Category: Theaters

The Bourne Legacy is a 2012 movie directed by Tony Gilroy.  It is the first Bourne movie not to star Matt Damon in the lead role, or any role for that matter, instead it follows Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross.  The movie is okay, which is a shame because I feel like it could have been so much better.

The movie starts out with Aaron Cross up in the Alaskan wilds tracking down red canisters or something it is never really explained.  While in the wilds we learn that the old the projects surrounding Jason Bourne are being shut down, and if you are a super-agent that means that they are going to kill you.  Cross doesn’t want to be killed, so he fights back and enlists the help of one of the doctors who created the super spies Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz) to help him, and then they run from the CIA.

The movie is a pretty basic chase movie.  The CIA wants Cross and Shearing dead, so they run.  There is no other real motivation than that, but the problem is that chase movies are supposed to be tense tightly edited action movies, and The Bourne Legacy is not.  It takes its time to explain the behind the scenes of the CIA Bourne programs, and to talk about Jason Bourne like you always just missed him.  He almost haunts this movie like he is just around the corner.  It takes the wind out of the sails of this movie, and it wastes the talents of all the great actors they got in the various roles.

The actors are all good, and they do what they can with script, but it just seems like they wasted an opportunity to tell a good spy movie in the Bourne Universe with a spy that actually knows what he can do and how to do it, but instead they just gave us another chase movie because apparently that is what Bourne movie are.

The director frames the action well, and when the movie is focusing on the leads it is good, but he needed a better editor.  It was only two hours and ten minutes long but it felt like at least two and a half.  It needed someone to pick up the tempo to add tension, but instead they waste time to tell you back story about something you barely remember anyway.

I am being a little hard on this movie, and for what it is it is passible entertainment.  I just get upset with the fact if they had a little more ambition it could have been really good.  The movie did well enough that they have started a sequel, so maybe now that Cross’s story has been setup they can make something fun.

 

I don’t have anything to talk about today, so I am just going to post the trailer for the new Hayao Miyazaki movie The Wind Rises.  I don’t speak Japanese, but I still understood the trailer, so I am sure that you will be able to too. It looks great, and sad.  We may have another Graveyard of the Fireflies on our hands.

I have soft spot in my heart for westerns and samurai movies since they are thematically very similar.  They very rarely get made anymore, and when they do we get the Lone Ranger, so when I heard they were making a Japanese Unforgiven I was interested, but now after watching the trailer below I am blown away.  I need US release information now!

Ever once in a great while I get the feeling that movie producers green lit a project just for me, and Pacific Rim is one of those movies.  For those of you that do not know Pacific Rim is the giant robot versus giant monster movie came out this weekend.  It is written and directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth).

A giant rift in space has opened up and monsters called Kaiju are coming through, and to destroy the Kaiju the world has created Jaegers, giant robots to destroy the threat.  The Jaegers take so much brain power to control that it needs two pilots to join their minds using ‘the rift’ that lets you see all the other pilots memories.  Usually family are used due to them already understanding each other.  The movie follows one such pilot Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam), and his rookie co-pilot Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) as they try to beat the crap out of the Kaiju that want to destroy our world.

This film features a lot of action movie tropes, the washed up pilot that needs to pull it together, the young dangerous rookie that could be something special, the jerky top pilot that worries the other guys are going to get him killed, and many more.  Usually that would be a downside for me, but del Toro uses them with such glee that it is more of an homage then lazy writing.  Because he actually does tell a decent story through it all with some good characterization, but he knows we were all in that theater for one thing, and that is some awesome monster battles, and this movie does not disappoint.

The monsters in this movie are massive, and while they all look similar in style, each one is different and has its own look, and just like the story the Kaiju are like a greatest hits of giant monsters, you will find all of your favorite city destroyers in there.  The robots are treated with equal love.  Each one seems like it was picked out of my favorite Japanese cartoon and delivered on screen, and when they clash, real movie magic happens.  This is a movie that needs to be seen in theaters.

The way he shot the movie was brilliant.  The scenes with humans are all nicely framed, but when he shoots the monsters or robots you get the feeling that he is craning the camera up, but he still can’t get tham all in one shot.  They are just too big.  It was the first time in a long time I wanted a bigger screen to try and fit these beast in, and yes I know that is not how movies work, but tell that to your brain as you watch the movie, or don’t, your brain is having a great vacation and it is best not to bother him.

The actors know their jobs.  This movie is not about them, but del Toro gives them fun lines, and good scenes to work in.  Ron Perlman, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman add the comedy as Hannibal Chau, Dr. Newton Geizler, and  Dr. Hermann Gottlieb respectively.  They are great and do not waste their screen time.  Idris Elba as Stacker Pentecost is as commanding as always, and I would following him to battle giant monsters any day.  Rinko Kikuchi and Charlie Hunnam do a good job leading this picture.

This movie is straight up fun, and it was designed to be.  It is refreshing not have some gritty down to earth story that the new Batman movies told all blockbusters that they need to be now.  No, this movie is an expression of joy, and it was Guillermo del Toro’s love letter to my thirteen year old self, and guess what del Toro, he loves you too!