Should be held up as an example of how dedicatedly good actors can almost redeem a pointless, badly written film.

Rating: 3/10 (13 August 2012)

Pointless entry into the Bourne series finds Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz taking over where Matt Damon left off in a sequel that lacks not only a real purpose to exist but lacks a script that can justify the movie as a continuation of the series. Tony Gilroy (who had a hand in screen writing the original three films) writes and directs this entry but forgets the showmanship and grace that Paul Greengrass and Doug Liman brought to the series, not to mention the solid storytelling that came with their efforts. Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz tried their best with the weak material Gilroy provides for them and they almost succeed, giving the audience something to care for but they are fighting an uphill battle against cliché one dimensional characters, dismal screen writing, a running time that needed to be edited down and amateurish direction that does no one any favors. The rest of the cast barely registers at all and the action is not even on the same level of the other films in the series.
If any blame should go around, it should go squarely to Tony Gilroy and his brothers, who seem like they had no idea on what the hell they were doing and in the process, wasted the time of two great actors (Renner and Weisz) who are working beyond what is necessary to give the fans the respect they deserve for staying with the series. This was a hard thing to do considering that they are working with nothing in terms of support.