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| A dynamically designed poster for Tony Gilroy's The Bourne Legacy |
A governmentally employed assassin, who had previously been much used by a cynical retired Air Force colonel, now gets hunted by him, as he gets in connection with a skilled chemical engineer.
Edward Norton (The Invention of Lying (2009)) is a dreary heavy as the commanding, tight-assed colonel, but also the more sympathetic parts played by Jeremy Renner (Ingenious (2009)), - who at one point in the film is battered something awful, - and Rachel Weisz (Death Machine (1994)) can't alter the fact that this the 4th film in the Bourne franchise, - for the first time without Matt Damon as the now absent Jason Bourne, - is cryptic bordering on incomprehensible.
Without any introduction to the film's new elements, such as color-coded 'chems', parts of its dialog come across as advanced theatrical exercises. This is fatal, and it makes The Bourne Legacy seem incredibly long. The impressive cast here are gathered for what is essentially an audience-hostile fart in a can.
The Bourne Legacy is written by twins Dan Gilroy (The Fall (2006)) and co-writer-director Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton (2007)), based loosely on the Bourne book series by Robert Ludlum (The Chancellor Manuscript (1977)). It has two successful suspense scenes in it: One is a shooting scene that takes place in a laboratory with a mad Zeljko Ivanek (The West Wing (2003), TV-series), and the other is a high-speed car-motorcycle chase in Manila.
Related posts:
Tony Gilroy: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) or, Ginny's Fate: A Star Wars Calculation (co-writer)
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 125 mil. $
Box office: 276.1 mil. $
= Flop
[The Bourne Legacy premiered 30 July (New York) and runs 135 minutes. Matt Damon would not do a Bourne film without Paul Greengrass, who directed the 2nd and 3rd film and decided against doing the 4th. Tony Gilroy had written scripts for the first 3 films and was promoted to also direct the film, which takes place partially during the events of the preceding The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). Shooting took place in the Philippines, including in Manila, in Seoul, South Korea, Alberta, Canada, New York and Chicago, Illinois from September 2011 - ?. The film opened #1 to a 38.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another 3 weeks (#2-#2-#4) and grossed 113.2 mil. $ (41 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 17.4 mil. $ (6.3 %) and China with 16 mil. $ (5.8 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, equal to two notches better than this review. Greengrass and Damon were lured back for a 5th Bourne movie, Jason Bourne (2016), which did not feature Renner and was a box office success. Tony Gilroy has stayed away from directing since the film; instead he has returned as producer of the great Nightcrawler (2014), consulting producer on House of Cards (2015-16) and co-writer of The Great Wall (2016) and Rogue One (2016). The Bourne Legacy is rotten at 56 % with a 5.9/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Bourne Legacy?
