The Bourne Legacy

1½ Pipes out of 4

The action remains but the heart is gone. With Matt Damon removed from the Bourne series the logic and investment held by the audience has disappeared as well. Jeremy Renner attempts to continue the franchise made famous by Damon and puts forth a good effort but is not given a whole lot to work with plot wise. Renner is in the difficult part of his career where he has been pigeon holed and type casted as the next action star so was the logical choice for Damon’s replacement. This is a problem when the Bourne films have developed into more than just action films but acting and action films. It also does not help that the audience has built an emotional attachment to Jason Bourne only to have a fourth film that has almost nothing to do with him. There is the occasional reference to Bourne as being in New York with a news clip about his exploits but little more than that. For the most part of the film the audience is following the exploits of Aaron Cross, a bioengineered super soldier who is betrayed by his government. He then must go and rescue a doctor (Rachel Weisz) who has been overseeing his bioengineering who coincidentally has also been betrayed by the government. This then leads to the main plot of the film which actually appeared to be a sub plot but turned into the main which leaves the viewer incredibly disappointed at the end of the film because they were expecting more. The rest of the film follows a government official (Edward Norton) who is never really explained, only that he has top security clearance and he is in charge of the numerous programs spawned from Treadstone and Blackbriar. He is attempting to clean up the mess left by Jason and that means killing both Renner and Wiesz’s characters. The writer and director Tony Gilroy who also wrote the previous 3 Bourne films stated he likes that being the director means he gets to do the film his way but maybe he needed that input to make the movies good because  The Bourne Legacy doesn’t even come close to the other three films.

Moonrise Kingdom

3 pipes out of 4

The hidden kingdom of Moonrise has been found by millions of audiences and is easily the dark horse movie of the summer. Wes Anderson combines an all star cast of Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton and Frances McDormand to introduce Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman, the title characters who are the stereotypical oddballs who don’t fit in with their families.  The film is the epitome of cheesy which makes it all the more amazing. Instead of unintentional cheesy, the director takes every opportunity available to cheesify the film, such as most of the sets look as if they are on a stage. There is no attempt to make the film look like real life and actually goes through effort to remove the realness for instance calling Tilda Swinton’s character Social Services and no actual name. Through the use of awkward situations and interactions between characters and the stiff portrayal of the two children Suzy and Sam brings comedy throughout the film. With the introduction of Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman only Kara showed range and the ability to possibly expand on her career but both fulfill their roles for the film masterfully. Moonrise is not the movie for everyone, action is scarce and Jared Gilman develops his characters through lengthy dialogue and somewhat confusing flashbacks. Anderson often reverses the roles of the adults with the children giving the youth adult characteristics and the adults’ youthful stupidity.