Film review: The Bourne Legacy (3 out of 5 stars)

Director: Tony Gilroy

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton

It sounds like a good idea - take a very popular franchise and bolt on some new characters with their own back stories.

However, The Bourne Legacy misses the mark slightly as the pace of the movie is a bit off and science gets in the way.

If you haven’t seen the first three Bourne movies, starring Matt Damon then you can still watch this new movie and not be totally confused.

But, of course, it helps to see the others.

Tony Gilroy, who has writing credits on all the movies so far, steps into the directing shoes.

He includes some amazing close action shots and great camera angles to show off the more athletic moves by the cast.

But the scenes with just two or three actors tend to lack tension and go on too long.

And Rachel Weisz, as scientist Dr Marta Shearing, ends up having to explain far too much of what is exactly happening to the group of men and women being experimented on.

The Bourne Legacy starts parallel to the final part of the Bourne Ultimatum with Jason Bourne (off screen) causing mayhem.

Two retired armed forces officer (Stacey Keach and Edward Norton) attempt to cover up the project that Bourne was just a small part of.

This means eliminating all the evidence, including Dr Shearing and test subject Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner).

So the film finally moves into the action sequences, including a truly breath-taking motorcycle chase.

Weisz and Renner are excellent and Norton is also great as a man with a mission (whatever the cost).

This is very likely to be the first of a few more Bourne movies but let’s hope that now the foundations have been laid, we can get back to a better paced action movie.

Steve Payne

Screening courtesy of Cineworld Crawley