The Bourne Legacy
Universal Pictures | Release Date: August 10, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 42 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
15
Negative:
3
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumAug 8, 2012
Renner's Cross is a conflicted hero built to take advantage of the "Hurt Locker" star's best qualities as an actor - his default intensity, the way he conveys that complicated mental calculations are taking place under cover of watchful stillness, even underwater. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn LevyAug 9, 2012
The result is a newly revived spy movie franchise -- and the best big-budget action film of the summer. Read full review
83
The PlaylistDrew TaylorAug 7, 2012
Viscerally, The Bourne Legacy packs a punch. If you're looking for a traditional sequel though, you'll probably be disappointed, but if it's a whole new ride you're after, you've come to the right place. Bourne has indeed been reborn. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAug 9, 2012
Complex, unexpected and dazzling, alternating relentless tension with resonant emotional moments, this is an exemplary espionage thriller that has a strong sense of what it wants to accomplish and how best to get there. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesAug 8, 2012
And yet, it works, so much so that after two and a quarter hours, I was startled – and not a little disappointed – when the closing credits kicked in. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 12, 2012
The globetrotting is reined in, the mayhem at each stop just as exciting. Renner is a sturdy action hero, with an interesting face that unlike Damon's appears to have taken a punch or two. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen ColeAug 10, 2012
Bourne fans will find much to enjoy about The Bourne Legacy, even if they are forced to do without the title character. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigAug 9, 2012
This latest Bourne doesn't send adrenaline surging the way "Ultimatum" did, but it's still a tense, well-acted thrill ride. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaAug 9, 2012
It's smart, it's exhilarating, and Gilroy's depiction of a high-tech world where our every move is captured by surveillance cams and Big Brother-types deploying the latest spyware feels authentic, and troubling. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 9, 2012
With The Bourne Legacy, Gilroy has brought characteristic taste and skill to a nearly impossible task: embracing the past without completely erasing it, thereby creating an invitingly complicated and open-ended future. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 9, 2012
It bodes well for the future of the franchise that Renner and Weisz share not only a gripping predicament but something more important: chemistry. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensAug 10, 2012
Thanks to Renner's smart, charismatic performance and a couple of elegant action sequences early on, The Bourne Legacy mostly holds its own as a late-summer thrill ride - but only if you're able to wipe your mind clean of the knowledge that it could have been something more. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 10, 2012
The best thing in Gilroy's "Michael Clayton" was the final scene between George Clooney and Tilda Swinton, the one in which the vise tightened click by click on Tilda. This is another vice-tightening sequence, but scary instead of triumphant, and with a long and explosive punch line. Finally, a sequence we can follow! After this, Gilroy owns us. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 9, 2012
A solid success, primarily though not entirely because of Jeremy Renner. He's a star worthy of the term as Aaron Cross, another haunted operative who, like Jason Bourne, is as much a victim of the government's dirty deeds as a covert super-agent. But the production is impressive too. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirAug 9, 2012
A lean, clean killing machine that supplies some dark, late-summer thrills and chills and breathes new life into a seemingly extinct franchise. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid DenbyAug 6, 2012
The new movie continues the "Bourne" tradition of exciting, reality-based thrillers, but when the series lost its star it lost most of is soul. [13 & 20 Aug. 2012, p.96]
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 12, 2012
Good at scenes of high-level nastiness, but there's too much confusing exposition in this "Legacy" and the action scenes, some of them good, are too little and too late. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasAug 8, 2012
Gilroy does the unforgivable by turning out a lean thriller at a fatty 135 minutes, mainly by making the conspiracy plot far more complicated than it needs to be. Read full review
65
MovielineAlison WillmoreAug 8, 2012
Like much of the movie, Norton's presence has a patient, diligent quality to it, as if what's on screen is just a slog to get through before some promised fun in the next installment. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 10, 2012
To really work, The Bourne Legacy either needed to turn the title character into a 007-type who can change his face or bring back Damon in some capacity, even if just for a cameo. Neither happens and that works to the movie's detriment. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 9, 2012
