The Bourne Legacy: Movie Review

2012 looks set to become the year of the re-booted franchise. Last month, the webbed wonder made his return to the big screen (but this time with Andrew Garfield as The Amazing Spiderman). Fans of The Dark Knight Rises will know Joseph Gordon-Levitt is likely to be wearing a cape soon, instead of Christian Bale. And now Jeremy Renner will pick up the mantle of programmed killer from Matt Damon as the curtain parts on The Bourne Legacy.

Renner stars as Aaron Cross, a marine recruited during Operation Iraqi Freedom to take part in a special defense project. While Bourne was manipulated psychologically to become a conscienceless killer, the CIA dosed Cross with DNA altering drugs to enhance his skills as an intelligence asset. The fiasco that develops from the conclusion of The Bourne Ultimatum envelops Cross’s program as well. Enter Edward Norton as the retired Colonel Eric Byer, the man charged with cleaning the slate. Byer decides to eliminate all evidence of the government’s experimentation, beginning with the human elements. Cross quickly finds himself on the run with program scientist Dr Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz) – and the clock is ticking. If Byer’s cleanup doesn’t kill him, Cross will fall victim to the very drugs that enhance his abilities.

Who defines right and wrong?

The Bourne Legacy is a considered foundation for what is obviously going to be a new cycle of films. Director Tony Gilroy lacks the European sensibility that Doug Liman injected into the original Bourne series but the characters are engaging and it’s early days yet. What it certainly preserves is the familiar ‘secret pragmatics’ formula that made author Robert Ludlum’s series so compelling. The government is once again trying to carry off a good result with bad methods. Norton’s character draws on a Christian illustration in order to try and justify the idea that evil can be excusable:

“Do you know what a sin eater is? We take the morally questionable and bury it way down deep … we are morally indefensible and absolutely necessary.”

But the audience knows that nothing can really be that necessary. Governments don’t get to redefine right and wrong for the sake of expediency - the detention of child immigrants behind razor wire in Australia proved that. However The Bourne Legacy goes further than political accountability, agreeing with the Bible that we can all be held accountable not only for what we’ve done wrong but what we might have done right. Cross castigates Dr Shearing for designing the drugs that fundamentally changed who he was and now threaten his life:

Cross: “Who tells you this is OK?”
Shearing: “I just do the research!”
Cross: “You just load the gun?”

The Bourne Legacy is first and foremost an espionage thriller, but it adds a moral sharpness to its cutting-edge action. The film insists that the first consequence of making mistakes is admitting ownership of those mistakes. An admiral overseeing the CIA’s human trials reminds an executive that evading responsibility won’t help them find a solution:

“Your people were given a Ferrari and you treated it like a lawnmower. You break it, you bought it. It was ever thus.”

That’s a remarkably accurate description of where we stand in God’s world. If we’ve disregarded the Maker’s instructions and brought down ruin on ourselves, healing can’t begin before we acknowledge our responsibility. We broke it – we bought it. Now all we can do is ask God to fix it.

Watching The Bourne Legacy with your kids

Jason Bourne and Aaron Cross both face the same moral dilemma – where does the responsibility for your actions begin and end? Fathers and sons sitting through The Bourne Legacy might want to consider:

• Governments have to act to protect their citizens, but does ‘safety’ justify every action?
• Does Aaron Cross feel sorry for the things he’s done? Why – wasn’t he acting under orders?
• Are there ‘broken’ things that God hold us responsible for?

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