I’ve enjoyed the Matt Damon-led Jason Bourne films of the past decade, although, truth be told, I doubt if I could coherently explain just what it is about Treadstone and Blackbriar that is forcing the CIA to hunt Bourne all over the world.  The ramifications of those operations are, in The Bourne Legacy, still spreading, causing many innocent casualties.  One man caught in the crossfire is Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner).

Cross is, like Bourne, an agent.  Unlike Bourne, Cross seems to have no other life, or much of a character, for that matter.  Tony Gilroy’s movie establishes Cross as an enigma — a mysterious man with superhuman instincts and reflexes — but the story’s startling lack of character development delivers a cipher rather than a person.  The previous trio of Bourne adventures convey emotional power because we are invested in the very likable, hellishly persecuted Damon portrayal.  Here, I don’t care a whit about Aaron Cross because I can’t tell who he is, for what he stands or why it should matter.

Much of the early portion of Tony Gilroy’s movie is populated with what I think are red herrings; little moments and specific incidents that are supposed to seem key at the moment but actually have no real significance to the larger story.  And when Cross finally does find himself a mission — to rescue a scientist (Rachel Weisz) who can lead him to the source of the pills he takes to make him superhuman — it is a forced, stilted situation that moves the plot along with the barest of motivation.

I’ll give Gilroy credit for two things.  The first is a massacre scene at the scientific lab where Rachel Weisz works.  That sequence, of a disturbed scientist calmly hunting and dispatching his fellow workers, is truly horrifying, reminding us as it does of so many real-life workplace tragedies.  It is easily the best scene in the film.  The second is the car / motorcycle chase that climaxes the story, and which is filmed in a style similar to the previous Bourne chases.  Those two sequences are extraordinarily well made, but the rest of the story is desultory and unrewarding.  Gilroy’s obvious fascination with the CIA methodically hunting its prey across the world just isn’t very exciting, despite the intensity of Edward Norton and his colleagues.  This movie lacks coherency and a character that we want to support; maybe the next one will give Aaron Cross some heart.  ☆ ☆.  28 August 2012.