IT'S BEST NOT TO CROSS PATHS WITH THE BOURNE LEGACY

 In Legacy, Retired Air Force Colonel Eric Byer (Edward Norton) is brought in by the CIA to help contain the fallout from the events of Ultimatum. He investigates to see just how integrated Treadstone has become in the CIA and discovers a new Treadstone inspired super-soldier program code-named Outcome, which had been experimenting with altering human biology to create men who were smarter and stronger via chemicals in pill form. Byer sees only one way out of the mess...to burn Outcome and everyone involved with it to the ground. Unfortunately, one lone Outcome agent, named Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), survives the extermination and goes on the run with pretty scientist, Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz).

This flick is silly, stupid, and ridiculous. A film that deals exclusively with the fallout from Ultimatum definitely has the potential to be good and interesting, unfortunately under the direction of Tony Gilroy (who penned the previous three Bourne installments and co-pens Legacy with Dan Gilroy. The script this time around is just the worst.) this film comes across as directionless, aimless, and worst of all...boring. There are very few action scenes here (It takes a full hour to get to the first one and no, I don't count Renner's earlier fight with a wolf as an action scene. The last 30 minutes is where most of the action occurs). The ones that do occur are passable/decent, and it's easy to make out what is going on in them.

The action scenes in Legacy might be the easiest to make sense of in all the Bourne films thus far, thanks in large part to the editing by John Gilroy. John does an ok job in the editing room, and under his hands Legacy is still fast-paced. The cinematography by Robert Elswit is fine as well, but fails to really impress. I will say that Legacy does look consistently crisp and sharp though.

Jeremy Renner makes for a poor Jason Bourne stand-in, and feels very flat and uninteresting. Rachel Weisz is even worse. Her character is very whiny and annoying. Renner and her constantly bicker and argue in their scenes together. Both aren't all that likable. The only actor that does a half-way decent job is Edward Norton, and even then he doesn't emote a whole lot.

The Bourne Legacy is an uninspired, lazy spin-off that doesn't even have the confidence to stand on its own (The film continually reminds us that Jason Bourne still exists in this universe. Fitting, since this outing really doesn't feel like a Bourne film). The final slap in the face comes when it's revealed there is yet ANOTHER Treadstone inspired program that is still in operation named LARX (Brought up only as a way to introduce a less-cool and less-impressive T-1000 inspired soldier near the end).

Universal clearly wanted to find a way to continue the Bourne franchise, but didn't seem to know how to go about doing so. Hiring the man who penned the previous films to direct and co-pen this outing seemed like a safe bet. If anyone had a firm grasp on Bourne, it SHOULD be Tony Gilroy. Alas, this was not the case. The Bourne Legacy is boring, slow, doesn't always make sense, and has very little action. It's interesting to note that Legacy acts as a Gilroy family production (In case you didn't notice, there were quite a few Gilroys that worked on this film). Unfortunately, The Bourne Legacy ends up as a severely disappointing film that is sure to leave audiences yearning for the past glory days of Bourne.

1.5 STARS