"THE BOURNE LEGACY" (2012) Review
Following the success of the 2007 movie, "THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM", Universal Pictures announced its intentions to release a fourth movie featuring the amnesiac CIA assassin, Jason Bourne. However, their plans nearly folded when actor Matt Damon announced that he would not do a fourth movie.
Damon's announcement failed to put a final kibosh on Universal's plans. Instead, the studio and writer-director Tony Gilroy went ahead with another movie about the CIA assassination programs in which Jason Bourne had participated. Instead of bringing back director Paul Greengrass, Universal and Gilroy (who had written the first three movies) hired Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner to portray a second CIA assassin - Aaron Cross. With Gilroy in the director's chair, the results led to the fourth movie called "THE BOURNE LEGACY".
The movie's title came from Eric Van Lustbader's 2004 novel, but its plot is completely different. "THE BOURNE LEGACY" introduced a third black ops program called Operation Outcome. Unlike Operations Treadstone and Blackbriar, Outcome was specifically created by the U.S. Department of Defense and it enhances the physical and mental abilities of field operatives through pills referred to as "chems". The movie opens with one of its operatives - Aaron Cross - engaged in a training assignment in Alaska. After Cross traverses rugged terrain to a remote cabin, he meets its operator, an exiled Outcome operative, Number Three.
During Cross' time in Alaska, the Blackbriar and Treadstone programs are publicly being exposed (during the events of the previous film, "THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM"), leading the FBI and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy, Blackbriar supervisor Noah Vosen, Treadstone clinical researcher Dr. Albert Hirsch and CIA Director Ezra Kramer. Kramer requests help from Eric Byer, a retired Air Force colonel responsible for overseeing the CIA's clandestine operations. Byer, who had originally recruited Cross, discovers potentially damaging video on the Internet in which the lead researchers for Treadstone and Outcome - especially Hirsch - appear at professional functions in public. To prevent the Treadstone/Blackbriar investigation from finding and revealing Outcome's top-secret scientific advances, Byer decides to end Outcome and kill its agents and medical personnel. He sees this sacrifice as acceptable because the government has already separately initiated next-generation "beta programs".
Byer attempts to kill both Cross and Number Three by sending a drone bomb to destroy the cabin. Number Three is killed and Cross manages to survive, due to being outside when the bomb dropped. Byer makes another attempt to kill Cross with a second drone and unbeknownst to him, ends up killing a wolf pack. Cross learns of a massacre at Outcome's private research lab, conducted by a chemically brainwashed scientist. The sole survivor is geneticist Dr. Marta Shearing, whom Cross later saves from CIA assassins. He hopes that Dr. Shearing can help him wean or "viral" off the chemicals and at the same time, save both of them from being killed by Byer and the Department of Defense.
When Universal first leaked news of a fourth movie with Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, I did not exactly embrace the idea. As far as I was concerned, three was enough. When Damon announced that he would not reprise the Bourne role, I felt a surge of relief. As much as I had enjoyed the third BOURNE movie, I felt it was a bit of a comedown after the first two movies. Then I heard news that Universal and Tony Gilroy was going ahead with a fourth movie . . . without Damon. Again, I dismissed the idea of going to see this new BOURNE movie, until I learned that Jeremy Renner had been cast in the lead. Since I am a fan of Renner's, I decided to go see this fourth film. However, I did not believe I would enjoy it as much as the first three.
Like all of the films in the movie franchise, "THE BOURNE LEGACY" is not perfect. One, I never understood the need for Tony Gilroy to create a third black ops program. Considering that Treadstone and the current Blackbriar programs were in danger of exposure by the end of "THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM", I was surprised that Gilroy did not simply make Cross a Blackbriar operative. In other words, I found the addition of a third black ops program rather irrelevant. Unfortunately, the movie also featured the continuing presence of CIA Director Ezra Kramer. His presence in the third movie struck me as writing blooper on Gilroy's part. His presence in this fourth movie is a continuation of that blooper. For some reason, Gilroy decided to utilize Paul Greengrass' shaky cam style of filming in some of the scense . . . much to my annoyance. My biggest problem with "THE BOURNE LEGACY" was the ending. I found it vague, rather sudden and anti-climatic. When the movie ended with Cross and Dr. Shearing somewhere in the South China Seas and Pamela Lundy in trouble with Federal authorities for revealing the details of the Treadstone and Blackbriar programs, the first words that left my mouth were "Is that it?". As far as I was concerned, the BOURNE franchise required a fifth movie to tie up the loose plots.
