Movie Review: Bourne Legacy - 5/10

I finally got around to Redboxing The Bourne Legacy. I found it to be weak addition to the Bourne series, but it was entertaining enough as a rental. It started off a little slow, but after the first 15 minutes, the movie found a comfortable pace. The casting and acting were just fine, but the plot was a little shallow. The plot basically consisted of elements of Limitless and Knight and Day retooled to fit in the universe of Jason Bourne.

The ties to the Bourne series were weak at best. They threw the name "Treadstone" around liberally and showed a few of the CIA characters from the other movies. They could have made this a completely stand alone movie if they had desired, but carrying the Bourne name and taking advantage of the existing Bourne mythology is the really the only reason why this movie was interesting at all. The only bad thing about this approach is that unless you've seen the other Bourne movies, you will be confused about who some of the characters are, since they do very little character development or introduction for anyone except the 2 protagonists (played by Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz) and the antagonist (played by Edward Norton).

Another interesting thing about this movie is how it ended rather abruptly. There is a decent chase scene at the end, and after it's over, well, so is the movie. The two leads sail off into the sunset together after a little over a days-worth of interaction, with an empty, semi-romantic love connection fueled entirely by adrenaline and the traumatic experience they just shared. I bet their relationship lasts less than a week, but that they continue to send each other Christmas cards for life.

The overall quality of the movie good, but the story is really where it suffered. I gave it a 5/10 overall. It's worth renting if you've seen the other Bourne movies just to say you've seen all of them. If you haven't seen the others, you probably shouldn't start with this one.