The Bourne Legacy

Long action, little character. This fourth installment to the Bourne franchise has some interesting ideas, but not enough time to flesh them out, concentrating on only the actions and not allowing the audience to actually care about what happens to the characters.

Synopsis: Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) is betrayed by his operation and goes on a mission to find out why. Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz) worked with operatives like Cross before the government shut down the operation and attempted to kill all the scientists. Cross and Shearing run from the government and must figure out how to survive.

Jeremy Renner - better known as Hawkeye from The Avengers - as Aaron Cross is no Jason Bourne. Unlike Bourne, Cross must take pills to enhance his intelligence, strength, speed, agility, and stamina. While Renner does an excellent job during the intense scenes, his softer scenes (which are extremely few) feel awkward and a bit bumbling. Cross kicks butt as easily as Bourne, although there's much more running involved than actual hand-to-hand combat. Renner should probably stick with Hawkeye.

Rachel Weisz as Dr. Marta Shearing is a FLI (Forced Love Interest). This is her purpose for the most part. Of course, being Cross' kind-of-but-not-really doctor/scientist does help in the long run as she knows how to get him to places he needs to go so he doesn't go into crazy withdrawal from the pills he's been taking.

Edward Norton is the... antagonist? He's a government official who's name the audience probably hears, but will never remember. He does stuff and tries to clean up his mistakes. Edward Norton plays his character so similar to other characters he's played that one might believe he's just acting like Edward Norton.

There were very few other big name actors of note who had big parts in the film. The biggest annoyance was that the motorcycle chase seemed to last forever! Then the movie just stops abruptly without resolution (probably due to a promised sequel). If one looks at the Jason Bourne series, all three of them are complete movies with a beginning, middle, and end - someone could watch the third without needing to see the first or the second. It seems that this will not be so with Aaron Cross' run as secret rogue agent man.

The coolest thing, though, is how they treat Jason Bourne. He does not appear in this movie, but he has a constant presence - especially at the beginning - in the film. He is mentioned, pictures of him are shown in files and on television. This looming presence at least lets the audience know that this is the same world as the original Jason Bourne.

Despite all of this criticism, a Bourne lover will probably like or maybe hate this movie, and it really is a good, brainless action flick.

Grade: 3/5

Captain America: The First Avenger (On Netflix)

A great taste of the superhero 1940s world. Of course this is nothing like what actually happened in WWII. There was no Tesseract (how did Red Skull know what it was called in the first place? If I remember correctly, everyone called it the Cosmic Cube until someone corrected them.). Since Stark wasn't around, no one had massive weapons that we don't even have now.

Synopsis: During WWII, the United States creates a Super Soldier, Captain America, to help with the war effort and eventually to battle with Hydra and its leader Red Skull.

Chris Evans - who also played the Human Torch in the Fantastic 4 movies - is a stout-hearted Steve Rodgers an a strong Captain America. His character is constant, shy, humble, bashful, and self-sacrificing. The CGI with his thin body is sometimes distracting as it looks like his head is much bigger than his body at times, but it's not enough to ruin the film. Although there is little major character development due to the fact that there is a huge montage of battles that probably covers years, it is easy to see that through those fights Captain Rodgers gains a bit more confidence in his new body.

Hugo Weaving plays Red Skull (and evil Hugo Weaving). He's very much channeling his Agent Smith from The Matrix series. Red Skull's goal? Trying to take over/destroy the world. Of course! Hugo Weaving has tried this before with previous villains he has portrayed. Red Skull is a bit boring,  and not really threatening to the point of being campy. Casting an unknown or someone who has a little fame, but not enough to be globally known would have been better. Furthermore, why wasn't he speaking German to his German scientist? They used subtitles in Norway for Norwegian, why not German?

Sebastian Stan plays Bucky Barns, the best friend. It's a cliche part because of the movie trope that in war movies the best friend always dies. Since Bucky is absent through most of the movie and doesn't do much, there is not much to say about him. He seems to be a ladies' man and he flirts a bit, but those scenes are very few. Hopefully he will have a bigger part in the sequel, which probably takes place during the montage of battles in this movie.

Natalie Dormer plays Peggy Carter, who is the strong female type - and British for some reason. She is there to play the love interest. That's about it.

Tommy Lee Jones plays Colonel Chester Phillips (or Tommy Lee Jones or Agent K). He's hard core about the war, and it's obvious that he's tired and has seen far too much fighting. Philips probably participated at the end of WWI as well, which adds to his tiredness. This shows when he is forced to write letters of condolences to families on the home-front; he hates writing them and being the bearer of bad news.

Minor characters of note:

 Dominic Cooper plays Howard Stark. Being Robert Downey Jr.'s dad probably has its perks. Cooper definitely tries to channel a bit of RDJ's charisma (and succeeds in the scenes where it's used), but Howard seems to be much more put together and concentrated than Tony.

Toby Jones plays Dr. Armin Zola. He gives Red Skull weapons made from the Tesseract's energy. He also feels guilty that his creations are being used to destroy (well, duh, they're weapons and you gave them to a madman!). Since he also plays the Dream Lord in Doctor Who, it feels like the Tesseract weapons are really reminiscent of Dalek weapons.

Very tiny character parts:

Richard Armitage has a bit part as Heinz Kruger. He doesn't do much except be the gateway guardian (the first step into the actual plot/rising action) for Steve Rodgers.

Overall, the film was enjoyable.

Rating: 3/5