Despite the ending, despite the continuing presence of Ezra Kramer and despite the Greengrass filming and editing style; I enjoyed "THE BOURNE LEGACY" very much. Who am I kidding? I enjoyed it a lot. In fact, After seven years, I finally realized that it is my favorite movie in the franchise. I feel that Gilroy did a pretty good job of meshing the plot from "THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM" with this film. A throwaway discussion between Kramer and Noah Vosen regarding Pamela Lundy in the third film finally came to fruition by the end of this movie. The movie also explored - during most of its 135 minutes - Cross' difficulties in dealing with his dependency upon the "chems", the medication that enhanced both his physical and medical condition. Like the other movies in the franchise, "THE BOURNE LEGACY" featured some first-rate action sequences. My favorites include Cross' use of a wolf pack to distract the second drone bomb from himself, the massacre at the Operation Outcome lab that featured a chilling performance by Željko Ivanek, and the long chase sequence in Manila, the Philippines. But my favorite sequence featured Cross' rescue of Dr. Shearing from the CIA assassins.
The best thing that Tony Gilroy ever did for this movie was to avoid making Aaron Cross into a Jason Bourne 2.0. He did this by creating Cross as a completely personality - verbose, more extroverted and an acute judge of character. But what really made Cross worked as a character was Jeremy Renner's performance. Some critic once said that what was the point in watching a BOURNE movie without Matt Damon. Well, the first BOURNE production I ever saw was the 1988 miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain. And he was great. I also enjoyed Damon as Bourne, but . . . honestly? I did not really miss him, due to Renner's performance.
The movie also benefited from Rachel Weisz's excellent performance as Operation Outcome medical researcher, Dr. Marta Shearing. Weisz's Shearing was a quiet, intense personality, whose ordered life was thrown upside down by her brainwashed colleague and later, the CIA. Weisz was exceptional in the scene featuring the CIA assassins' murder attempt on her. More importantly, the actress and Renner proved to have a superb and somewhat humorous screen chemistry. Another excellent performance came from Edward Norton, who portrayed the ex-Air Force colonel Eric Byer. What I liked about Norton's performance was that he portrayed Byer without the occasional frantic behavior that marked David Strathairn or Chris Cooper's performances. Stacy Keach, whom I have not seen in several years, portrayed a high ranking Federal official named Mark Turso. I cannot recall ever seeing him in a villainous role (at least not to my knowledge), but I must admit that I found his performance very impressive. Oscar Isaac, whom I last saw in "STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII - THE LAST JEDI" and "TRIPLE FRONTIER", gave an effective and subtle performance as the other Outcome agent, Number Three. It was nice to see Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn and Albert Finney again. But they were not on the screen long enough for me to judge their performances. However, I did enjoy supporting performances from the likes of Donna Murphy, Dennis Boutsikaris, Michael Chernus, Corey Stoll, Elizabeth Marvel, Louis Ozawa Changchien and especially Željko Ivanek, who gave both a poignant and later, scary performance as Marta Shearing's colleague, Donald Foite.
Like I had earlier stated, "THE BOURNE LEGACY" was not perfect. But I more than enjoyed it very much. Not long after the film's release, Universal Studios had decided to green light a fifth film with Jeremy Renner reprising his role as Aaron Cross. His performance, along with Rachel Weisz and the rest of the cast, made this movie very enjoyable for me, along with a script that I believe was simply better than the franchise's other films. Unfortunately, that second film with Renner and Weisz never materialized. Damn.
"THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM" (2007) Review"THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM" marked author Robert Ludlum's last novel about the amnesiac CIA agent/assasin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon). Considering that the first two movies - "THE BOURNE IDENTITY" (2002) and "THE BOURNE SUPREMACY" (2004) - barely resembled the novels from which they were adapted. One can honestly say the same about "ULTIMATUM". Most diehard fans would obviously be upset over these loose adaptations. But since I am not a big fan of the Ludlum novels, it does not really bother me. But this latest movie does continue the saga that began in the first movie. And in one of the most surprising ways. Before I saw the movie, I had heard rumors that it began at least six months after the events of "SUPREMACY". The rumor turned out to be slightly false for the majority of the movie ended up being set six weeks later. In fact, the first scene began in Moscow, where Bourne had apologized to Irena Neski for murdering her parents and killed Marie's murderer Kirill after a high speed chase; until the story jumped another six weeks. But screenwriters Tony Gilroy and Scott Z. Burns managed to plant a surprise within three-quarters into the film that has strong connections to "SUPREMACY"'s final scene.As for the rest of the movie, like its predecessors, it turned out to be high-octane action thriller and mystery. Following his arrival in Paris, Bourne reads an article that revealed his past - including his relationship with Marie - and his connections to Treadstone. The article also featured exposure of a new CIA assassination program called "Blackbriar". Realizing that the reporter Simon Ross (Paddy Considine) of THE GUARDIAN might have a source within the CIA, he heads for London and attempts to help the reporter evade capture and possible death at the hands of a Blackbriar assassin named Paz (Edgar Ramirez) . Bourne fails to save his life and he spends the rest of the film tracking down Ross' source - a CIA section chief named Neal Daniels (Colin Stinton). He also has to deal with a paronoid CIA official named Noah Vosen (David Strathairn), who wants Daniels dead for treason. Vosen also wants Bourne dead, because of the latter's supresssed knowledge of the Treadstone program and the New York training headquarters where both the Treadstone and Blackbriar programs began. Along way, Bourne acquires the help of former Treadstone handler, Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) and CIA Deputy Director, Pamela Landy (Joan Allen). I found two sequences well-written and very exciting:*Bourne's attempts to keep Ross alive in London.
*Bourne and Nicky's adventures in Tangiers, while dealing with Blackbriar assasin Desh (Joey Ansah).
*Bourne's memories of his other self's [David Webb] decision to become a Treadstone assassin.Some of "ULTIMATUM"'s screenplay is excellent. And I have to take my hat off to Gilroy and Burns for creating an exciting script. But . . . I have to point out a few flaws. One, the final scenes feature fugitive Nicky Parsons learning about the exposure of the Blackbriar and Treadstone assasin programs on the news . . . and the arrests of Vosen and others involved in the two programs - CIA Director Ezra Kramer (Scott Glenn) and psychologist Dr. Albert Hirsch (Albert Finney). Frankly, I found this conclusion unrealistic. Yes, one can consider it a crowd pleaser, but there is no way on earth the CIA would allow its dirty secrets (at least recent ones) to be aired any national news program. And I doubt that Landy would have sent Vosen's secret files to the media - not if she wants to maintain her career. Chances are the CIA would have suppressed news of the programs and killed Vosen and Hirsch, and Kramer out to pasture where he can die under mysterious circumstances. Two, this movie was set six weeks after the 2004 movie. What happened to CIA director Marshall, portrayed by Tomas Arana? He was replaced by Scott Glenn, who portrayed the new CIA director, Ezra Cramer. And judging by the scenes with Cramer, I got the feeling that Gilroy and Greengrass were trying to sell the idea that Cramer had been in this position for several years. The movie even claimed that he was the one who originally approved the Blackbriar program. And this is impossible. Only Marshall or whomever was CIA director at the end of 2002's "THE BOURNE IDENTITY" could have been around to approve the very program that Ward Abbott had presented.Also in "THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM", Nicky Parsons had hinted of some past relationship between her and Bourne. I hope she was not referring to some kind of romantic relationship. Not once did Nicky ever hinted any romance between her and Bourne either in "IDENTITY" or "SUPREMACY". And finally, I feel that this movie suffered from too much action and not enough narrative . . . especially in the first half. I was surprised at how quickly the movie shifted into action in London, some fifteen minutes into the film.As for the acting - well it was top notch as usual. In what promises to be his last film, Damon makes the role Jason Bourne [David Webb] as his own. Julia Stiles continued to prove, as she had done in "SUPREMACY" that she and Damon have great screen chemistry . . . despite the discomfort and ackwardness between the two characters. This ackwardness came about Bourne's revelation of his distaste of his role as an assasin and a scene in which Nicky changes her appearance, dredging up memories of Marie doing the same in the first film. Joan Allen was marvelous. In fact, I believe that her performance in this movie was an improvement over the second film. And both David Strathairn and Albert Finney proved to be remarkably creepy and unpleasant. Although I believe that Strathairn was as good as Brian Cox (as Ward Abbott), I found him to be an improvement over the slightly over-the-top Chris Cooper (as Conklin).Paul Greengrass' direction was just as top notch as Kilroy and Burns' screenplay. But as with the movie's script, I have a complaint about him. I had barely tolerated Greengrass' handheld photography in "SUPREMACY". In "ULTIMATUM", my toleration nearly went down with the Titanic. I almost had a headache dealing with the shaky camera work. My other complaint deals with this movie's rendention of Moby's song, "Extreme Ways". Quite frankly, I hated it. I hated the changes made to the song's tempo and vocals. Despite all of this, "ULTIMATUM" proved to be just as exciting as the first two movies. And together, Damon, Greengrass, Kilroy and Universal Pictures have themselves a first-rate trilogy and franchise.