Gilroy stages two riveting shootouts involving Marta at work and home. And there's a killer chase scene in Manila as the bad guys try to knock Aaron and Marta off their speeding motorcycle. It's all sound and fury signifying nothing except a desperate need to feed a franchise. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 9, 2012
The best thing that can be said about The Bourne Legacy is that Renner will survive it. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 8, 2012
The Bourne Legacy is always gripping in the moment. The problem is in getting the moments to add up. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJaime N. ChristleyAug 7, 2012
One successful set piece in 135 minutes, and it involves very little running, no parkour, and no genetically enhanced superheroes from clandestine government projects. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 10, 2012
Gilroy -- who earned writing credits on all four "Bourne" films -- doesn't miss when it comes to the most important task at hand: He takes a well-worn concept and makes it feel new, and without sacrificing its sense of familiarity. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 9, 2012
By the time Rachel Weisz, as a scientist called Dr. Marta Shearing, showed up in a lab coat, I stopped trying to parse every plot twist and just went with the action flow. Read full review
60
Total FilmNeil SmithAug 9, 2012
Assured if not inspired, Legacy keeps the Bourne engine ticking over without reaching top gear. The action's accomplished and Renner's fine. Without Matt Damon, however, it feels like a placeholder. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanAug 9, 2012
The introduction isn't as smooth as it could be, but eventually everyone settles into the right groove. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 9, 2012
It has plenty of energy and drive, and Jeremy Renner is really good, better as a Bourne-y agent than Matt Damon, tougher and more grizzled-looking, more convincing as the professional soldier who has grown careworn and disillusioned in the public service. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 9, 2012
A perfectly serviceable thriller, smarter than many, but it has too much of a reputation to live up to. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineKate ErblandAug 8, 2012
The Bourne Legacy doesn't reach the heights of the previous three films, but a guns-blazing final act and strong performances from its entire cast might give it the juice to try for a fifth sequel. Read full review
60
Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonAug 7, 2012
Now, we have Jeremy Renner as another Treadstone mega man (there were nine, apparently), and though he is a likable enough pug-nosed action figure, the Damonlessness is sorely felt. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfAug 7, 2012
Renner and scientist Rachel Weisz are sympathetic enough (although lacking in Matt Damon's all-American approachability), and the movie flies along briskly. Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissAug 9, 2012
The overall tone is familiar, refried, redundant. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezAug 9, 2012
It looks fantastic, but it's also hard to sit through, because by that point The Bourne Legacy has repeatedly proven there are no surprises to be had here, no more fresh stories to be mined from this well. The stunts look exhausting, though. No wonder Damon bailed. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 9, 2012
"The Bourne Identity." "The Bourne Supremacy." "The Bourne Ultimatum." And now, "The Pointless, Confused and Then, For the Last Half-Hour, Exciting Bourne Sequel, After a Fashion," more commonly known as The Bourne Legacy. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyAug 6, 2012
The same tone and look are maintained, but the visceral excitement is muffled by familiarity, an insufficiently conceived lead character and the sheer weight of backstory and multiple layers of deception. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeAug 6, 2012
Subbing character actor Jeremy Renner into a franchise that requires Matt Damon-caliber magnetism, series scribe Tony Gilroy takes over the helming duties with an overlong sequel that features too little action and an unnecessarily complicated plot. Read full review
40
EmpireIan NathanAug 12, 2012
As earnestly as they have tried to continue the formerly excellent spy series, everything Gilroy and crew concoct only serves to mock the excellence and passion with which Greengrass delivered his films. Read full review
38
New York PostLou LumenickAug 10, 2012
Disappointingly, Bourne never resurfaces in this less-than-satisfying series reboot. The film is more a talky, convoluted, action-starved two-hour subplot. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanAug 9, 2012
The worst thing about the picture is that the people involved all seem to realize it's generic. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 9, 2012
The Bourne series ended with the last installment, and now comes a 135-minute death rattle called The Bourne Legacy. It's a peculiar movie, both over-plotted and under-plotted, encumbered by layers of detail and yet with no details invested in or developed. Read full review
More From This Movie

61 Critic Reviews

6.1 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL