La peur dans la peau: L'héritage de Bourne

First film without Matt Damon and the Jason Bourne character. The movie turned out well and this is thanks to co-writer and director Tony Gilroy (who worked on all three previous films in the series) and Jeremy Renner, perfectly cast in the lead. The results are not flawless but good enough to provide the sort of action and storytelling that Bourne fans expect. Jeremy Renner has earned his way to this high-profile part, doing a great job since his performance in The Hurt Locker. He has the required physicality to make his character — a highly-trained, genetically enhanced undercover agent — totally believable. Furthermore he's perfectly matched with leading lady Rachel Weisz, also credible as a research doctor becoming a pawn and bail at the same time. On balance and on the whole the movie works, though a bit to long. To sum up I was entertained and I'm more than grateful for that.

If a franchise is as successful as the Bourne franchise is/was, it is inevitable that there will be a follow up. Even if everyone was saying that the series was always meant to be trilogy. If you can overcome that fact and are able not to hold a grudge against the producers or anyone else involved in the making of this, you might be able to enjoy a fairly decent action thriller.

Jeremy Renner is the man when it comes to casting action roles of late. After his performance in "Hurt Locker" he did rise pretty fast. If the Avengers were incomplete, he might have gotten a bigger role in that one too. You can see why he is such a wanted man (no pun intended) in this movie too. Rachel Weisz has not that much to do, but her performance does give the movie another gravitas. The action scenes are superb, but we expected that (especially if we watched the trailer). Nice hints to the original movies too. Before you cry out, watch it is what I'm trying to say.

As a fan of the Bourne franchise, I enjoyed this deeper look in to that universe. The movie really does feel like one giant glorified DVD extra for that trilogy and I mean that in a good way. Deeper layers are revealed and the intrigue is as good as what we've seen before even though the character motivation isn't as strong across the board. Renner is fabulous as the second generation super spy. My only real complaint about this installment (because it does feel like they are blatantly building for three more films) is that the resolution has no real teeth. Still, it's a very good effort from a very good cast with hints and touches to the Bourne films of the past.

Overall, a thumbs up and a very enjoyable time at the cinema.

I have never written a review here, but I felt compelled to actually step up and defend this movie.

The Bourne Legacy was everything I expected it to be. It couldn't be too close to the previous Bourne films, but had to be close enough to let us know a storm is coming.

Bourne's presence throughout the film is what spins this story into action and I felt it was balanced perfectly. We all want Bourne, but this is Aaron Cross's story. Renner and Weisz were great, but I think the scripting has been derided by many as terrible. I had no issues with anything and even felt compelled by Renner's character motivation. This was someone yearning to be more, not someone who was already better than everyone else, but just couldn't remember.

Let's cross our fingers and hope we all get what we want and pair Bourne and Cross in the next film.

There is so much more going on than just Jason Bourne and if we don't get to explore that then the franchise will be poorer for it!

Thanks to the 2 heroes, I give a good mark though the script was a labyrinth of complications between different US National Security Services and their different projects more or less secret, some of them more secret within secrets because untellable, unacceptable. And when one of those has to disappear, lots of dead people it means. Here is the story of another run-for-his-life hero, Jeremy Renner! He surprised me this actor. He blows the screen from his very first appearance until the last. And Mrs Weisz, the co-runner-for-her-life does well too as an evolving character, a woman scientist who goes from naive close to stupid terrified victim to a full grown resilient survivor, doing very well with Mr Renner. Wow they are good! They SAVE the movie Let's hope there will be a sequel with these two but with a MUCH IMPROVED script, please. I declare myself a fan for Mr Renner (Please forgive my probably curious use of English, my second language...)