"THE BOURNE SUPREMACY" (2004) ReviewI have read only one of three novels written by Robert Ludlum about the amnesiac spy and assassin, Jason Bourne. And it was the 1980 novel - the first one. It was pretty good novel, but it bore scant resemblance to Doug Liman's 2002 movie, "THE BOURNE IDENTITY". I never saw "THE BOURNE IDENTITY" in the movie theaters. But I did see it on DVD and became an instant fan. It did lead me to see the 2004 sequel, "THE BOURNE SUPREMACY" in the theaters. I never read the 1986 novel from which the movie derived its title. It was just as well. This movie bore no resemblance, whatsoever, to Ludlum's second novel.Set two years after the 2002 movie, "THE BOURNE SUPREMACY" began in Berlin, Germany; where a C.I.A. operation to obtain information on an Agency mole that stole $20 million dollars of allocation money. The operation was led by a C.I.A. Deputy Director named Pamela Landy. However, a Russian F.S.B. agent named Krill killed Landy's source and a field agent, stole the evidence and framed former operative Jason Bourne for the crime by planting a false fingerprint. Krill's benefactor, an oil magnate named Yuri Grelkov, ordered him to kill Bourne, who was living in Goa, India with his girlfriend, Marie Kreutz. Krill ended up killing Marie after a high-speed chase in Goa. And Bourne returned to Europe to exact revenge upon the C.I.A., believing they were responsible for Marie's death. At the same time, Bourne has been besieged by dreams and memories of an early assignment that led to his murder of two people in a hotel - an assignment that ended up having strong links to the botched operation in Berlin."THE BOURNE SUPREMACY" turned out to have the shortest running time in the entire movie franchise. Although it featured two chase sequences - one in Goa and the other in Moscow, it seemed less action-oriented than the other two films. If I must be honest, this BOURNE movie is noteworthy for two things, the death of Marie Kreutz and the introduction of C.I.A. director Pamela Landy. It has never received the same level of attention that the other movies have. And yet . . . it is my favorite one in the entire trilogy that features Matt Damon.I have at least two problems with "THE BOURNE SUPREMACY". My first problem featured the character of Jarda, portrayed by actor Marton Csokas. During his confrontation with Bourne inside his Munich home, Jarda claimed that they were the only two Treadstone operatives still living. Originally, I thought Jarda was the same guy who had killed Alexander Conklin in "THE BOURNE IDENTITY" (portrayed by actor Russell Levy). But I learned that Conklin's killer was named Manheim. And according to the 2002 movie, there were only three other Treadstone operatives, aside from Bourne. Jarda was NOT one of them. Had screenwriter Tony Gilroy forgotten about Manheim? "THE BOURNE SUPREMACY" marked Paul Greengrass' debut as the director of a BOURNE. Doug Liman, who had directed the first film, served as one of the film's producers. It also marked the first appearance of the shaky-cam style filming that I have grown to dislike. Such style of filming is fine in a war movie or a documentary-style flick. But it almost made the chase sequences in Goa and especially in Moscow visually confusing.Despite what I believe were flaws in the movies, I cannot deny that I love "THE BOURNE SUPREMACY". It may have been the least action-oriented film in the franchise, but I firmly believe that thanks to Tony Gilroy's writing, Paul Greengrass' direction and Matt Damon's performance; it was the most emotional film of the three. And it featured great character development for the Jason Bourne, Pamela Landy, Nicky Parsons and Ward Abbott characters. This movie, I believe, featured Matt Damon's finest moment in the entire trilogy and some of his best acting, period. Ludlum's 1986 novel included a plot line that featured the character of Marie St. Jacques Webb being kidnapped to coerce David Webb into assuming the role of Jason Bourne again in order to deal with a deadly