The Bourne Legacy

Vlad Piranha · Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 10:16 pm Post subject: The Bourne Legacy

It's been five years since The Bourne Ultimatum and, for better or worse, that film book-ended the Bourne trilogy pretty solidly. This immediately came to mind when I heard the news that there would be another Jason Bourne movie this summer. Reopening series like this has been a mistake for other franchises in the past decade, so I was nervous that The Bourne Legacy would do harm to what had been, for the most part, a good trilogy. The tagline of "There was never just one" also struck me as corny and ignorant as even the first film, The Bourne Identity, made that point clear from the beginning. What I saw last night was not the unnecessary and tired sequel I had expected, thanks in no small part to the same writer behind the previous three.

The first and most important aspect of the film that helped it succeed is that this was a Bourne movie in name only. The protagonist is, as the tagline implied, another Blackbriar assassin gone rogue, and not Jason Bourne himself. There was no need to dust off old plot devices and throw Jason into another film. The Bourne Legacy's first act takes place simultaneously with The Bourne Ulimatum's, which makes it more supplementary to that film than a straight sequel. This was an effective way to establish time frame and purpose for the main character, while leaving enough room for a different kind of plot.

After Jason Bourne goes rogue and returns to the US to bring his CIA enemies to justice for their crimes, the people responsible for his operations begin to panic. Damage control begins and anything pertaining to the Treadstone project or, especially Blackbriar, is purged. To be certain that nothing harmful can be left to incriminate them, this purge includes all active agents in the field, or Outcomes, as they're code-named. This is an appropriate nickname for assassins in a field where the means are justified by the ends. The protagonist, Aaron Cross, is part of a newer and more advanced program within Blackbriar that uses constant chemical treatments to keep Outcomes in top form. Through luck and instinct, he survives the initial attempt on his life, but is at a loss for why he'd suddenly be a target. To make his situation worse, the order on his life has cut off his supply of his medicine. Without it, his edge will slowly fade as people as lethal and well trained as him come to bury him at all costs.

There were tiny logic gaps in this film that did it harm and a scene or two where my suspension of disbelief really had to strain, but it was still a pretty enjoyable film. As I said, the fact that the film isn't trying to revive the old storyline in its entirety is a smart move. Cross is a different kind of government assassin and the plot reflects that. The most important thing was the tone of the film. It was identical to the Bourne trilogy and was immediately comfortable. I don't think I can stress how much easier that made it for me to like this movie.

Unfortunately, this is also one of those films that didn't get a third act that could match the quality of the first two. There was the obligatory chase sequence in there and the inevitable Outcome battle. A film critic actually said precisely what I was thinking during that part of the movie: that the duel between rival agents felt more like the battles from Terminator 2 as they were so unstoppable that normal people just had to stay out of their way or be killed. Nevertheless, The Bourne Legacy was certainly better than the shark-jumping mess that was The Bourne Ultimatum. While I don't like the fact that Legacy added things to open up Ultimatum's seemingly solid ending, I am interested in seeing a couple more films of its kind. I guess that means that something was done right.

Final grade: B-