Review: The Bourne Legacy

When I first heard about The Bourne Legacy and that the director and many of the same actors would be involved, I will admit I was elated.  Then I felt the project was bulletproof with the additions of Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, MI4) and Edward Norton (the man who re-wrote The Incredible Hulk script because he didn't want to be a part of something that was less than perfect).  Then, I saw that they slated an August release for it, the month where they release movies that have a blockbuster budget but the studios lost faith in. Ruh-Roh.  I just brushed that off.  There's no way that a movie with all these talented people could be August-worthy.  It must be a coincidence, right?

SYNOPSIS
The plot takes place during the same basic time frame as The Bourne Ultimatum.  Another recruit (Jeremy Renner) of the secret CIA program known as Black Brier finds himself being hunted by the said same group.  He teams up with a doctor that has helped him before to find out why they want him dead.

THE GOOD
The action scenes are almost flawless.  They are on par with what we expect from a Bourne movie.  It was wonderfully shot. The acting was wonderful on all counts.

THE BAD
The problem with this movie is that there was no third act.  It ends abruptly with almost no resolution and no hint of a sequel.  It's not even a cliffhanger!  It just ends in an awful place, story-wise. When they started playing the definitive end-of-a-Bourne-movie song (Extreme Ways by Moby), I loudly proclaimed in the middle of a full theater 'You've got to be kidding me!' @RaySubers said that there were rumors that the 3rd act had problems early on in the development of the script and in shooting.  I consider that an understatement: I honestly believe that they just skipped the third act entirely and tried to end it in the least painful place possible.

CONCLUSION
I despised this movie.  My hatred of it is probably spawned from my high expectations, but this movie shouldn't be included in the Bourne Saga.  2/5 Stars.

Let me know what you thought of the review or the movie in the comments!