Renner makes a fine lead, but his character lacks the dry wit his other, more memorable characters have at their disposal such as Hawkeye and Brandt in Avengersand Mission: Impossible respectively, and can’t elicit sympathy in the way that Bourne’s amnesia allowed for. It’s as if there’s a fear people will forget the films are connected, but then it only makes you want to go back and watch the superior antics of the original trilogy.

When trying to judge the merits of Legacyas a standalone action thriller, things become increasingly difficult as a result of the substantial shadow that looms throughout in the form of both Bourne’s name and image, which becomes a constant point of reference to the point of distraction. Unbelievably for Hollywood there wasn’t even an attempt to use the easiest spin on the new leads’ name, why not Crossfire: The Bourne Legacy? Hardly original perhaps, but at least it wouldn’t have missold the film in quite the same way. The Bourne Legacyis the kind of label you’d expect to be on the boxset to surmise the original trilogy, not to name a film that has approximately zero Jason Bourne in.Īt the very least you’d expect Renner’s Aaron Cross to share the surname, since we discovered in Ultimatumthat Bourne was an alias anyway – Keith Bourne for example would have made a fine addition to the roster.

As a testament to that, let’s take a quick poll – without checking the internet, can anyone immediately remember what the name of Jeremy Renner’s character is? It’s trickier than it should be and it’s not helped, like the rest of the film, by the fact that he’s not called Bourne and therefore the film’s own title is a misnomer.

The core issue is that it’s simply quite forgettable.

Jason bourne movies.