Another Bourne-like movie

Rating: 7/10 (27 August 2012)

Aaron Cross (played by Jeremy Renner) is a Jason Bourne-like super spy who gets caught up in the middle of the agency's violent and unexpected elimination of his programme. His programme (Outcome) is associated with the Treadstone programme (which, as we know from the last Bourne movie, is finished). Yes, he's survived, but his main concern is to retrieve more chems so that he can maintain his enhanced condition. No programme, no chems. So he finds Dr Marta Shearing (played by Rachel Weisz) to assist him with this. Will they succeed?
This film is enjoyable enough. It's similar to the other movies in this genre.
To me Jeremy Renner is an exciting actor. He specialises in tough. However, there is something about him that makes it difficult for me to empathise with him. A lack of vulnerability or something. Rachel Weisz remains the awesome actress I fell in love with when she played Hypatia in Agora. (Now there is a movie...)
My main problem is with the genre. We don't get spies and spy agencies anymore. Every spy is a super spy. Every agency is armed to the teeth with mind-blowing technology. The Bourne movies, the new Bond movies, Safe House and so on -- they're all like this now.
I suppose I've reached the point where I no longer enjoy movies that are based primarily on shootouts and chases, technology and superheroes.
In the movies in this new genre the security agency involved has incredible technology allowing them to visually track pretty well anything in the world. They can find any information they need in seconds. They have instant access to data bases you didn't even know existed.
They can do anything really. Instantly accessible CCTV, the internet, facial recognition software, and telephone tapping all play a huge role in these movies. These agencies now have miraculous, almost godlike powers.
There are always flunkies sitting at screens and then an intense man or hard-nosed woman standing around shouting orders at everyone. Put me though to Langley! (In this movie this role is played by Ed Norton.)
These agencies seem to have endless cash and will not hesitate for a second to do anything. Fly a team to Zurich! Deploy the jets to Zambia! Send out the drones!
To buy into these movies, you have to believe governments are routinely bamboozling the media and the politicians and spending hordes of cash on secret programmes. It's all a little too paranoid for me.
Moreover, in these movies the agents often have superhuman intellectual and physical abilities, far beyond that of trained athletes and martial arts experts. They jump from roof to roof, get injured in the knee, smash their heads against doors -- and yet press on. They all fight like Bruce Lee, although you never see them spending hours in training. They can fly airplanes, drive like stunt men, do daredevil tricks with motorcycles. They have superb memories, training in explosives and computers, and knowledge on how to disarm nuclear weapons. These people are not only highly trained, super fit, super smart sharpshooters trained in martial arts and computers to an unearthly level, but they're also sort of invulnerable. They're superheros really. (In this movie, at least they try to explain it.)
And of course there's always a rogue element: it's always the case that someone has become, will become, or is suspected of being, not what he seems. The viewer is invited in virtually every film to try to figure out the twist. In a spy agency you can't trust anyone, can you. It's almost a rule now. Nothing is as it seems.
Usually someone is on the run.
These films are a combination of the "Spy" and "Superhero" or "Martial Arts" genre, but with "Science Fiction" technology thrown in. And the rogue element has some of the "Mystery" genre in it. Also, in these American films there are almost always intense shoot outs and chase scenes. Everything happens very fast. Lots of crazy driving, crashes and near death escapes. That makes them "Action" films. And of course they're shot in "Exotic Locations".
I know it's corny but I refer to these movies as "MASSFLAMES" movies (based on the acronyms for the genres listed above.)
All these movies seem the same to me, including this one. However, it's pretty good and if you like this kind of film I'm sure you'll love this one.