In Review: The Bourne Legacy

The Gist

There is a great drag at the beginning of the Bourne Legacy, and a poor narrative, but everything improves and eventually pays off, leading to one chase scene after another. There might be some narrative flaws and items that beg explanation until after the credits roll, but those aside, Bourne Legacy is a movie that works.

The Good

• Jeremy Renner
• Great action pieces

The Bad

• Annoyingly slow and seemingly paltry narrative in the beginning
• The resolution may seem like a bit of a fizzle in the end
• There is the gaping plot hole of using Larx-03 somewhere in the movie

*** Spoilers Begin Here ***

Synopsis

After Jason Bourne exposes Operation Blackbriar and Treadstone Project (both of which I have no idea what they are about), the CIA decides to kill off every Operation Outcome subjects to keep their black ops secret from leaking out of proportion. Desperate to survive this wipeout and retain his enhanced physique, Outcome subject Aaron Cross journeys across the globe to make his enhancements permanent and escape into a peaceful life.

It's More Fun in The Philippines

I think the main draw of Bourne Legacy from where I live (Manila) is how Hollywood portrays the Philippines. Everywhere else, I doubt this is the case. We Filipinos always take pride when our countrymen, our country, or anything Filipino is exposed via international media. Likewise, we take it badly, too, if something is portrayed poorly. I am, however, more curious as to how Manila got into the story. For me, the proper portrayal would be the logical use of Manila within the movie. If it actually makes sense to have used Manila instead of, say, Bangkok or Tirana or New Delhi. And, well, it did make sense. The Philippines is one of the growing economies, and unlike China, has better English speakers and comparatively cheap manual labor for drug companies to put up offices in it. And while the chase scenes were good, my problem with them was that Manila traffic is poorly portrayed. If anything, you can't really do a proper daylight chase scene here as, God would know, the traffic in Manila is perhaps one of the worst in the world.

Hitman Re-Bourne

Bourne Legacy starts slow, and if you, like me, have not seen the previous movies, the first 30 minutes or so will get you lost and disinterested--the starting narrative is clumsy and fails to engage, which can easily lose audiences. But as soon as you've managed to piece the puzzle together at about 30 minutes of setup, it would make sense and it will quickly pick up from there. There are some items that will never be explained like why there is an Outcome operative living in the mountains and why he sends out items via a small auto-pilot plane and those for me are annoying given that they don't really feel like items that can be explored on to the next installment, shall there be one.

Some would blame the clumsy directing, particularly of the first part, to Tony Gilroy, who used to pen the Bourne series before graduating as the director in its first installment, but I don't think the direction was that bad. It just took time to pick itself up. And sadly, not everyone can be as patient as I am.

Jeremy Renner, as always, worked well--not a surprise. Weisz was relatively good. She may not be as large as Renner in this flick, but she worked her part and her scenes well. Was she believable as a doctor? I'm not sure she was given the proper scenes, but she was believable as someone passionate with what she does, and someone passionate to keep breathing. Norton is menacing, but not enough for you to hate him. You'd like Renner, but you won't hate Norton enough because you know Renner will always outsmart him and the perils for both him and Weisz are something that don't really pose any threat.

The chase sequences, albeit truly fictional, are great and exhilarating. Actually, majority of the movie is comprised of chase sequences, with the FBI getting to them as close as they could in Manila. And I have to give it to the producers of this film for shooting that scene in the middle of a sweltering Manila summer.

Then comes my biggest concern with the movie: Larx-03, who was explained as a brainwashed, emotionless, enhanced killer. He flies all the way from Bangkok to go after Aaron Cross on the surprisingly un-busy Manila streets. In a sense, Larx-03 can be excused for not being terminated unlike the other Outcome agents because he is brainwashed. But how about the doctors who attend to him? Or his records, those can be traced by the FBI even if they're remotely linked with the other projects. If Norton's team can do brainwashing, couldn't they have simply brainwashed their Outcome agents rather than killing them and dumping already expensive medical research that have proven results already? And also, why kill the doctors, too? Couldn't they have been simply secured and held against their will somewhere safe? Why the complete whitewash while leaving a Thai speck somewhere in the fabric? The inclusion of Larx-03 to me is the biggest downer to this film; he felt like an unnecessary cornstarch made to thicken the plot, nothing but a nameless instrument.

The ending, though my friends bemoan it, sees Renner and Weisz escaping into the open sea aboard a motor boat into the Palawan sea and the gorgeous beach, this my friends, is impossible given that a motor boat cannot travel all the way from Manila to Palawan without stopping for gas.

My verdict:

Plot holes aside, I felt the Bourne Legacy was a good film, full adrenaline and great chase sequences. Might not be completely logical, but is interesting in its own right. A passing mark of 3.75/5 stars.