The Bourne Legacy is a poor inheritance
Directed by Tony Gilroy, screenwriter of the first three Bourne films, this fourth in the series deviates from its predecessors in many ways. The main one – and the main reason it’s just not as good – is the absence of Matt Damon, who lent unspeakable gravitas, sex appeal and charisma to his broodingly clever character Jason Bourne. The other is the loss of Paul Greengrass as director, who allowed straight-shooting stories to unfurl in an arresting, brutal aesthetic with minimal fuss, muss or indeed talk. This one is complicated, confusing – lots of fuss, not much of anything else. Bourne is not actually in the film: rather, a perfectly fine Jeremy Renner is cast as Aaron Cross, an agent from a different Operation Outcome, who decides to investigate the crimes of his superiors, also intent on killing off him and Rachel Weisz, his sidekick scientist.