The Seven is Just Being Nice

Rating: 7/10 (30 March 2013)

As a fan of the Bourne Trilogy (yes I'm standing by it, this film was that disappointing) I thought this film was another excuse just to make bank on the Bourne name before it became stale (Ultimatum was released in 2007 so it pushed the line). So when my father (the man who helped make me a fan of the series) asked me to see this with him, I was concerned about what I was going to see out of respect for him. Of course almost two hours later and they proved my theory to be correct and the list of flaws are endless. First off the plot.
Overall, the story itself wasn't that bad as it tells how the government recovered from the last film. Then we see Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) doing his thing and sadly, it doesn't make a lick of sense. It's obvious who he is but what he's doing and his interactions are poorly written at best. His story line was going in the right direction but like the rest of this film, just when things are going somewhere it falls flat. When he makes progress with his journey, it falls flat. Everything just falls flat. To give it credit, the connection with Rachael Weisz's character even makes sense and heck even how they ran into each other makes sense but unlike the films that precedes this one, it never picks up.
Then comes the action, the action sequences were average at best, none of the scenes were really intense with the exception of Matt Fewer's scene. This is what kept the last films as good as they were, once you saw Damon in action, you know it was for real.
Now the supporting characters, what made the Bourne trilogy so special was that the supporting characters were as well written and performed as Jason Bourne himself. This film like the last three followed the formula to the T. Ed Norton and Stacey Keach performed excellently as the government side of the show (we'll pretend that Norton didn't help give Keach this job due to American History X). Oscar Issacs did a good job as the Clive Owen of the film. Rachael Weisz, however, didn't perform as well as the rest of the crew and either it was from poor writing or just chemistry but it was obvious something was missing. But going back to the plot the characters just never seemed to connect and just when a breakthrough happens, the door closes and some no sense door opens which for me anyway ticked me off.
In conclusion, I don't want to say I'm shocked because of all the turmoil that made this movie happen. With Greengrass never being on board and Damon not being on board without Greeengrass, the signs were evident. Of course not wanting to disappoint a Studio Head, the film was green lighted anyway and it showed with the obviously rushed script. Even with the great performers in this film and the original Bourne director. Disaster couldn't be avoided and the only reason why this is a 7 and not a failure is that this film did go in the right direction and the effort was shown despite the disadvantages from the start.