Waking sleeping dogs, without living up to its titular legacy

Rating: 6/10 (17 August 2012)

Following the conclusion of Ultimatum(which is not followed up on, instead they undo the resolution, with a potential promise of getting into it in a sequel to this spin-off... something I am not interested in at all, as this is such a disappointment, and in general adds nothing in particular to the franchise), once this finally gets going about halfway through, this has Aaron Cross(Jeremy Renner, who(admittedly unlike the pretty Matt Damon, whose presence, however, is sorely missed throughout) looks like he's been through something brutal, and who has the intensity, if not quite the charisma, to play a role like this... and the charisma between our two leads is better, if still not compelling; he is vulnerable and he doesn't feel psychic as the old lead did at times, instead, in fact, things do not work out perfectly for him each time, with him having to improvise(not only plan), something that could invigorate these if it wasn't surrounded by such hefty fail) and Dr. Marta Shearing(Rachel Weisz, who is sort of a stand-in for Franka Potente, and this really feels like a retread of Identity... with that said, she's quite good, and in general the acting is great... everyone supposed to be working for spy organizations come off as professional) run and hide from the killers sent(to keep the operations a secret) by the CIA, led by a slightly underperforming(which means, still fantastic) Edward Norton spinning around himself barking orders that you try to comprehend to a room full of techies and monitors(get used to that, by the way... we're stuck there for maybe 60% of this). This is tense throughout, if there is an inordinate amount of plot(in a bloated movie that is half an hour longer than the others, simply because it's excessively complicated... in fact, the word "unnecessary" sums up this entire picture, produced simply because the others made money... at least they didn't bring back Jason, with his story being completely and satisfyingly closed), and yet, almost nothing actually happens. When this occasionally graces us with action, we get to see that Gilroy, unexpectedly, has a relatively solid handle on it. I am not fond of Greengrass' style of making us feel like we are in the midst of the chaos, with speedily cut, tight, shaky-cam shots making up the coverage. In this, like back in the original film, we can follow what happens, without it being less exciting. The martial arts sequences are especially cool. There are shootouts. The climax is a fun chase, however, even on the edge of my seat during it, I could not help but note its similarity to Terminator 2(and it wasn't the first thing in this), and at times, this really comes off as a mainstream Hollywood flick, a sad fall for this series. This gets into sci-fi elements, for no discernible reason(why drugs to control the agents? Controlled psychological and physical trauma is more convincing), and in general loses a lot of the credibility its predecessors had. Why not, then, just cut the ties, lose the Bourne name, why go for realism(as it does) when you don't follow through? Stunts and the like were pushed to the limit of what we can believe over the course of the three that came before this, and thus, with this escalating it further, it goes into levels where we do not buy what we are looking at happening in our world. There is a little violence, not graphic though sometimes disturbing, and mild to moderate language in this. I recommend this only to those who will not be comparing it to the others, and urge them to be prepared that this is largely talk, and hoping to get more made. Don't reward their lack of effort, please. Vote with your wallet. 6/10