The Bourne Legacy Review
If you ever went to high school, you should be able to
recall how you felt when you stared a complicating math question involving
vectors or quadratic equations. Words and phrases that come to my mind are
mind-numbing, backbreaking and painful. The
first 40 minutes of The Bourne Legacy are the same. Words such as Treadstone
and Blackbriar invade your thoughts, and you don’t remember them, because the
last Bourne movie you saw was in 2007. I was exhausted trying to jog my memory
that I gave up watching the movie on some days.
Yet, the going definitely gets better later on with plenty
of intense action sequences and as the pieces of the puzzle slowly fit into
place. As the movie takes place simultaneously with The Bourne Ultimatum, bit
by bit you begin to see connections and the story begins to demystify. But beyond
this point, what were truly exceptional were the lead performances from the
cast themselves.
Jeremy Renner plays his part as Aaron Cross, matching the physical
portrayal enacted by Matt Damon in the previous installments. Rachel Weisz does
exceptionally well as the female scientist struggling to figure out how she
ever got involved in this international conspiracy. Yet, the stand out performance for me was from Zeljko Ivanek, who plays the doctor who decides to go on a
rampage at a science facility, killing half the employees, if not more using a
hand gun with unequivocal efficiency before security guards take him down. Everything
from his face down to his casual yet purposeful demeanor, painted a horrifying
and haunting picture. This was the turning point of the movie for me and drew
me right in.
After that scene, the action scenes gather momentum, getting
better as the story progresses, just like an aging bottle of wine. They range
from locations in North America to the Philippines half a world away. The movie
is a good watch, yet at its end it leaves a lot of questions unanswered
regarding the entire conspiracy as a whole, a good strategy to keep the
franchise alive for years to come yet it might anger most who want a definite
ending. I delayed watching this movie for months since Matt Damon wasn't returning
to the series, yet I would recommend checking the film out, the 2nd
half at least.
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