Casino Royale worked hard, real hard, to earn the Bond, James Bond sting at the end. I still think that's a great way to sum up one's feelings about Legacy. I wish I could remember who it was, I'd give them credit here.
Someone once said to me, when we were talking about Legacy, that when Extreme Ways started playing they felt that the film hadn't earned that moment. The cast was fine, the action set pieces were fine, but the pessimism was nearly oppressive. Legacy might have made a fine spy thriller once all the Bourne connections are stripped from it.
Now, discuss amongst yourselves.Īn utter misstep in the direction of the franchise, The Bourne Legacy stripped the optimism and hope away from the preceding films and presented a world where not only were the evil bureaucrats winning, but all of the death and pain, all of the Bourne character's sacrifices of his body, of his mind, of his soul in the first three films, were for nothing. At the core of the argument would be this, without The Bourne Identity there is no Casino Royale. After fourteen years I still grin like an idiot when Bourne tells Marie to buckle up.Ī discussion of the influence of the Bourne trilogy on film would probably test the patience of most anyone who reads these things and could easily break ten thousand words. To oversimplify it, the Bourne trilogy is more fun and suspenseful and tension-filled than nearly every action film combined, before and after. And then Moby's Extreme Ways plays and the audience collectively smiles and the credits roll and the world is good and pure and the evil bureaucrats have been stopped.
Moments like that and Bourne's reliance on real world found objects to escape or to take down enemies or to subvert control from the people chasing him, add layers upon layers to an already more-than-enjoyable series of films. Another understated element in a film series just packed with them. Again, never overplayed, never the focus of the film. The subtle use of the David Webb persona in the films, the refusal to kill when not forced to, the grief and frustration when pushed to murder, the mystery of who is driving when Bourne finds himself in an unknown location. Joan Allen's Pam Landy's exasperation with David Strathairn's Noah Vosen's corporate speak and his constant use of the phrase "real time" is subtle and the actors and the director never draw attention to it, but that it is there on the screen, understated and underplayed, and so, so much fun to watch. Nearly every line of dialogue, every shot, every frame, every actor's choice is just about perfection. The tension and paranoia and stress are tangible. Each action set piece grows organically from the story, never do the films feel like they are servicing the stunts. The brilliance in the decision to overlap the second and third films, to show Bourne's journey in Ultimatum to that phone conversation with Pam Landy at the end of Supremacy, can never be overstated. The last shot in the third film ties in neatly and satisfactorily with the first shot in the first film. Hands down my favourite film trilogy, each film works as a stand alone film and as a chapter in a continuing story. Let's get this out the way first - the Bourne trilogy, Identity, Supremacy, and Ultimatum, is just about perfect.