Secret agents in the snow is always a good idea.

Rating: 9/10 (8 June 2013)

If there are going to be secret agents there should always be snow. It should be law. The best moments of James Bond (or even True Lies) for me are always on skis or otherwise messing about in the snow. Perhaps it's the extra danger of being so exposed to the elements, that if they stub a toe or hit their knuckles on a tree it will reeeeaaaaly hurt in the cold. Even George Clooney's "The American" starts out with an effective murderous opening around a wilderness cabin (...actually I'm now not sure it was snowing in that one or if I've subconsciously inserted the snow into my memory of the scene to accord it with my sensibility). Anyway, The Bourne Legacy has got the snow in so we're immediately off to a good start.
I saw this film on a plane and managed to really enjoyed it, so it must be EVEN BETTER than for just the presence of secret agents and snow. The last Bourne movie (#3) was really starting to wind down with too much repetition so I was not looking forward to this one and skipped it at the cinema. Then Matt Damon not being involved also seemed like confirmation that this movie would be a poor effort by a movie studio desperately wringing the last few bucks out of a dying franchise.
Turns out, however, that abandoning the original character was a great way to widen the universe of story/premise and really get creative. I most enjoyed the scene with the post-trauma counsellors. Great stuff from writer/director Tony Gilroy and some really "proper" actors (even a surprise cameo from Kenny the Aussie toilet cleaner guy) in this fresh "reboot" of a movie (though technically not a reboot). So there.