"Brave" and "The Bourne Legacy"

Brave

Voices of Kelly McDonald and Emma Thompson

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%

My Grade: B+

I'll be honest, I was not looking forward to this new effort from Pixar. They had an INCREDIBLE run of movies but tanked badly for the first time with Cars 2. This movie looked like it had taken a totally different turn from all the movies in Pixars past. It looked to Disney Princess-y. Well I finally managed to watch the movie, and to be honest...I was pretty surprised. This is the first Pixar film with a female protagonist and that could have been a risky move. I liked the lead character, but she didn't completely grab be in to the movie. I didn't love her like I have loved Woody and Buzz or Nemo or Mike and Sully. There was that element of lovability and fun missing from her which to me knocked the movie down a few pegs. But it's not always about characters with Pixar, they know how to tell a good story, and they did not disappoint here. Brave has a very charming, magical story that is wonderful for the entire family. It took a turn I was not expecting involving bears and witches. But it was a good surprise, I loved the adventure. However, there was still something missing for me. I can't exactly pin point either. All the other Pixar movies were extremely memorable and are timeless. Movies like Toy Story and Finding Nemo will stand the test of time, but I didn't feel that with Brave. I will forget about this movie, even though it was a pretty good flick. It didn't have that oomph. Good, but not memorable.

The Bourne Legacy

Starring Jeremy Renner, Edward Norton and Rachel Weisz. 

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 54%

My Grade: C-

I had never seen any Bourne movies up until about 3 weeks ago. I watched all three back to back to back. They are very exciting films, especially the third movie, The Bourne Ultimatum. All three had brilliant blends of story, intrigue and incredible action. There was a car chase scene in the third movie that absolutely blew me away. These movies you have to suspend belief or you won't have fun. Now we have the Bourne Legacy, without Matt Damon. Now we have Jeremy Renner as a new super soldier thing who is now on the run after it was decided to destroy the program after Jason Bourne caused a whole lot of chaos. Well they screwed up again and now they have another agent on the run, this time with a trusty female sidekick played by Rachel Weisz. This movie was a serious drop in excitement from the previous trilogy. Renner was great, but the character was no Jason Bourne. Pretty much the whole movie was him not only escaping the people trying to kill him, but it was about him trying to get his pills. Now these super soldiers need pills to make them what they are and he is desperate to get them. Weisz plays a scientist who is also a target to be killed but also knows where to get the meds. There was a LOT of talking in this movie, and the action took a major back seat this go around. The first half of the movie was all set up and a lot of quick and poorly edited tie in's to the third movie (this new installment is happening at the same time as Ultimatum). It was jumping all over the place and the pacing was dreadfully slow. We finally get some action in the second half but it's pretty much all jumbled in in the climax of the movie. There is a big motorcycle chase that lasts about 20 minutes and ends rather abruptly and in a very silly way. Then the movie just ends. I was not expecting it to end when and how it did. I was left feeling totally unsatisfied. As if nothing actually happened in the movie. I didn't really see any major progression in the story. It was kind of an empty experience. Much like the recent film "Prometheus"...if there isn't a sequel...then this was a big waste of time. It was pointless.