The Bourne Legacy

Most of the Hollywood studios these days are obsessed with franchises. Which leads to a reboot when the central talent of a series decides to leave.
I have not been much of a fan of the Bourne series. While I loved 'The Bourne Identity', I made the really dumb mistake of reading 'The Bourne Supremacy' before watching the movie. The only similarity between the book and the film was that they had the same title and a character called Jason Bourne. This was something I never quite understood. The plot of the book was far superior to the film. It was really clever and thrilling. Why would you go to all the trouble of buying a series of books and only use them for the title? In that film and 'The Bourne Ultimatum' I thought they were decent films and nothing more. They had good action scenes but the plot was very ordinary. It was then with very low expectations that I went to see 'The Bourne Legacy'.
Rebooting a series can be a tricky business. You need to come up with a sensible way to continue the story that has already reached a natural finish. Writer/ director Tony Gilroy has managed to come up with a really good way to keep the Treadstone story going. I found myself enjoying this film a lot more than I expected. The plot is more complex than previous films and is all the better for it. I was continually surprised by the many plot twists that Tony had come up with for Alex Cross to over come. I felt there was a great deal more intelligence in the plotting. The action scenes I enjoyed more too as they were less chaotic and more easy to follow. I am also a huge fan of motorcycle chases and this film features an excellent one. 
Jeremy Renner has become the go-to-guy for action hero films these days. He seems to be everywhere. The character of Alex Cross is very serious minded so that suit Jeremy very well. He is not a cheery fellow. Alex is someone who has been genetically engineered too be a soldier and so comes across as very emotionless and that suits Jeremy. I was a little bit disappointed with Rachel Weisz. Her character does not have all that much to do except be Jeremy's side-kick and she does not do much to make her character unique. I was pleased with Edward Norton's performance. He does not play the role in a nasty way which is how it could have been done. Although he is the 'bad guy' of the film, Edward does not play the character that way and you come to like him. 
It is good to see an intelligent action thriller these days. I perhaps enjoyed this more than I expected because of the low expectations.