“THE BOURNE LEGACY” (2012): OTHER GOOD THRILLER OF THE BOURNE´S FILMS

It is an American action thriller film directed by Tony Gilroy (he has a post in my blog) and is the fourth installment in the series of films adapted from the Jason Bourne novels originated by Robert Ludlum and continued by Eric Van Lustbader, being preceded by The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) (they have posts in my blog).

Although this film has the same title as Van Lustbader's first Bourne novel, The Bourne Legacy, the actual screenplay bears little resemblance to the novel. Unlike the novel, which features Jason Bourne as the principal character, the film centers on black ops agent Aaron Cross (played by Jeremy Renner -he has a post in my blog-), an original character. In addition to Renner, the film stars Rachel Weisz (she has  a post in my blog) and Edward Norton.

The titular character Jason Bourne does not appear in The Bourne Legacy, as actor Matt Damon (he has a post in my blog) chose not to return for the fourth film, due to Paul Greengrass (he has a post in my blog) not directing. Bourne is shown in pictures and mentioned by name several times throughout the film. Tony Gilroy, co-screenwriter of the first three films, sought to continue the story of the film series without changing its key events, and parts of The Bourne Legacy take place at the same time as the previous film, The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). Aaron Cross is a member of a black ops program called Operation Outcome whose subjects are genetically enhanced. He must run for his life once former CIA Treadstone agent Jason Bourne's actions lead to the public exposure of Operation Treadstone and its successor Operation Blackbriar.

Filming was primarily in New York City, with some scenes shot in the Philippines, South Korea, Pakistan, and Canada. Released on August 10, 2012, the film received mixed reviews, with critics praising the story, James Newton Howard's score, and Renner's performance, but expressing disappointment in Matt Damon's absence, as well as the lack of shaky camera work (a key element of Greengrass' directorial style) that the second and third films had used. The film was followed in 2016 by Jason Bourne, in which Damon and Greengrass reprised their earlier roles.

Plot

Six weeks after Jason Bourne's escape from Moscow in The Bourne Supremacy, Aaron Cross, an operative belonging to a Department of Defense black ops program called Operation Outcome, is assigned to Alaska for a training exercise. He is forced to survive weather extremes and traverse rugged terrain to arrive at a remote cabin as punishment for missing training and going off the grid for four days. The cabin is operated by an exiled Outcome operative, Number Three, who informs Cross that he has broken the mission record by two days. As an Outcome operative, Cross uses experimental pills known as "chems" which enhance the physical and mental abilities of their users.

After the Treadstone and Blackbriar programs are exposed, retired Air Force colonel Eric Byer is tasked with containing the fallout. He discovers a potentially scandalous video on the Internet showing a meeting between Treadstone and Outcome medical directors. To prevent the Senate investigation from learning about Outcome, Byer orders everyone associated with the program killed. He sees the sacrifice as acceptable to protect next-generation "beta programs", including the supersoldier program LARX.

Byer deploys a drone to eliminate Outcome agents Number Three and Five (Cross) in Alaska. Cross evades the drone and force-feeds his radio-frequency identification to a wolf which is then blown up by a missile, tricking Byer into believing Cross is dead. At Sterisyn-Morlanta, a biogenetics company supporting Outcome, researcher Dr. Donald Foite shoots and kills all but one of his colleagues in the research laboratory. After being cornered by guards, Foite turns his gun on himself, leaving biochemist Dr. Marta Shearing as the sole survivor. Other Outcome agents are eliminated when their handlers give them poisoned yellow pills disguised as new chems.

Four "D-Trac" assassins disguised as federal agents visit Shearing at her country house. When she states her belief of Foite having been chemically brainwashed into an emotionless killer, the assassins attempt to fake her suicide, but are killed by Cross. Shearing reveals that Cross has been genetically modified by a tailored virus to retain the physical benefits permanently without needing the green chems anymore. He still requires regular doses of blue chems to maintain his intelligence, but he is running out. Cross confides to her that he is Private First Class Kenneth J. Kitsom (reportedly killed by an improvised explosive device in the Iraq War) and that his recruiter added twelve points to his IQ, enabling Cross to meet the United States Army's requirements. Without his enhanced intelligence, Cross believes they stand no chance of survival. Cross and Shearing travel to Manila, where the chems are manufactured, to try to infect him with another virus that will make his intelligence permanent.

Cross and Shearing bluff their way into the Morlanta Pacific pharmaceutical factory and Shearing injects Cross with the live virus stems. Byer alerts factory security, but they evade capture. Byer orders LARX-03, a chemically-brainwashed supersoldier, to track and kill them. As Cross is struck by flu-like symptoms induced by the virus, he hallucinates about his Outcome training. When police surround their shelter while Shearing is buying medicine, Cross rescues her and steals a motorbike. After a lengthy chase through the streets and marketplaces of Manila to Marikina, they lose the police and kill the assassin. Shearing persuades a Filipino boatman to help them escape by sea.

Back in New York, Blackbriar supervisor Noah Vosen lies to the Senate, stating that Blackbriar was created solely to track down Jason Bourne, and that Deputy Director Pamela Landy committed treason by assisting Bourne and trying to sell Treadstone secrets to the press.

Box office

In its opening weekend, The Bourne Legacy grossed about $38.7 million in the United States and Canada and debuted at #1 of the box office charts, surpassing Universal's expectation of $35 million. It grossed $46.6 million worldwide in its first weekend. The film sold roughly 400,000 more tickets on its opening weekend than the first film in the series, The Bourne Identity. Studio research reported that audiences were evenly mixed among the sexes. The film grossed $113,203,870 in North America and $162,940,880 in foreign countries, bringing the film's worldwide total to $276,144,750.

Critical response

The Bourne Legacy received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 60% based on 219 reviews with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It isn't quite as compelling as the earlier trilogy, but The Bourne Legacy proves the franchise has stories left to tell—and benefits from Jeremy Renner's magnetic work in the starring role." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 61 out of 100 based on 42 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an A-, commenting that "Gilroy, who as a screenwriter has shaped the movie saga from the beginning, trades the wired rhythms established in the past two episodes by Paul Greengrass for something more realistic and closer to the ground. The change is refreshing. Jason Bourne's legacy is in good hands." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2½ stars out of 4, writing: "The Bourne Legacy is always gripping in the moment. The problem is in getting the moments to add up. I freely confess that for at least the first 30 minutes I had no clear idea of why anything was happening. The dialogue is concise, the cinematography is arresting and the plot is a murky muddle."

Peter Debruge of Variety wrote that "the combination of Robert Elswit's elegant widescreen lensing and the measured editing by Tony Gilroy's brother John may be easier to absorb than Greengrass' hyperkinetic docu-based style, but the pic's convoluted script ensures that auds will emerge no less overwhelmed." Michael Atkinson of The Village Voice also wrote a scathing review of the film, saying: "The Bourne films have more than just overstayed their welcome and outlasted the Ludlum books—they've been Van Halenized, with an abrupt change of frontman and a resulting dip in personality."

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review, called the film "an exemplary espionage thriller that has a strong sense of what it wants to accomplish and how best to get there." He especially commended Gilroy's work on the film: "Gilroy knows the underpinnings of this world inside out and appreciates how essential it is to maintain and extend the house style of cool and credible intelligence that marked the previous films."

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter commented on his review that "the series' legacy is lessened by this capable but uninspired fourth episode."