TRON: Legacy arrived on Blu-Ray and DVD a couple of weeks ago, and though we shunned the movie while in the theaters, we sat down to take a look at Disney’s return visit to an old fan fave.
TRON: LEGACY
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Writers: Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz
Kevin Flynn/CLU: Jeff Bridges
Sam Flynn: Garrett Hedlund
Quorra: Olivia Wilde
Alan Bradley/TRON: Bruce Boxleitner
Jarvis: James Frain
Gem: Beau Garrett
Castor: Michael Sheen
Rinzler: Anis Cheura
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures
Release Date: 2010
Complete credit list
The son of a virtual world designer goes looking for his father and ends up inside the digital world that his father designed. He meets his father’s creation turned bad and a unique ally who was born inside the digital domain of The Grid.
THAT OTHER MOVIE
One needs to be relatively old in order to remember the original TRON movie, but the filmmakers did an excellent job of getting everyone up to speed in the first moments of the film. We learn of Flynn’s disappearance, the growth of Encom, the son who took his father’s leaving really hard.
And then we get to see Sam discover the truth, and reconnect with his father in the Grid – the virtual world of the computers. Though it has been nearly 30 years since the original, the plot elements in TRON: Legacy parallel the original very closely. Hero finds himself inside The Grid, Hero escapes, Hero fights the system, eventually taking down the machine… While I’m not a big fan of remakes, that is exactly what this movie feels like. Sure the story has been properly tweaked to make it feel like a continuation.
One of the elements that I really didn’t care for in the original was the god/religious aspects of the story. Instead of the user as god, this story touches more on evolution, Zen philosophy, good versus evil, death and rebirth.
JAW DROPPING VISUALS
The visuals in the movie are outstanding. Jaw-dropping in their execution, as a virtual world is brought to life on the screen. There are so many subtle elements that the effects team really deserve more credit than they’ve received for every frame in the film.
One of the most talked about aspects of the movie were the virtual younger version of Jeff Bridges as CLU and Bruce Boxleitner as TRON. The idea behind creating a younger version of older actors is a great concept. However, it only kind of worked. The biggest tell in the de-aging of Flynn is in the mouth movement – the lip-syncing looks too rigid and stiff to look like the skin of a young man. Still, it is a a great process, and one that will become a staple in motion pictures.
I also like the little nods to the original movie’s visuals, though I was rather surprised tweaks to costumes and props were made to conform to this movie’s visuals. But let’s face it, the original movie, while groundbreaking in the day, really doesn’t stand up to the expectation of today’s audiences.
THE DVD COLLECTION
For those that fell in love with the theatrical 3-D release, Disney has a combo-pack for you. Not only do viewers get to see TRON: Legacy in high definition, viewers also get the Blu-Ray 3D DVD release, a digital copy of the film, plus the original TRON movie in one bundle. It’s a great collection for a great price.
BOTTOM LINE: NOT BAD
Though I had some real misgivings about this movie from the beginning, when I finally had a chance to sit down and view the movie away from all the hype, away from all the press, and most importantly, enjoying the movie my own home theater away from the noise and hassle of the crowds, I actually enjoyed the heck out of TRON: Legacy. It’s an update to a classic, and is a fun adventure movie. The music rocks, the visuals are great, and story isn’t half bad. Overall, TRON: Legacy is worth a look and earns 3.5 out of 5 Stars.
9 Comments
I may be a heretic, but I enjoyed Legacy more than the original. For one thing, I enjoy an older Du-Jeff Bridges. So when coming into this I wanted the following things: 1) Light Cycles 2) A kick-ass soundtrack 3) Jeff Bridges being awesome. That’s what I wanted, and that’s what I got.
I completely agree with you. This was not a prefect movie by any means, but it was a lot of fun to watch. I look forward to seeing where the franchise goes from here.
I agree, I had a lot of fun watching the movie! I bought the Blue-Ray the first day it came out.
I did enjoy it
But, would have been more than happy if it had been 30 minutes longer, there were some elements of the plot they had on screen for less than a minute that were interesting and I would have loved to have known more about. But they quickly moved on.
Did the deleted scenes add much detail in?
Did anyone else get a Matrix vibe while watching it? I ended up watched the old one and the new one back to back and I think it helped.
On another note, did anyone play the Tron 2.0 game that came out a few years ago?
Don’t you mean “Did anyone get a Tron vibe while watching the Matrix?”
Personally I enjoyed the film. The light trail planes were awesome.
I didn’t get a Matrix vibe while watching it, but, I DID get a Tron vibe while watching The Matrix
Hated it, well more like I didn’t see anything I really liked, sure it looked pretty but that’s about it. Plot points were hammered in with a sledgehammer: “I can stop the bad guy easely but I would die” “we’ll find another way!” (guess what happens), Tron is the only one seen using 2 disks to fight and Clu’s right hand man uses 2 disks (guess what happened to Tron), “they were a race of curious innocent programs” “are they all dead?” “almost” (wide eye curious girl in the same room, do the math) and so on.
The plot points were so bad I couldn’t seem to care how pretty the graphics were. Everytime Clu appeared it looked too much like a video game cut scene, main bad guy in the center with small onions by his side in a phalanx formation, every time he dies he pull an item that basically gives him an extra life… Legacy felt like watching a 2 hours video game in which I couldn’t control any characters.
The plane fight was a nice sequence, but not enough to save the movie. I for one liked the idea of users as Gods and loved the original (probably why I also liked Reboot), so it bugged me that they sorta dropped that aspect.
Saw it in 3d when it came out. Had high hopes when it first begun exploring the mystery of Flynn’s disappearence, the break in at Encom, the return of Bruce but once inside the grid I was bored.
The production design is visually stunning. the actors likable but the plot was so hokey and lacking in emotion except when drawing upon the memories of the orginal.
Jeff Bridges + Tron in the 21st Century should be a formula for awesomeness – but I felt it lacking in movie magic.