The Bourne Legacy: Cross is the New Bourne

We can all relax. They haven’t ruined the legacy. For those of you who are big Bourne fans, this reboot of the franchise isn’t too shabby. Actually, about half way through, you realize you’re riding a rollercoaster and you don’t want off. And the most important part: you’ll ride it two more times again.

Re-making a franchise is always risky. Not everyone is as lucky as Batman, who was gifted with the vision of Nolan or James Bond with Casino Royale. Many times when big studios make another attempt at a beloved character, there is failure. We’ve all tried to forget the recent Hulk and Superman attempts. But this time around it seems Universal has found the secret to success: same movie, different character.

Jeremy Renner plays Aaron Cross, a new hero, who stems from the same world as Jason Bourne. His life or death stakes are the aftermath of Bourne’s ventures, also dealing with Treadstone’s spies attempting escape. Cross is a part of Outcome, the CIA’s newest program of trained individuals. But early on we learn anxiety caused by Bourne’s escape has launched them into a plan to eliminate all their agents.

Fortunately for us, Cross has yet to be terminated. His initial mission is to retrieve medication. He is slowly running out of blue and green pills. This is another part of Outcome’s enhanced plan to keep their agents performance levels high. In his attempt to obtain the pills, he crosses paths with Dr. Marta Shearing.

Rachel Weisz delivers an excellent Shearing, who is a research scientist in the Maryland laboratory of corporate pharma-giant Candent. She’s directly linked to the Outcome agents, and has met Cross before. Trying to remain removed from the ethical conflict in her work, a traumatic shooting at the laboratory leaves her unable to ignore the controversy any longer.

She’s now being hunted. But there’s no better way to escape than with a partner like Aaron Cross. It’s a parasitic relationship in the beginning that we slowly see develop into something more.

The film takes a while for that development to take place, though. The beginning is loaded with wordy exposition and backstory. Oh, and a dash of the Alaskan terrain as Cross tries to mountain climb his way to meds. It takes a while to bring our brains back to the world of the Bourne story, but once our brains are in place, our heart-rates race.

The story really picks up when the script gives in to the Bourne previous series: agent meets girl, in attempt to save girl, delivers some serious action-packed scenes. It may be following the same exact formula, but perhaps that isn’t a bad thing. It’s worked for Bond hasn’t it?

And the people behind Bourne Legacy shamelessly promote how similar it will be to the previous trilogy. But in fact what they’re saying is that it’s the same genre, different guy. Renner doesn’t try to match up to Damon, but delivers a completely new personality. He’s wittier, rougher and isn’t afraid of a sense of humor. It’s actually quite refreshing. And Weisz is never better. She’s damsel in distress and warrior all in one. And her acting chops don’t hurt either.

Oh, and calm your pacing pulses and skeptical brows….there is in fact a killer chase scene; motorcycles in all. YES!