This, for Gilroy, is what a Bourne film is supposed to be. The Bourne Legacy, then, serves as Gilroy’s riposte to Greengrass. His Bourne is, beyond the superficial manic plot devices, boring Gilroy’s Bourne, on the other hand, has real vitality and depth. Greengrass, on the other hand, does not practice a radical politics of critique and his Jason Bourne is an action hero who masterfully pilots vehicles, dodges security cameras and wins shoot-outs. For example, in Legacy, new protagonist Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) is nearly assassinated with a drone, which is, of course, the way that President Obama preferred to eliminate US enemies during his tenure. He is supposed to show the inherent violence of the US way of conducting business internationally. The character should be an avatar through which viewers can understand and critique the aggression of US foreign policy. While Greengrass’ version of Bourne is more exciting, Gilroy’s conception is better. By all accounts, Gilroy and Greengrass did not get along, to the point that Gilroy quit during the making of Ultimatum and his script was reworked. Paul Greengrass, meanwhile, who directed Supremacy, Ultimatum and the newest addition to the franchise, Jason Bourne (2016), represents the other half of the aesthetic: loud, over-the-top action sequences, faux-reality handheld camerawork and a rapid cutting style. Gilroy represents one-half of the Bourne aesthetic: namely, stylish location shoots and a sharp geopolitical edge that remains ever critical of US foreign policy. Legacy is written and directed by Tony Gilroy, who also wrote Identity and Supremacy (he also technically has a writing credit for Ultimatum, but more on that in a moment). But castigating The Bourne Legacy for these reasons is missing the ways in which the film perpetuates the legacy, if you will excuse the pun, of the Bourne trilogy in a positive and effective manner. Its lackluster reception is attributable to many factors that work together to make a strong case against the film: there is no Matt Damon, Bush was no longer president in 2012 and the chaotic cinematic stylings of the Damon-led films are not present here. The follow-up film in the series, The Bourne Legacy, has been unfairly maligned and not treated with the same devotion as the original trilogy. They stand, then, almost as an historical document, declaring that this is what culture was like in the Bush years.
They featured a disillusioned military hero pushing back against a US government that had run off the rails in the early days of the War on Terror and told his story through shaky handheld cinematography and frenzied cutting. The Bourne trilogy of films- The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum-reflected both the politics and filmmaking styles of their time.
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