assassin. Gilroy was inspired by this plot line to create a story in which Bourne's past as an assassin would force him to atone for his crimes - especially the one crime that started his career for Treadstone. Marie's death at the hands of Krill forced Bourne to seek out the C.I.A. again. It also led to what I believe to be the best scene in the entire trilogy - Bourne's meeting with the young Russian girl, whose parents had been his first victims. But there were other scenes that either took my breath away or strongly impressed me. They include Marie's death in Goa, the verbal confrontations between Pamela Landy and Ward Abbott, Bourne's fight with Jarda, Nicky Parson's terror-filled conversation with Bourne about his first assignment, Bourne's realization that he had been tricked into committing two unsanctioned murders by Conklin and Abbott, Abbott's final conversations with both Bourne and Landy, and the Bourne/Krill car chase in Moscow. Looking at this list, I realize that many of these scenes were dramatic, instead of action-oriented. And this does not bother me, because the level of drama and the performances made it all worthwhile.I cannot talk about "THE BOURNE SURPEMACY" without discussing the cast. I have already expressed my delight at Matt Damon's acting in this film. He gave his usual, top-level performance. And as I had stated earlier, his scene with actress Oksana Akinshina, who portrayed the daughter of the Russian couple he had killed years earlier, was probably the best I had seen in the franchise. I found it intense, yet subtle and emotional. Joan Allen made her first appearance as C.I.A. Deputy Director Pamela Lundy. I have a deep suspicion that her role was inspired by Judi Dench's tenure as "M" in the last six James Bond movies. Allen proved to be equally strong and commanding as Lundy, yet at the same time, managed to quietly express her character's insecurities in her scenes with Brian Cox's Ward Abbott. I must admit that I was not hat impressed by Cox in the first BOURNE movie. He seemed to be overshadowed by Chris Cooper's more showy portrayal of Alex Conklin. But he was in top form as the quiet and desperately manipulative Ward Abbott, who along with Yuri Grelkov, was responsible for the theft of the missing C.I.A. funds. Like Cox, Julia Stiles' second appearance in a BOURNE movie proved to be a lot more impressive. Her character, Nicky Parsons, transformed from the shadowy Treadstone operative to a woman frightened at the idea of facing a murderous Jason Bourne. Her emotional scene with Damon's Bourne in Berlin proved to be one of the best in the movie. Franka Potente briefly returned as Bourne's doomed girlfriend, Marie Kreutz to give a first-rate performance in a scene that featured the character's attempt to keep Bourne's raging paranoia in check. Her death at the hands of Krill proved to be one of the most surprising moments I have encountered in a movie in years. For someone who spoke very few lines, Oksana Akinshina did an excellent job in her portrayal of the Neskis' daughter. That confession scene with Damon would have never worked without her spot-on response. Although I had seen Karl Urban in two "LORD OF THE RINGS" movies by 2004, his performance as the cold-blooded F.S.B. agent Krill, finally led me to take notice of him as an actor. Urban radiated more presence in this role than he did in Peter Jackson's movies. And he managed to achieve this with less lines. More importantly, his Krill proved to be a VERY effective nemesis for Bourne, despite being a lesser trained operative. And finally, the movie also featured a brief appearance by Tomas Arana in a sharp performance as the sardonic C.I.A. Director Marshall.Yes, "THE BOURNE SUPREMACY" has its flaws. I cannot deny this. Just about every movie I have seen has flaws. I have also noticed that it has attracted less attention than the other two BOURNE movies. Yet, thanks to Paul Greengrass' direction, Tony Gilroy's script and a superb cast led by Matt Damon; it is my favorite film in the franchise.
