We have to take Aaron, he’s a legacy; it’s, like, frat rules.
Riding the coat-tails of the premier current non-CGI action franchise that doesn’t have “Die” or “Hard” in the title, The Bourne Legacy gambled that we’d all understand and forgive Matt Damon’s absence. Actually, that part seemed almost cathartic: Jason Bourne spent three whole films trying to get free – it’s nice to see he succeeded.
The part of Jason Bourne this time around is Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner). Aaron isn’t quite as pretty as Jason, but he can probably grow a better beard. This is useful for the first 45 minutes of the film spent training in the wilds of Alaska. While Jason seemed content to flee, Aaron seems mostly concerned about his meds, lost on a mountain somewhere. So obsessed with drugs is Aaron that for an hour and a half I thought this was an anti-dope film.
And here’s what I don’t get: these Bourne agents; these man-projects have been engineered to be perfect killers. Problem is part of their enhancements involve increased intelligence which has a subsequent increase on empathy, the combination of which makes them question their own design. There’s a greater discussion here about the relationship between IQ and empathy; is there a link? Bourne the film chooses abstention to 
discussion. The Bourne agent blueprint is thus flawed because the killers turn goody-goody, yes? Ok, then why is it Jason Bourne and now Aaron Cross have zero qualms about endangering innocent lives in a personal search for freedom? “Hey, you evil government, it’s wrong to kill! But get the Hell out of my way while I power this motorcycle down the sidewalk with dudes shooting at me. I swear, I’ll flatten ya!”
In Legacy, we pull back more of the Treadstone curtain – they built supermen with superdrugs to behave like superassassins. When the superassassins develop super guilt trips, pasty men get antsy. I wish they got “aptsy” because there’s a great anagram coup. This plot called for killing off everything and all evidence of the program. The Treadstone serial murders of Bourne agents smacked a great deal of the Jedi roundup in Sith Sandwich. Eerier still is a lab scene in which creepy Dr. Foite (Zeljko Ivanek) enters the facility, locks the doors, removes the handles and slays his colleagues one-by-one with a handgun. This was chilling stuff; the handling of the executions not only seemed to accompany a brutal-but-unspoken message of “you other doctors should have known better,” the killings also put me in mind of the systematic dispatch of schoolmates at Columbine High.
It was at this moment that I really wished I had not brought my daughter. And this is a serious abuse of the PG-13 rating. It is disgusting to realize that this scene is perfectly OK for my Jr. High offspring, but if it had shown a bare breast (gasp!), then and only then is it forbidden for younger teens.
I digress. Sorry.
Escaping the lab meat locker is Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz). She becomes instrumental for the exposition portion of the film when Aaron shows to rescue her. After that, it’s a chase movie. Smart guy with skillz v. Government with toys. Ed Norton fans will appreciate the casting decision and little else; maybe next film Ed will get to do something.
I’m sour on the rating, but the film is decent if a tad on the unmemorable side. Then again, for all the quality stunt work in the first three, I don’t remember much about them, either.
The government engineers a soldier of skill
And then has the nerve to ask “why?”
When this extraordinary tool of kill
Quite honestly just won’t die
Rated PG-13 Hah! Shame on you, MPAA, and less than one month removed from the disaster at the Dark Knight premiere, too, 135 Minutes
D: Tony Gilroy
W: Tony Gilroy, Dan Gilroy
Genre: The most dangerous game
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Fugitives
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Control freaks
