THE BOURNE LEGACY: TORNA LA POPOLARE SAGA SPIONISTICA CON LA 'NEW ENTRY' JEREMY RENNER

Tony Gilroy si appropria delle storie di Robert Ludlum su Jason Bourne, già alla base di alcuni adattamenti cinematografici popolarissimi con Matt Damon, e costruisce una nuova storia parallela nella quale delinea una cospirazione ancora più pericolosa e devastante di quella concepita dallo scrittore. Scopriamo così che il Bourne non era unico e solo, ma c’erano anche altri che avevano la sua stessa funzione, tra cui Aaron Cross. Su questa base si crea il primo capitolo di una nuova serie di film, una sorta di spin-off cinematografico. Così, un altro pastiche di azione e complotto dal costo esorbitante di milioni di dollari, che si rivela altalenante nella meccanica narrativa concepita da Gilroy, che scrive con il fratello Dan alternando tanta azione – e meno male che c’è altrimenti in due ore e un quarto suonate si morirebbe dalla noia – e qualche retaggio psicologico e fantascientifico di banale intuizione. Cospirazione

governativa e scienza al servizio del crimine risulta sempre un binomio inattaccabile che si amalgama come si deve in qualsiasi costruzione spionistica che si rispetti, che sia un James Bond o un romanzo di John Le Carré. Ma in questo caso Gilroy dimostra – come al solito aggiungeremmo - di non essere molto in grado di tenere desta l’attenzione dello spettatore in un crescendo adrenalinico che si schianta al suolo come un aereo che ha finito carburante, perché quel che maggiormente manca a questo The Bourne Legacy è una regia intuitiva e una sceneggiatura di ferro, che, come in Michael Clayton e Duplicity, sono entrambe prive di originalità e a conti fatti mediocri.

L’ottimo e altisonante cast è di conseguenza male utilizzato - un dolore di cuore sprecare così Edward Norton, Rachel Weisz, come in tutti i suoi ultimi lavori, è scialba - mentre Jeremy Renner, che è sicuramente interprete

di maggior valore dell’insignificante, in tutti i sensi, Matt Damon, anche se qui ha poche possibilità di dimostrarlo, è comunque straordinario nel tessere il ruolo dell’eroe inquieto. Restano le lodi agli stuntman e al montaggio, che si rivela in questi casi sempre efficace nelle scene di inseguimento e grazie al quale si può dire che Gilroy fa bella figura nella direzione della lunga sequenza fra i tetti, i vicoli e le strade delle Filippine. Lì l’attenzione si desta, il valore del film può limitarsi a quella scena, ma in una storia dove non c’è storia (è talmente esile che non si nota) la durata di oltre due ore non può che essere una fatica immane per chiunque.

Jason Bourne is nowhere to be found in "The Bourne Legacy." Instead, the villains' storyline continues as ruthless government agencies try to decommission an entire line of Bourne-like super-soldiers, but fail to eliminate one: Aaron Cross, an agent whose name is far punchier than his personality. Subbing character actor Jeremy Renner into a franchise that requires Matt Damon-caliber magnetism, series scribe Tony Gilroy takes over the helming duties with an overlong sequel that features too little action and an unnecessarily complicated plot. Fans will come, but they won't be happy, as if paying for a Bond movie and getting a 002 adventure in return.

After director Paul Greengrass walked away and Damon declined to reprise his most popular character, the producers were left with a sizable challenge, the sort creator Robert Ludlum clearly never faced in his novels. Rather than risk recasting the role, the filmmakers tapped Gilroy (who had written

all three prior installments) to create a fresh agent in Bourne's image, introducing Renner's character with the tagline "There was never just one."

But Gilroy is a different kind of director from Doug Liman and Greengrass, less interested in explosions than in the mechanics of the bomb. Putting him in charge amplifies the backroom dealings (this time, it's Edward Norton running the show from a Virginia-based crisis suite), to the detriment of the scenes featuring the franchise's new protagonist.

Aaron Cross (Renner) belongs to a companion program, Outcome, similar to Bourne's Treadstone, except that its genetically modified operatives are controlled by means of two pills: The blue capsules boost brain functioning, while the green ones improve their physical performance. When the supply runs out, the agents regress to their unmodified state, a prospect unappealing enough that Cross, trained to assassinate at the CIA's whim, will kill to continue his dosage.

To get more drugs, Cross must locate Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), who barely survived a brutal workplace shooting in a scene that would be disturbing enough without Aurora, Colo., still fresh in the mind. Theatrical line readings aside, Shearing behaves realistically under pressure, fighting off panic while Cross tries to protect her until the very end, when the film gives her a chance to assert her own survival instinct.

Though the espionage genre traditionally favors action, Gilroy is clearly more of a blue-pill kind of guy, having actively resisted standard spy-movie cliches since the series' beginning. But the helmer pushes too far in the opposite direction here, resisting an opening-scene adrenaline rush and supplying clues in stingy portions more likely to frustrate than to flatter auds' intelligence. Indeed, half an hour unspools before the action kicks in, and longer than that before things start to make sense.

Renner features

throughout the first act, but his hazy character has been dispatched to remote Alaska on an ambiguous training exercise. While Cross slogs through the snow, Norton's cold-blooded power broker, Eric Byer, cleans up the mess exposed by Bourne, whose one-man vendetta compromised not only not only Treadstone but Outcome as well.

In "The Bourne Identity," the hero's amnesia mirrored that pic's way of dispensing information, effectively putting auds in Bourne's shoes. Repeated on a character with a functioning memory, the approach feels like a tease, as Gilroy's script (co-written with brother Dan) not only withholds crucial exposition, but wrongfully assumes that auds will automatically care about Bourne's replacement.

Renner comes across as less immediately compelling than Damon, partly because it takes so long for the story to focus on Cross, and though the actor portrays a man in turmoil, the film fails to get inside his head. Outside, photos of

Bourne flash by on surveillance monitors or clipped to files, suggesting that a more interesting film -- namely, "The Bourne Ultimatum" -- is unfolding elsewhere at the same time. Series regulars Albert Finney, Joan Allen and David Strathairn cycle by in the background, but this installment is wedded to the fate of Outcome.

An around-the-world montage introduces the program's five other agents, whose mix of races and genders might have been intriguing, had Byer not succeeded in snuffing them out so quickly. These assassins typically work alone, which makes for a tense meeting when Cross encounters his first fellow Outcome agent (Oscar Isaac).

Unlike Bourne, Cross knows what he is and can fairly deduce who might be trying to kill him, but his top priority is finding a way to "viral out," relying on Shearing to administer the serum that will make his enhancements permanent. To do so, they must

travel to Manila, where "The Bourne Legacy" finally decides to become a Bourne movie, clumsily trying to squeeze as much action into the final reel as possible. If the filmmakers hope to carry on with Cross, they will have to rethink what auds expect from the character, offering more confrontation and less conspiracy.

Gilroy reassembles much of his "Michael Clayton" team, relying on composer James Newton Howard to help goose the energy. The combination of Robert Elswit's elegant widescreen lensing and the measured editing by Gilroy's brother John may be easier to absorb than Greengrass' hyperkinetic docu-based style, but the pic's convoluted script ensures that auds will emerge no less overwhelmed.