As a person who saw and loved the previous three films, I was both excited for Legacy and not sure what to expect. I enjoyed Renner as Hawkeye, and Rachel Weisz is awesome, so there was definitely some hope there.
To answer your question: for the previous three films, yes, I was watching for the action. I adore amnesia and all its implications, and Damon's co-stars, such as Franke Potente in the first one, or Bourne's nemesis in the second, were quite good. Julia Stiles has always inspired meh, so learning that they were changing that was exciting. I can't say I'm head-over-heels for Matt Damon, but he's fairly appealing to me.
In Legacy, however, I feel they ramped up the suits/talky bits/conspiracy in a good way, they made it understandable this time. We got to see the whole of the conspiracy, not just one segment of it, necessarily limited by need-to-know. And I liked how they showed the data parsing. Not hugely different from previous films, but enough so that I appreciated how much work and coordination that kind of operation needs.
Thus, I really enjoyed both types of scenes this time around. I agree that Rachel Weisz and Jeremy Renner did amazing things with what they had. Cross's motivations actually make sense, which is a beautiful, beautiful thing, and Marta's realization that there's more to her work than the science was really awesome and believable. The main thing I admired in this film was how smart everyone was. It was a battle of minds and information, not just brawn.
I think they did take too long in some places. The final chase scene, for one. And I wasn't all that intrigued at the beginning, oddly enough. It felt too much like a retread of the original without the life-and-death suspense. To me, it almost feels like a remake, with original characters. As such, it has good and bad points, but overall I found it entertaining and thought-provoking.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2012-08-12 12:46 am (UTC)To answer your question: for the previous three films, yes, I was watching for the action. I adore amnesia and all its implications, and Damon's co-stars, such as Franke Potente in the first one, or Bourne's nemesis in the second, were quite good. Julia Stiles has always inspired meh, so learning that they were changing that was exciting. I can't say I'm head-over-heels for Matt Damon, but he's fairly appealing to me.
In Legacy, however, I feel they ramped up the suits/talky bits/conspiracy in a good way, they made it understandable this time. We got to see the whole of the conspiracy, not just one segment of it, necessarily limited by need-to-know. And I liked how they showed the data parsing. Not hugely different from previous films, but enough so that I appreciated how much work and coordination that kind of operation needs.
Thus, I really enjoyed both types of scenes this time around. I agree that Rachel Weisz and Jeremy Renner did amazing things with what they had. Cross's motivations actually make sense, which is a beautiful, beautiful thing, and Marta's realization that there's more to her work than the science was really awesome and believable. The main thing I admired in this film was how smart everyone was. It was a battle of minds and information, not just brawn.
I think they did take too long in some places. The final chase scene, for one. And I wasn't all that intrigued at the beginning, oddly enough. It felt too much like a retread of the original without the life-and-death suspense. To me, it almost feels like a remake, with original characters. As such, it has good and bad points, but overall I found it entertaining and thought-provoking.