So, I saw The Bourne Legacy tonight.
Aug. 19th, 2012 02:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eleanorjaneThoughts under the cut. Spoilers, natch.
- The pacing and drama of the movie was way too reliant on remembering the plot of The Bourne Ultimatum. Thankfully I'd watched half of it recently, but the b/f hadn't and he was mystified.
- Just how many Evil Paunchy White Dudes (thankyoudevildoll for that phrasing) does the US espionage community have? And man, how cynical is this movie series about what the intelligence community does? First Treadstone, then Blackbriar, now Outcome *and* LARX *and* all the other "beta programs". The endless escalation of the tangled webs of black ops programs is getting a bit ridiculous.
+ I'm still not a huge Jeremy Renner fan (I have nothing against him, mind, just not particularly enthused), but I do like his acting style. It's very easy and natural.
+ Rachel Weisz was fantastic, and I really liked that they didn't go for the stereotypical Hollywood kiss, while still making it clear that there's a definite bond/attachment there on both sides.
= Five bucks says the next Bourne movie has Matt Damon in it. A) I'm fairly sure he's said he'd still like to do more of them as he enjoys the franchise, and B) they spent a lot of time putting Matt Damon's face in front of us, far more than was required by the plot or continuity. That goes double for David Strathairn and triple for Joan Allen - seriously, there was NO POINT to the Pam Landy scenes and references if they weren't trying to keep the Bourne-specific plotlines in audience memory for future instalments.
+ I did like the way they used footage from Bourne Ultimatum to give this movie a clear sense of timeline; it's very clear that this is all happening concurrent with Bourne Ultimatum (since we see stuff about Simon Ross [the journalist in BU] happening live in BL's timeline. That was neatly done, I think.
- There was nowhere NEAR enough punching people.
- I didn't get the sense that Aaron Cross was anywhere near as competent or dangerous as Jason Bourne. There's very little of Bourne's ability to improvise, or his sheer overwhelming competence in combat. Cross needed more fight scenes, more clearly choreographed.
+ I really liked that they gave Cross such a good, personal reason to want to stay involved - not just drop the meds and walk away. The scenes of him as Kitsom were a bit heartbreaking.
So, yeah. I enjoyed it, but it was nowhere near as solid as the other Bourne movies. The stars - Weisz and Renner in particular - deserved a better movie to be in.
- The pacing and drama of the movie was way too reliant on remembering the plot of The Bourne Ultimatum. Thankfully I'd watched half of it recently, but the b/f hadn't and he was mystified.
- Just how many Evil Paunchy White Dudes (thankyou
devildoll for that phrasing) does the US espionage community have? And man, how cynical is this movie series about what the intelligence community does? First Treadstone, then Blackbriar, now Outcome *and* LARX *and* all the other "beta programs". The endless escalation of the tangled webs of black ops programs is getting a bit ridiculous.+ I'm still not a huge Jeremy Renner fan (I have nothing against him, mind, just not particularly enthused), but I do like his acting style. It's very easy and natural.
+ Rachel Weisz was fantastic, and I really liked that they didn't go for the stereotypical Hollywood kiss, while still making it clear that there's a definite bond/attachment there on both sides.
= Five bucks says the next Bourne movie has Matt Damon in it. A) I'm fairly sure he's said he'd still like to do more of them as he enjoys the franchise, and B) they spent a lot of time putting Matt Damon's face in front of us, far more than was required by the plot or continuity. That goes double for David Strathairn and triple for Joan Allen - seriously, there was NO POINT to the Pam Landy scenes and references if they weren't trying to keep the Bourne-specific plotlines in audience memory for future instalments.
+ I did like the way they used footage from Bourne Ultimatum to give this movie a clear sense of timeline; it's very clear that this is all happening concurrent with Bourne Ultimatum (since we see stuff about Simon Ross [the journalist in BU] happening live in BL's timeline. That was neatly done, I think.
- There was nowhere NEAR enough punching people.
- I didn't get the sense that Aaron Cross was anywhere near as competent or dangerous as Jason Bourne. There's very little of Bourne's ability to improvise, or his sheer overwhelming competence in combat. Cross needed more fight scenes, more clearly choreographed.
+ I really liked that they gave Cross such a good, personal reason to want to stay involved - not just drop the meds and walk away. The scenes of him as Kitsom were a bit heartbreaking.
So, yeah. I enjoyed it, but it was nowhere near as solid as the other Bourne movies. The stars - Weisz and Renner in particular - deserved a better movie to be in.