Film Reviews Blog: 'The Bourne Legacy' Nothing New

The fourth film in the Bourne franchise shows that a series can continue without the title character, but don't expect it to out shine the previous films.

"The Bourne Legacy" expands the universe of the Bourne films in the same way that "The Avengers" and "Prometheus" did this summer to their respective franchises.

However, instead of adding new depth to the overarching story, Legacy simply adds a somewhat new detail and goes off retelling another story of a spy, Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), gone rogue.

Recovering from Jason Bourne's exposing of Blackbriar, CIA's Col. Eric Byer (Edward Norton) decides that it much better to clean house of all similar projects than have anymore exposure.

Legacy continues to maintain the quality of action that fans have come to expect from the Bourne films, including some rooftop parkour action, but with a little less fighting.

My speculation for the less hand-to-hand combat is age. Renner is 41, and although he's in great physical shape, Matt Damon was nearly 10 years younger when he made the first film.

Age aside, the main problem with Legacy is that it feels like déjà vu, following a generic Bourne formula.

Our spy is supposed to be dead, when his officials find out he's not, they try to kill him. He has a pretty girl, Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), help him on his journey and he can take down any team of trained operatives. Add a MacGyver scene, and a chase via motorcycle, car, and rooftop, and you've got the basic formula for a lazy Bourne film.

Although entertaining, the film adds nothing new and exciting to the franchise. If anything, Legacy is more of a tangent subplot that could have been briefly addressed in a previous Bourne film.

Instead, we're given a lazy reboot. As they say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Bourne fans will enjoy this at-par reboot; it's entertaining and full of action. What more could you want?