E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Jeremy Renner is a new superagent in "The Bourne Legacy."
Break open the champagne bottles and put on your bulletproof vests: the "Bourne" films are back.
And with the release of the first trailer for the fourth installment in the series, "The Bourne Legacy," it looks like we're set for even more stylish cinematography, jittery camera angles and lots of fist-punching good times from our favorite agent-who-forgot-he-was-an-agent.
Oh, wait: Matt Damon isn't in this one. This time, it's "Hurt Locker's" Jeremy Renner taking over the hard-hitting duties as a new character, and while it doesn't show him transforming into a brainwashed dead-eyed killer as clearly as Damon did in the first three installments (the last one, "The Bourne Ultimatum," came out in 2007), he effectively sells his superagent role.
Renner is Aaron Cross -- though he gives a different name at the start of the trailer -- and we're given short close-ups that hint at the menace to come, including new-to-the-series Ed Norton getting Renner to confirm that there's nothing he wouldn't do for his country, and Albert Finney appearing to take on the doughy-faced master-architect role Brian Cox memorably vacated in "The Bourne Supremacy."
But there are some returning names and faces. Agent-training project Treadstone gets a name-drop and Joan Allen (as the sympathetic Pamela Landy) gets a quick mention, so even fans upset that Damon hung up his laser sight should feel right at home.
"He's Treadstone without the inconsistencies," says one character referring to Renner -- which seems to indicate that yet again, this government organization thinks they can control their own human weapons. As we've learned before, that's usually a mistake.
Sounds promising -- and look, they didn't call it "Bourne Again," so that's a huge plus.
"Bourne Legacy" is slated to premiere in theaters on Aug. 3.
What did you think of the trailer? Will you see "The Bourne Legacy"? Tell us on Facebook.
Related content:
- Jeremy Renner's pal hit with axe in bar brawl
- 'Bourne' animosity: Matt Damon slams writer
- February movies: Good, bad, and the weird