So you’ve produced a nice neat trilogy that happily ties
things together. The director and star
don’t appear to be interested in making anymore of these films. What do you do? Option a) recast the star and make another film,
or b) (dreaded word time) reboot. Except
The Bourne Legacy found a get out clause and throws in option c) expand the
universe. This was the right way to go. After all, you had a series of films about a man
trying to come back from amnesia and figure out who he was and why some shadowy
government agency was so hellbent on getting hold of him - a fourth film would’ve
stretched this story much too far, and it’s not like Jason Bourne could go back
to carrying out missions after the events of those three films anyway.
Expanding
the universe was always a convincing idea. For starters Jason Bourne represented an interesting concept, in so much
as looking at how to turn soldiers into “super-human” secret agents, whilst the
clandestine missions they were tasked with would fall into the realms of seriously
classified and could bring down certain echelons of government if
discovered. The tagline used in the
marketing collateral is right – there was never just one. Clive Owen in The Bourne Identity. Karl Urban in The Bourne Supremacy. Édgar Ramírez in The Bourne Ultimatum. The interesting story in these films just happened to be constructed
around Jason Bourne, so why not do something with another one of his similarly
endowed “colleagues”?
Meet Aaron Cross. Part
of Operation Outcome, a more advanced and hidden program than Bourne’s earlier Treadstone project,
he’s positioned as a more physical and cerebral asset but reliant on a concoction
of pills to maintain this. With The
Bourne Legacy essentially framed around the events of The Bourne Ultimatum, Cross’
superiors are getting itchy feet that their house of cards may tumble and set
about taking out their assets in order to cover themselves. Except Cross goes on the run, gets involved
with Rachel Weisz’s Dr Shearing, a lab-based virologist who works for the
program, and proceed to travel the world. That may be somewhat of an
over-simplification but it should be starting to sound familiar if you’ve seen
the other films.
Familiarity is something of the point here, which is both a
positive and a negative. As mentioned
above the concept of government agencies operating in secretive ways is
intriguing and there’s a desire to see more of this, especially when it’s a
continuation of something that's been presented so well in the past. Clearly linking the story into familiar events is a logical way to
expand the universe, but at the same
time when this becomes another film about an agent going rogue whilst a bunch of gifted
computer geeks and government men with unlimited resources try to track him down at all costs, it can’t
help but feel just a little bit tired even if it is quite exciting. We’ve been here three times before, so more emphasis on the “expanding”
of the universe beyond introducing a couple of new characters would’ve been
beneficial.
Let’s talk new characters. Weisz’s doctor is interesting enough – she has something of an
unexpected life upheaval but deals with it in an un-annoying manner and
fortunately avoids anything approaching love interest. Edward Norton comes in as Eric Byer, the man
in charge of Operation Outcome and essentially filling the same shoes as Chris
Cooper, Joan Allen and David Straithairn in the previous films. I quite liked him in this role but it’s just
a shame it was such a facsimile of those that came before.
And so to the key point. Matt Damon created such a definitive character with Jason Bourne that it
would’ve been impossible to recast him. There was something mild mannered about him until survival instinct
kicked in and he became both cunning and startlingly ruthless. But we were with him from the start as he
dealt with confusion and tried to figure out who he was and why he had these skills. Conversely Aaron Cross knows his situation
and what’s going on, so we approach him in a different manner. Played by Jeremy Renner, he has a clearer
objective yet we learn very little about him, but he remains personable as well
as being suitably physical and cunning. As soon as the casting was announced Renner seemed like the right person
to play this type of role. His recent turns
in The Hurt Locker, The Town and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol brought
him to wider attention and convinced of his suitability, and although the comparisons to Damon are inevitable,
don’t forget Damon was initially leftfield casting for this type of role and took
his time to define the character, so it’s fair to say that Renner is standing
on his own two feet so far here.
Tony Gilroy also seemed like the right choice to direct post
Paul Greengrass’ involvement at the helm of Supremacy and Ultimatum. As the writer of the screenplays for the
original trilogy he was involved enough to know the universe inside out, whilst
as director he’s given us the excellent Michael Clayton and enjoyable Duplicity. On the whole I would say The Bourne Legacy is
solidly directed too, but it’s not without issues. There’s too much laborious exposition that
makes the middle section really drag, whilst the film ends too suddenly and anticlimactically. The action sequences are perhaps not up to
the standard of the other films and they are edited far too fast so that they
border on indiscernible at times. It’s repeating
the original style but in a less effective way. Yet none of these are what I'd call major issues.
I remain entirely convinced that this was the right way to
make another film in the Bourne universe, and on the whole it’s a successful
attempt even if it’s not quite as good as the others. I wanted to see more from this world so I was
always onside with the approach, yet with that in mind it feels a little
churlish to complain that it felt a little too
familiar and repetitious and over did the references to Jason Bourne. Ultimately they played it safe and that was
probably the right idea when trying to make the transition and re-establish,
but it means that there should now be plenty more to aim for in future films because
the basis for the story has potential and Renner is a well-cast and engaging lead. So, I look forward to seeing what comes next.
All of the action in the last 30 minutes really does make up for the slow start and that was one of the most thrilling aspects of this movie. Other than the fact that Aaron Cross wasn’t the type of character you messed with, regardless of whether or not his name was Jason Bourne. Great review David.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dan. I gather some people are avoiding this because there is no Jason Bourne and thus think it to be worthless. Their loss. We can have some fun and thrilling Aaron Cross films instead!
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