The Bourne Legacy (DVD REVIEW)
The Bourne Legacy
DVD
Review by Kam Williams
Jeremy
Renner Stars in Spy Franchise Reboot
The
prior three installments in the Bourne franchise, The Bourne Identity, The
Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, were all adapted from best-sellers
by Robert Ludlum and starred Matt Damon as espionage agent extraordinaire Jason
Bourne. The Bourne Legacy represents a major departure in that it’s based on a
book by Eric Van Lustbader and only makes slight references to the title
character.
In
place of Bourne, this reboot revolves around Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), a
pill-popping protagonist being turned into a killing machine by way of an
experimental CIA program. At the point of departure, we find the unassuming spy
on assignment in the Alaskan wilderness where he is very dependent on
government issued medication coming in blue and green colors designed to
improve his mental and physical abilities, respectively.
However,
when he watches a guided missile fired by an American drone blow up the cabin
where he’s been training, the sage spy instinctively senses that someone in the
Agency now wants him dead. To complicate matters, he’s almost out of the drugs
he’s become utterly dependent upon. This sets in motion the sort of frenetic,
high body-count race against time we’ve come to expect of every Bourne episode.
The
adrenaline-fueled adventure first brings our peripatetic hero in from the cold
for a fix as well as for some answers. But he’s only frustrated back at
headquarters where he determines that a yellow pill recently added to his
regimen has already killed other colleagues in the top secret Blackbriar
Program.
After
convincing the gorgeous medical researcher (Rachel Weisz) monitoring his vital
signs that she’s on the hit list, too, the pair escape to the Philippines by
way of Canada for a spectacular motorcycle chase scene replete with a hired hit
man (Louis Ozawa Changchien), frightened pedestrians and a sacrificial fruit
stand.
Don’t be surprised to find the
episode end in a way which sets the table for Bourne 5 as much as it closes the
curtain on this action-packed roller coaster ride. A primer on how to make a
successful sequel sans a hit franchise’s title character, star or source
material from the series’ creator.
Very Good
(3 stars)
Rated PG-13 for violence and intense action sequences.
Running time: 135
minutes
Distributor:
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Pack Extras: Deleted scenes; Re-Bourne;
Capturing Chaos: The Motorbike Chase; filmmaker commentary; Enter Aaron Cross;
Crossing Continents: Legacy on Location; Man vs. Wolf; Wolf Sequence Test;
Moving Targets: Aaron and Marta; pocket BLU app; BD-Live; and more.
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