THE BOURNE LEGACY

Universal Pictures

Rated PG-13



Running time: 135 Minutes

Click below to watch The Bourne Legacy trailer.

In Universal Pictures The Bourne Legacy, Retired USAF colonel Edward Norton tries to terminate the Program that had created the Bourne Project - which includes several agents, including a very determined agent Jeremy Renner who wants to survive.

In a continuation of the Matt Damon Bourne series of movie sequels, this fourth movie which is based on the Robert Ludlum books, shows that there were more of the Bourne agents than Damon. While Damon was not in the movie, Damon's stock images were used in the movie to show a continuation of the series. Although having a tip that "Jason Bourne" is in town was confusing. You were expecting to see Matt Damon and he is not in the movie. I was wondering if that was a reference to the previous movie that was overlapping this movie, or if he was referring to Renner - and Renner was in the wilderness.

Ed Norton is working with secret government personnel about putting a lid on several covert programs that is in danger of being exposed by Matt Damon and CIA Director Joan Allen - who had a walk-on part, so it could have been stock footage. While in the process of the termination of the agents and the program's assets, Renner escapes with the help of wolves and rescues Dr. Rachel Weisz, who was involved in the medical and psychological evaluations of the program, from her own termination. Together, Renner and Weisz travel to Manila, Philippines where the medical laboratory is - which has the technology to cure Renner from his physical dependence on the cover program's medications which enhanced the chromosomes of the agent's physical and mental abilities.

When I heard the movie was being shot in the Philippines, I thought they were shooting a couple of scenes to give the appearance of traveling around and giving a worldwide presence. There were a few scenes that were shot in other countries to give that sense of world presence, but half the movie was set in the Philippines - with a lot of Pinoys as extras and bit-parts in the movie. As a Filipino, I found these scenes quite enjoyable to watch and was rather proud of the Philippines being shown in a movie. Although, my Filipino friends point out that it is a shame that the movie kept showing the poor/ugly side of Manila instead of the prettier side. They were very disappointed in that portrayal. It makes the Philippines and Manila seem like a poor ugly country instead of the beautiful country it is.

The opening shot is a freeze shot, so you might think that the projector was stuck on that shot until it starts up. As the star of the movie, Jeremy Renner was given much more to do in this movie than in The Avengers. However, Renner was still mostly an action star than an actor in this movie. Norton was appropriately dirty and unprincipled as the man responsible for the Black Operations and his betrayal in terminating the people involved by burning the program to the ground. The movie reminded me a lot of a James Bond movie. While I thought it was a nice action picture, there were several plot holes that got to me, unless the explanations went by too fast for them to register to me. The most immediate one to me - outside of the Jason Bourne tip off - was how did Renner wind up at Weisz's home? I also thought the ending of the movie was a little too pat. It was just a motorcycle chase. While exciting, there was no direct confrontation between Renner and the agent Louis Ozawa Changchien sent to kill Renner at the end of the movie.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 135 Minutes

Pancho
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