The Bourne Legacy Soundtrack
Leontina Heidgerken
Going in I was expecting (from the trailer) a rather silly but all the same fun movie, but was surprised and sometimes alarmed at just how dark and gritty the film was in places. It manages to include ingredients people have come to expect from Bourne movies, but also managed to create its own unique feel. Although it frequently overlaps events and characters from previous films, it manages to be about its own character. The mature role of Renner's character comes across here, whereas Matt Damon in Bourne Identity was a rather young buck caught like a deer in the headlights.
Using the term 'realistic' doesn't apply much to Bourne movies, but there were aspects of this movie that made it (for me) a little bit more realistic in ways, than how things became in Bourne Supremacy or Bourne Ultimatum. For example, you can't just get on a train and arrive in Moscow as Bourne does as there is that rather pesky matter called a Russian Visa.
I don't care how many false passports you've got, you still can't just get on a train and arrive in Moscow without an existing visa issued by the interior ministry, a process which takes weeks. Ignorance is bliss for viewers, but if you know it then the way he gets about almost without delay by getting on a train or ferry and arriving in some other country, becomes fantasy.
In Supremacy and Ultimatum I had begun to tire of this thing where every feed the world over was being followed from some central control room in langley which seemingly achieved almost instant access to every phone and quick control of every CCTV camera the world over that the operations manager demanded. Frustrated demands of- "I want a feed on that street cleaner's mobile phone NOW, people" induced rolling eyes, as much as I enjoyed the 2nd and 3rd movies.
I bring this up because in Bourne Legacy this has been taken into account a 'little' bit more. Passports have to be electronically tampered with before getting on a flight, the characters are more aware of the risk of being caught at security posts and immigration etc, and the control room trying to track them has to go through a lengthy process to get footage from highways and all the rest of it. Yes they still manage to do it more quickly than ever possible in reality, but the movie largely discarded this fantasy - "Feed me right into that hotel lobby camera or corridor camera NOW, people!".
When I say dark, there was one particular scene fairly early in the film which is a merciless sustained massacre of people in a trapped room which simply felt horrible, the booms of the gun resonating in the cinema setting. The feel of this movie (certainly the earlier stages) felt closer to the vibe of the first movie (Identity), leaning more towards the kind of scenes at the farmhouse in Bourne Identity with Clive Owen ( "Look what they make you give" etc ), with the scenes in alaska in Legacy (the rifles, etc). Renner's character is inquisitive, doesn't buy the 'we don't talk about it' of the other characters involved, and in that way reminded slightly of Clive Owen's character from the first film who enquired in a strangely buddy like nature whether or not Bourne gets the headaches too, once he's been taken down by bourne in that field scene.
Music wise, I only found out yesterday that John Powell was not back for this installment. I did wonder how James Newton Howard was going to approach this, and I think in this initial movie he wisely played safe by providing the feel of what people expect, but not re-using themes by Powell that were for Bourne. Even the use of Moby's Extreme Ways jarred a little bit, as to me that should be reserved for the first three movies. I hear that critics have not been kind to The Bourne Legacy but I did enjoy it. It did a nice job of blending the more lengthy scenes of Identity, with the action of film 2 and 3.
I agree with that. Although I repeat that I feel it was wise for Howard not to re-use Bourne themes, there is a noticeable lack of an unmistakeable theme for Aaron even though the volume of this score is prominent in the film. Having said all this, I was intending to go and buy the soundtrack when I left the cinema yesterday, after liking what I heard, but the shops were closed. It may not have the rich tapestry of themes that were in Powell's Bourne scores, but it still got my interest enough to want it. Take the following example from early in the movie...
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