#TeamJabberExperience “Bourne Legacy” Recap and Review

NO SPOILER Review

Saturday 29th September, 2012 was the big day. As usual per every #TeamJabberExperience, bookings were done in advance after confirmations by peeps coming along for the fun and of course, the movie. Speaking of the movie…

The Bourne Legacy Review

Firs of all, let’s all understand that this film WAS NOT a direct sequel, rather it was and is a spin-off. As the tagline says ‘There was never just one’, setting the stage to tell the story of another agent who went through almost the same procedure or training Jason Bourne did with two slight differences; physical and mental enhancement.  Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) is the main character the entire story centers on.  He takes two kinds of pills; blue pill for physical enhancements and abilities that exceed human capabilities (endurance, speed, healing etc) and the green pills that in lay man’s language, make him smart 🙂 Now, i know what you’re thinking, have they littered the Bourne Franchise with themes and plot-points better left alone to Universal Soldier type films, the answer is no. It all comes out pretty believable and apart from being told by characters in the movie and some scenes, you don’t really see super-human elements that make it unbelievable…

Plot

Without giving much away, let’s just say if you know Bourne’s story, then you won’t really be lost with this one.  Sure there are a few differences, for example Aaron Cross doesn’t lose his memory and isn’t going after the organization that made him, rather he’s just trying to survive and get his usual fix. But that’s where the problem comes in, due to recent events tied in from the earlier Bourne Franchise entries, anything and everyone linked to Jason Bourne or Treadstone in any way has to be ‘shut-down’. They just don’t succeed in ‘shutting-down’ Aaron Cross and he’s now on the run….

The Bad

I’ll start with the bad so as to end on a positive note.  The main sinkhole in this movie is the fact that it drags way too much, especially in the beginning. It takes quite some time for the story to pick up and for our lead to hook up with the customary heroine/love interest/damsel in distress.  In addition to that, some scenes, especially a certain scene where he baits and traps a wolf were not really necessary. Looking back now, i can think of several other methods he could have used to lose the tracking device he had.  And when it does pick up, it never really rises to the occassion, it’s just there… Even with the camera angles, flashbacks, roof-top scene, intense-dialogue just come out feeling cliche, redone and flat.  In short, it was a half-hearted attempt and entry into the Bourne Franchise.  It’s a good movie, an ok one, but it just didn’t deliver.  Oh yes,  a certain mean looking agent, the last resort type of agent, who was called in to finally capture Aaron Cross when all else failed got wasted in my opinion…

The Good

Jeremy Renner was believable as an agent who didn’t go looking for trouble but just wanted to find a way out of the mess (the script writers?Lol) he was in; having his past life erased and made part of a system that used and abused him and now wanted to kill him.  The action scenes were pretty cool, especially the hand-to-hand combat scenes, you really felt for the bad guys who were on the receiving end… Certain scenes were sweet subtle touches of great effects and camera work especially when Aaron Cross had to do certain super-human feats.  The Jason Bourne tie-ins, mentions and pictures that dotted the film to me were an added bonus, made it quite clear that it wasn’t a sequel but rather a story that ran parallel to the Jason Bourne stories.

Conclusion

In short, to wrap it up, this movie had great potential, but now it probably has a good number of people saying that we shouldn’t see anymore unless Matt Damon returns.  Well, i am on the fence on that one, i love Damon and Renner impressed me, but maybe a combination of the two would be quite interesting if not ambitious?  All in all, i feel the movie fell victim to the ‘Big Brother Syndrome’. You know that situation where you are the last born, and all your siblings before you have all taken to football and have really excelled in it, stamping the family name in that field, and along you come wanting to try your hand in it with the pressure and eyes of the world on you, not to mention the comparisons…yep that’s the ‘Big Brother Syndrome’ and that’s what crippled this film.  What do you say?

Rating

6/10

As usual the company was definitely awesome! We had dozens of new faces who got to interact with each other, make new friends and also fool around taking pictures, videos and what not after the screening. It was our first time at Fox Sarit, kudos to the peeps who turned up, 36 this time round.  Here’s the gallery, click on any picture for it to open up 🙂