The Bourne Legacy - C+

Rated PG-13, 135 minutes

Entertaining but convoluted "Bourne Legacy"

Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross

There are a couple of things you should know about the new action film "The Bourne Legacy": one it has the Jason Bourne name, and two there's no Jason Bourne (or Matt Damon). It's essentially a Bourne movie without Bourne, and that's not the only confusing thing about the film, which takes the same name as Eric Van Lustbader's novel of the same name, which continued the Bourne saga without author Robert Ludlum (and does have Jason Bourne in it). "The Bourne Legacy" essentially introduces us to a new hero, Aaron Cross (played by Jeremy Renner), who is in the midst of being hunted down after the CIA decides to terminate its black ops program after Jason Bourne essentially destroys it through Operation Blackbriar. However, as Cross is on the run he meets a fellow scientist (Rachel Weisz) and they discover additional details that could threaten all CIA operatives. Entertaining but muddled, "The Bourne Legacy" isn't so much a sequel but a spinoff of a new character, similar to when Florida broke from Maude and started "Good Times," just not as funny. Tony Gilroy ("Michael Clayon") takes over the directing and writing duties from Paul Greengrass, who so proficiently helmed two of the other "Bourne" movies, and it's a less satisfying ride than those other films. Gilroy is a solid director and Renner is a nice action star, but he lacks the charm of Damon, which is not necessarily his fault but the confusing story; the script takes too long to lay out the real plot, with interweavings of prior plot points that could serve just to confuse fans of the original "Bourne" series not to mention scenes of Cross in training. Gilroy could've given a simple nod to the original series and moved forward with an entirely new story (and a Bourne-less title since he doesn't appear here), which would've worked better with half-and-half they have here. There are some enjoyable moments and plenty of explosions, but you may not have a clear sense of what's going until the energetic finale, and all along it's clear it's Renner vs. Edward Norton, as the clear bad guy here. Most of the cast from the previous movies appear, including David Straitharn, Joan Allen, Albert Finney and Scott Glenn, all who have a few decent moments in a largely unmemorable film. "The Bourne Legacy" isn't a terrible film by any means and it should be at least a modest hit, and it leaves the door open for more of these, but they'd do themselves a favor by divorcing themselves from the Bourne name.