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The Bourne Legacy

Gone is Matt Damon and in his place rises Jeremy Renner, for once in the leading man's shoes. Aaron Cross an agent of the Outcome project funded by the CIA is sent on a training exercise traversing the mountains of Alaska with pills which give him a boost in both mentality and physical strength, green and blue. When he arrives at his target finish and finds another agent he thinks things are done and dusted, unbeknownst to him across the world Jason Bourne is busy exposing the CIA's other pet projects to the world. Fearing the Outcome project could also come out if the FBI dig deep enough, Eric Byer is called upon to make sure that the project remains hidden, the decision being to terminate all existing agents part of the programme. When a Predator drone arrives to get rid of Cross however the CIA realize just how effective the Outcome project is, determined not to die at the hands of his employers Cross sets out to survive. Also surviving after witnessing her colleague mow down the rest of her scientific team is Dr. Marta Shearing, the CIA arrive themselves to consul the Dr yet she too is a loose thread in the programme and needs to be terminated. Before she's dealt with, Cross arrives in search of more pills yet finds the CIA waiting. Battling the Operatives and freeing Dr. Sheering, they find themselves on the run from the CIA and for Cross running against the clock itself the pills his only chance of survival.

Aaron Cross is played by Jeremy Renner who is no new comer to action flicks ranging from Mission Impossible to The Avengers his action roster grows by the year and considering his performances in each it's no real surprise why. Honestly, Renner always finds away to entertain and can really carry out the action sequences when required. In a good way and a bad way Renner is the best thing about this film. Rachel Weisz isn't as well performance wise as Dr. Marta Sheering, the smart and amusing performance in The Mummy feels like a completely different person in comparison. Her character is rather dull growing into what appears to be a loving relationship with Cross towards the end makes the plot even more irritating, but it's the fact that she seems to just cry and moan throughout the film rather than really bring anything likeable to the screen which is the biggest flaw. To be perfectly honest the only other noticeable character in the film or who actually appears to do anything (at a stretch) is Edward Norton as Eric Byer the CIA clean up guy, if more time were spent on fleshing out his teams view in the film instead of random cuts to them at obscure points often telling you what's already happened it would be a lot more sophisticated than it is.Though not Norton's fault his character is given little time on screen, with even less incentive and no real opportunities to be part of the main goings on he feels wasted much like everyone else in the film.

It feels as if some of the build up from the prior films has left the plot mundane as Renner comes in to take over, the plot is oddly simplistic considering what I was expecting essentially being Cross is on the run from the CIA and he needs pills to survive. Everything else in the film is supplementary to this. A side plot mentioning Bourne's story is placed into the narrative and explains why Outcome needs to be shut down but other than that there's nothing else to it, it's been done countless times before and this is by far one of the weakest attempts. A redeeming quality being the action sequences look good when they do rarely occur as a means to escape 'These people are talking to much we need to shoot at someone' though by far the biggest problem being that if you've seen the trailer you've effectively seen all the action sequences in the film. Again it leads back to the fact that Bourne shouldn't need to focus on action and high octane stunts as the conspiracy and shady operations are supposed to be the central point building the story so the action is really just a side note, yet in legacy you're practically begging for the action just so something actually happens. Renner being the lead is about the best part of the film and his performance does deserve to be recognised it's just a shame he finally gets the lead in a film and people are going to want the original, Matt Damon back to try and fix what went wrong. Overall, I wouldn't recommend it, it's long, tedious and very little really happens then again if you really enjoy the other Bourne's, points do link up and I imagine it would be somewhat worth while to see in that case but otherwise if you want a smart action thriller this won't really satisfy.

4  /  10

FIN.

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