The Bourne Legacy

UK Release: 13th August 2012

Watched on DVD: Tuesday 25th December 2012

Rating: 12A

Genre: Action, Adventure, Mystery

Runtime: 2hrs 15mins

Tagline: There Was Never Just One

IMDb Plot Synopsis: An expansion of the universe from Robert Ludlum's novels, centered on a new hero whose stakes have been triggered by the events of the previous three films.

My Review: As a huge fan of the original Bourne trilogy I was excited to hear that a new Bourne film was to be released. Then I got apprehensive as Bourne wasn’t actually going to be in it. Yet I still had faith that if they were going to do it without Bourne then they’d make sure it was good. However life got in the way and so it wasn’t until my brother got the DVD for Christmas that I was finally able to see if my hopes had been right. So despite being the least Christmassy film possible this is the film my dad, brother and I decided to settle down to on the evening of Christmas day.

It starts in quite a stark way and the bleak Bourne world is still there, with many cameos from old characters which helped soften all the ‘new’. I hadn’t really seen any of Jeremy Renner’s work before except for The Hurt Locker and he filled the ‘action guy’ shoes well. However I couldn’t help missing Bourne as it was the fact that he is more than just an ‘action guy’ that made the triology so compelling. He had depths and, for a start, a mysterious memory loss. Instead Cross was some sort of enhanced man taking mysterious pills and it was a lot more confusing and didn’t quite have the same effect. It wasn’t until Weisz’s character comes in that I start properly connecting with the film as she added a bit of heart to proceedings. 

The thrilling action was still there - I especially loved the scenes in her house - and they travelled to exotic places once again with a familiar feeling roof top chase. It had all the ‘components’ of a Bourne movie, if you will, but it didn’t quite fit together in the end for me. 

And the absolute joke of an ending (ever heard of a satisfying conclusion) put me off all together. Clearly they are hoping for a sequel but leaving it so open like that was ridiculous and we all went “was that it?” as the credits started rolling. 

Other than that it wasn’t bad at all, I just don’t see why they had to continue using the Bourne name without Bourne himself. It didn’t feel right.

Score: 8/10