The Bourne Legacy Continues The Story With A New Face

Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross in The Bourne Legacy.

Set to run along side the Bourne Trilogy timeline, The Bourne Legacy introduces us to another agent, Aaron Cross, who was screwed by the people he works for. The Bourne Legacy is not a reboot of the series, but rather a spin off in a way. Although Bourne is not the main character in this movie but he is mentioned and his actions in the other movies affect The Bourne Legacy. The Bourne Legacy follows Aaron Cross, another agent with amazing abilities who finds himself hunted by the very people he worked for.

The Bourne Legacy's story follows the after math the first three films caused as the Government scrambles to clean up the mess. Thus they come to the conclusion to shut down the program and kill all the agents and assets involved. During a mission that takes Aaron Cross to the mountains, he is able to escape the killing blast and fake his death. Elsewhere, Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz) survives a workplace shooting as one of her fellow scientists gun down the department. Having survived that, the government sends out a team to "clean up", and Marta's life is in danger. To her luck, Aaron is nearby and saves her. Together, they need each other to survive the constant threats on their lives and escape from the government.

The Bourne Legacy is not a overly drawn out, complicated story. Its a simple story of two people who want to survive and live their lives. It wasn't twisty and turny like the previous films as it more focused on building the background on the government conspiracy and the lengths they are willing to go to cover it up. In addition to spending a good part of the movie introducing us to Aaron Cross and what he can do. The rest is a lot of escaping and running, though you have to admit, the action makes up for it. I mean who doesn't love a good car/motorcycle chase? The Bourne Legacy showed a unique way of storytelling as it slowly gave you details about Aaron Cross throughout the movie.  The Bourne Legacy adds a human level to itself as well as it shows that these agents were not instantly like this, but were conditioned over time using two little pills. It also adds the element of Marta who is not used to this kind of stuff and is thrown into this world and reacts how we all would have reacted.

The Bourne Legacy is not prefect and has its faults. Much as the simple storyline is appreciated, it really was get from point A to B. Their main goal was to get SPOILER so Cross can survive and protect them both. The Bourne Legacy also counts on that you remember or know your Bourne films and events that transpired. The ending it is a but confusing since you're not sure if the movie is about to end or not. But soon enough, it did end there leaving more for another movie we can probably expect to see. The Bourne Legacy also shares some common elements with The Bourne Identity (might not be a bad thing though).

The Bourne Legacy is another chapter in the universe that the Bourne movies are slowly building. Jeremy Renner was able to carry the movie as Aaron Cross and due to his previous film credits was able to do the action scenes just fine. Not that any of us were worried. The relationship between him and Weisz is fantastic, which is another pro for the movie. The Bourne Legacy is not as strong as the previous films, but there is potential for the Cross character to grow. The question is now, will you give a Bourne movie without Matt Damon a chance? Will you give Jeremy Renner a chance? Our Rating is:

 Trailer Below.