The Bourne Legacy

The Bourne Legacy

(M) Universal DVD/BD/Digital Download

It’s hard to resist the Bourne-again pun: this latest entry into the hugely successful franchise, originally starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, has taken the story in a new direction.

These films are generally about momentum so, once the lengthy exposition is out of the way and the chase is on, Legacy becomes much like the other three Bourne films. This one particularly moves along at a cracking pace with one of the most complex chase sequences shot in the streets of Manilla, first on foot, then on motorbike.

For The Bourne Legacy, Renner joins fellow series newcomers Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Stacy Keach and Oscar Isaac, while franchise veterans Albert Finney, Joan Allen, David Strathairn and Scott Glenn reprise their roles as the members of Treadstone and Blackbriar.

Jeremy Renner brings the same physicality and intensity to the role of Cross that Damon did with Bourne.

Perhaps the clever conceit of setting this film in the same time period of Ultimatum keeps the story working; it’s hard to imagine how they are going to stop making subsequent films feel redundant though.

We Aussies are treated to a totally random cameo by Shane Jacobsen of Kenny fame — something to keep an eye out for in the last third of the film.

This is an enjoyable, if predictable, cat and mouse chase film. There are a few problems with Legacy, the major one being it doesn’t have an ending, leaving it clear that there will have to be a sequel. To leave every plot piece up in the air as the credits role is a cheat that doesn’t satisfy.

If you can forgive this, then it’s probably worth your time.

Adrian Drayton

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