kept the excitement level going whether the characters were
sitting in rooms talking or jumping across rooftops and a central performance
from Matt Damon that took a potentially cartoonish character and found an
emotional core that humanized him and made him more sympathetic to viewers.
Perhaps befitting a spin-off of a familiar property, "The Bourne Legacy" tries
to follow in the established footsteps of the previous films while putting its
own distinctive spin on the material but Tony Gilroy, who has had a hand in the
screenplays for the earlier films and who co-wrote this one with brother Dan as
well as stepping up to the director's chair, doesn't have quite as sure of a
grasp this time around.
The story is a globe-trotting jumble that gets so confusing at times that there
are points where the characters are forced to explain what is going on to each
other as well as those of us in the audience. A bigger problem, however, is the
weirdly tentative manner in which the screenplay introduces its new central
character. After all, the film is not only trying to replace one of the more
dynamic characters to hit the screen in recent years but is trying to do so with
a character who is supposed to be even more fascinating and extraordinary in
regards to his abilities. However, despite all the protestations to the
contrary, Aaron Cross is really not that compelling--it goes without saying that
following the adventures of an amnesiac gradually discovering that he possesses
amazing abilities is far more intriguing than following those of a guy who knows
he is all-powerful and just wants his pills. Adding to the problem is that the
film spends so much time trying to establish its various convolutions that our
putative hero is essentially a bystander in his own story for the first hour.
The balance between the action and the exposition that the series has always
maintained in the past also feels a bit askew as well in the way that we are
treated to long sequences of people explaining things punctuated with the
occasional burst of action until the final reel, where it shifts radically to
the other direction as all hell breaks loose in the Philippines.
Gilroy's previous directorial efforts, "MIchael Clayton" and the underrated
"Duplicity," were both excellent movies but neither one was even close to being
of the size and scope of "The Bourne Legacy" and as his work here demonstrates,
he doesn't really have much of a feel for it either. While Greengrass seemed
equally at home in terms of handling both the action and the more
straightforward dramatic material, it quickly becomes clear that Gilroy is far
more comfortable with the latter than the former. He does keep events moving at
a relatively decent clip and in the kind of smoothly professional manner that
allows most viewers to sort of follow along with at the broad strokes of the
plot, even if they would fail a quiz on the details even if it were held as the
end credits were rolling. He is a lot more tentative in regards to his
characters when they step out of their offices or hiding places in order to
either chase or be chased. These scenes are staged in a professional enough
manner and are put together with more care and efficiency than most action
spectaculars of late but compared to the truly distinctive set-pieces found in
the previous installments, what is on display here can't help but come up short
in comparison. The one sequence that actually does strike a chord is the one in
which Marta is trapped in her office while her co-workers are being gunned
down--even if you are able to ignore the ways in which it is reminiscent of any
number of recent tragedies, it unnerves in ways that films of this type with
borderline-holocaustal body counts rarely do anymore.
No doubt a reflection of the reputations of both the franchise and Gilroy's
talents, "The Bourne Legacy" has a very strong cast but for the most part, what
there are asked to do here is essentially the the spic equivalent of a
triathlon--they run, they shoot and, very occasionally, they are asked to emote.
Jeremy Renner is one of the more charismatic young actors on the scene these
days and while he is convincing enough in regards to the physical necessities of
his character, he is hamstrung throughout to a certain degree by the fact that
he personally is far more interesting than the role that he is playing.
Likewise, Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton are among the best in the business and
while their presence does add some heft to the proceedings, it is unlikely that
their contributions will be featured prominently in any future Lifetime
Achievement highlight reels. The supporting cast is filled with good actors who
do their job with a minimum of fuss and series regulars like Albert Finney,
David Straithairn and Joan Allen are trotted out in cameo roles to help forge a
further connection between this film and the others. Although I enjoyed seeing
the veterans of the franchise pop up here and there, their presence only serves
to remind viewers of just how good those films were and how this one just
doesn't quite measure up.
As blatant attempts to extend the life of a film franchise even after many of
the key creative personnel have moved on, "The Bourne Legacy" is nowhere near as
dire as might have been. It is ambitious, reasonably well-made and I can't say
that I was ever bored while watching it. At the same time, however, I just never
found myself getting into it to the degree that I did with the earlier films and
towards the end, I was more exhausted than enthralled. I am not totally sold on
it as a whole but while I can't quite recommend it, the best parts do have a
distinctive snap to them that cannot be dismissed completely. If nothing else,
one can at least take comfort in the fact that of the original trilogy, "The
Bourne Identity" was easily the least of the three and that as time went on,
they quickly improved. With any luck, lightning will strike again and if this
one inspires follow-ups, perhaps they will get better and better as well. Then
again, maybe Greengrass and Damon will come in from the cold and in that case,
so much the better.
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