Jason Bourne is still out there somewhere. During this, the fourth installment in the popular action series, we are reminded of Matt Damon's absence regularly throughout. We are told, just as we already know from previous outings, that Bourne was not the only member of a special government project that has been more logically explained elsewhere. Jeremy Renner stars as Aaron Cross, who is the only member of the project left after its secret leaders, headed by Edward Norton, decided to terminate it. Cross was not supposed to survive, so the government officials raise a big fuss about getting him back. He enlists the help of one Dr. Shearing (Rachel Weisz), who was also the only survivor of a massacre in her little scientific department. To continue to survive, Cross needs medicine and he needs it quick. With Shearing's hesitant assistance, they get some medicine and the movie ends. And Bourne is still out there.
Almost everything I just described doesn't actually happen until the second half of the movie. The plot is already too loose for comfort, but the fact that even it takes a ludicrously lengthy time to get going does not do the movie any favors. As directed and written by Tony Gilroy, who also wrote the last two Bourne outings, The Bourne Legacy follows fairly closely in the footsteps of those other two movies in style, pace, and pointlessness. In all three of these films, the source novels, this one not even being based on a book by original author Robert Ludlum, are mostly ignored. This means we get lots of flashy editing, a bit of high-voltage action, and a significant lack of anything to care about. This movie has such little purpose that The Dark Knight Rises is a cinematic masterpiece in comparison. There are brief moments that will surely excite fans of the heart-pumping genre, but the movie mostly just meanders. It takes nearly two and a half hours to get absolutely nowhere, although I can't say that it is a boring journey. It's just a mindless one, even frustrating in its emptiness.
I don't know how fans of the other movies will react to this new entry. I loved The Bourne Identity, but had little use for Supremacy or Ultimatum and feel that Legacy is even worse. So, yes, I wasn't really expecting much from this movie to begin with and it certainly did nothing to change my mind. However, I could see those who really did enjoy the other movies finding this one satisfactory. That doesn't make it any better, though. I suspect it will be succesful enough to warrant further adventures with Renner as the lead. His fanbase seems to be expanding with all these big action hits he keeps appearing in. He has displayed some genuine talent a few times; in The Town, for example. It's a shame to see that wasted.
5/10
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