After “The Avengers” grossed several jillion dollars, Jeremy Renner is ready for his next assignment. And a brand new trailer for “The Bourne Legacy” shows that he’s in fine form as the heir to Matt Damon’s smash spy saga.
The new trailer begins just like the first one, before veering off into new territory, offering a bit more of the plot and highlighting some of the upcoming film’s bone-crunching action. Jason Bourne (Damon — glimpsed on a TV news report) is name-checked several times, just so you don’t forget about him once Renner kicks things into high gear.
After events in the previous three films set things in motion, the enigmatic Treadstone project is cleaning house and agent/assassin Aaron Cross (Renner) teams with a hot lab rat (Rachel Weisz) to elude the higher-ups played by “Bourne” veterans David Strathairn, Joan Allen and Scott Glenn, plus newcomer Edward Norton (old Hulk meets Hawkeye!).
The action (especially some extreme urban motorbiking) and the high-stakes courtroom drama aspects look top-notch, but there must be more to it than yet another compromised agent on the run. The previous trilogy unfolded like a mystery, with Bourne suffering from amnesia and gradually discovering the secrets behind his own identity and that of the CIA’s Operation Treadstone. Here, things seem more straightforward. It almost feels more like an extended coda to the initial trilogy rather than the beginning of a new one.
Other new additions to the series include Oscar Isaac (“Drive”) and the formidable Stacy Keach (“American History X”).
Tony Gilroy, who wrote the previous installments, directed the film which expands the universe created by author Robert Ludlum.
“The Bourne Legacy” opens nationwide August 3.
What do you think of the trailer? Are you ready for Renner in more “Bourne,” or were the Damon movies enough on their own?