By Daniel Bradley
I caught the Bourne Legacy at the pictures when it came out. I am a big fan of the Bourne series. I have read the books, and know that there are considerable differences, but this bothers me little. The first and third film were very clever, the second is a fine film but lacks the pace or purpose of its siblings.
Now, I read an interesting review that said, whilst watching the new film, there are constant reminders that a better film is going on elsewhere. And to a certain extent this is true. It runs in parallel with Ultimatum. But it has it's own merits. It fleshes out the overall story without retconning anything and has some great action scenes. My one issue with the film is that it's heavy on dialogue, (whilst so much went unsaid with Jason in the the trilogy.) Perhaps this is a new, spunky character that thinks too much, who knows. Let me know if you see it... I have ideas for where they may be going with it.
Best moment: Sarcastic tone & a log cabin meeting.
Worst moment: Cliché car chase.
Fans of the series, see it. 7/10.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Jamie Lawrence.
In my opinion, Bourne films have something different to the standard action film, including Bond films, and that is their focus on making sure all of the dialogue is quick, clever and easy to follow. Having not read the books it is hard to judge whether this film did credit to Ludlum's work, but despite a whole new main character, it still felt very 'Bourne-y'.
The film works in parallel with Ultimatum and answers any questions that the previous film leaves you confused by - what is happening in the CIA? Who else is hunting Bourne? What are the repercussions? Are there other Bournes? How are these 'agents' so much stronger and fitter then anyone else?
It is not as fast-paced as previous Bournes but you learn much more about operations Treadstone and the others, Jeremy Renner is fantastic, Rachel Weisz is great and the whole film seems to satisfy.
Best Moment: The beginning training tasks and resultant log-cabin meet up.
Worst Moment: A slight cliche ending.
Rating: 8/10
For fans of: Bourne series, and James Bond with a bit more of an intellectual plot.
