( EW.com ) -- When agent Aaron Cross plunges into icy waters in the opening moments of the brisk and satisfying spy thriller `` The Bourne Legacy , '' the scene serves two purposes : to commemorate the superb and well-loved trilogy that came before , in which Matt Damon , as the man called Jason Bourne , made his first appearance in `` The Bourne Identity , '' fished out of the Mediterranean Sea with bullets in his back ; and to baptize Jeremy Renner as the action-hero heir worthy of leading the franchise forward . The symbolism works elegantly . Renner 's Cross is a conflicted hero built to take advantage of the `` Hurt Locker '' star 's best qualities as an actor â€ ” his default intensity , the way he conveys that complicated mental calculations are taking place under cover of watchful stillness , even underwater . Director and co-writer Tony Gilroy ( `` Michael Clayton '' ) has custom-tailored `` The Bourne Legacy '' for the present by opening up the narrative . Unnerving scenes of backroom operations among shadowy governmental and private-enterprise types reveal the machinations of a much bigger , more nefarious tangle of players than previously imagined . There are mystery men running the country â€ ” and , by remote control , the world . This movie recommends worrying . Meanwhile , Cross is currently the agent in the crosshairs . To his handlers he 's only `` No . 5 , '' one of six experimental warriors chemically enhanced for use by the Department of Defense in an operation called Outcome â€ ” sort of the 2.0 of the original trilogy 's Treadstone . But now his masters ( led by an effectively steely Edward Norton ) want to eradicate all evidence that Outcome ever existed by destroying these six superagents . In desperation , he turns for help to the pharmaceutical scientist who `` created '' his enhanced capabilities ( Rachel Weisz , a good choice , and from the looks of her , a good runner ) . Soon the two are sprinting for their lives together . Like any story with 'Bourne '' in the title , this one scampers around the globe , with a big chunk of well-crafted showdown action set in teeming Manila . Gilroy , who as a screenwriter has shaped the movie saga from the beginning , trades the wired rhythms established in the past two episodes by Paul Greengrass for something more realistic and closer to the ground . The change is refreshing . Jason Bourne 's legacy is in good hands . Grade : A- . See full story at EW.com . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
`` The Bourne Legacy '' stars Jeremy Renner . In the first film in a new series of spy thrillers, Jason Bourne, played by Renner, is sent to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top military aide Colonel Kurtz. EW gives the film an A minus .