peterdavis

Not to sound down on Melissa George or anyone else involved, but I recorded "Triangle" when it premiered (in Australia - straight to TV, it seems) just after midnight back in April and finally got around to what I thought would be a 10-minute view (ie: from opening scene till my first sigh and/or eye-rolling, before quickly deleting it from the PVR in "what-was-I-thinking" disgust).

Yes, I knew it was a long-shot gamble when I took the immense trouble to hover over the listing, read the synopsis, and press a button to record it. But I try to live on the edge. It looked like a version of "Dead Calm" crossed with a teen slasher movie. A short ways into it I thought it might turn out even worse, that most terrible of things: a haunted boat mystery.

Turns out it was kinda both, but in a fresh way that quickly reveals how clever it has been conceived while it lulled you in with its competently filmed but unremarkable set-up. This may be where it lost many, more-impatient viewers. And it's not that it's groundbreaking in using its particular plot device (say no more) but it ramps everything up thereafter with increasing tension and revelations. It shook me from my jaded, generation-x-pectations and filled me with suspense and delight. In the end you have to admire, as much as enjoy, this spooky little puzzle.

Try not to be distracted by Queensland locations standing in for Triangle's Florida setting, or by some varying accents. Melissa George manages to suspend disbelief in a difficult role and a difficult emotional-range to sustain for a whole movie, especially while wearing short-shorts, big heals and a wet shirt. Will have to check out more films by writer/director, Christopher Smith.

Great visuals, great production values & lovely detailing that fleshes out (literally) life in the future-desert-world-thing. It's very ludicrous but fun. The action-staging is as good as ever but there are only echoes of the earlier heights of suspense because we don't care too much about the characters, particularly Max - once a clever and resourceful character, now just... sullen. Despite frequent flash- back cuts to show him as haunted, he's more one-dimensional than ever as portrayed by the sparse and strangely accented mumblings of the usually reliable Tom Hardy. Charlize Theron gets only a little more to work with and it's Nicholas Hoult who gets the stand-out character which could be parodying our current preoccupation with religiously radicalised youth. The plot is very simple and calculated only to provide maximum chase scenes. Visually inventive, accomplished and well integrated with effects ...but the film is missing it's usual humour, any basis in drama and perhaps therefore our engagement with the non-stop action.

If there are going to be secret agents there should always be snow. It should be law. The best moments of James Bond (or even True Lies) for me are always on skis or otherwise messing about in the snow. Perhaps it's the extra danger of being so exposed to the elements, that if they stub a toe or hit their knuckles on a tree it will reeeeaaaaly hurt in the cold. Even George Clooney's "The American" starts out with an effective murderous opening around a wilderness cabin (...actually I'm now not sure it was snowing in that one or if I've subconsciously inserted the snow into my memory of the scene to accord it with my sensibility). Anyway, The Bourne Legacy has got the snow in so we're immediately off to a good start.

I saw this film on a plane and managed to really enjoyed it, so it must be EVEN BETTER than for just the presence of secret agents and snow. The last Bourne movie (#3) was really starting to wind down with too much repetition so I was not looking forward to this one and skipped it at the cinema. Then Matt Damon not being involved also seemed like confirmation that this movie would be a poor effort by a movie studio desperately wringing the last few bucks out of a dying franchise.

Turns out, however, that abandoning the original character was a great way to widen the universe of story/premise and really get creative. I most enjoyed the scene with the post-trauma counsellors. Great stuff from writer/director Tony Gilroy and some really "proper" actors (even a surprise cameo from Kenny the Aussie toilet cleaner guy) in this fresh "reboot" of a movie (though technically not a reboot). So there.