Tron: Legacy

Back in July 2009 producer Sean Bailey billed Disney's Tron Legacy (or Tron 2.0 as it was then known) as stand alone sequel to the 1982 original. Bailey stated that "You don't have to know the '82 movie to come in and appreciate and enjoy this one", a theory that, after having seen Disney's latest 3D glow fest, doesn't exactly hold true.


Its not that Legacy's plot is particularly demanding of the old grey matter, the problem really lies in the fact that as you sit adorned with your 3D specs, you start to think, what really is the point in all this? Sure the premise is simple enough, boy enters computer program world, boy seeks dad trapped in said world, boy finds dad, boy must try to leave with dad..... but can they both make it out.... the plot thickens (except it doesn't really). Its just that without a grounding in the universe and ideologies of Tron you start to wonder.... do I even care? Picture yourself sitting down to watch Lord of the Rings: Return of the King with little or no understanding of what the hell Middle Earth is, its not exactly conducive to perfect movie enjoyment... "who is this Frodo character, and what's the deal with that ring?" Its just difficult to be overly bothered about the on goings of Tron: Legacy without having any real context to place it in.

Olivia Wilde and Garrett Hedlund in Tron:Legacy

Now the fact that many people will, like me, fly blind into the cinemas to see the latest movie is not exactly a fault of the film itself, but its hard to find much else that is achieved with the films narrative to pad out what rapidly begins to feel like a fairly hollow experience. Jeff Bridges steps back into his 1982 role of Kevin Flynn, CEO of ENCOM and creator of the The Grid. Bridges does a pretty decent job of portraying Flynn who after years of being trapped in the program has resigned himself to his incarceration and, presumably due to all the spare time he has on his hands, has taken up yoga and meditation. As the film opens we see Flynn explaining to his young son that he has discovered 'a miracle' that will change the world, shortly before his disappearance, and so the premice for the picture is set.

Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) grows up and, fatherless as he is, goes off the rails. One night following a mysterious pager message he returns to Flynn's aracade where he is blasted into the world of the grid. Then ensuses Flynn Jr's quest to save his father and bring him back to the real world. Along the way we are thrown tidbits about the miraclous discovery of self created digital life forms, the ISO's, and the evil digital avatar CLU. CLU, a glassy eyed digital copy of Kevin Flynn circa 1982, has committed a genocide of the ISO's and has now set his sights firmly on leaving The Grid and taking over the world..... an explanation of how he is plans to do this exactly doesn't seem to have been of any great importance to the Legacy writers.

All this aside, its fair to say that the reason most if not all of us go to see a film like Tron Legacy is not for its oscar worth story lines. We go to be blown away by what the trailers show us to be a spectacular 3D blitzkrieg and on this basis Tron Legacy scores one massive tick.

Light Cycle sequences are pretty damn impressive.

From the opening dictatorial message on the screen that warns us not to remove our glasses even for the 2D sections of the film (do people actually do that?), as they were intentionally shot that way, you know these guys aren't messing around when it comes to the visuals. This isn't going to be some slap dash Clash of the Titans 3D offering. From the moment Sam sets foot onto The Grid you'll be amazed at the visuals and 3D effects. The crowning achievements of the film all arrive fairly early on as Flynn takes on the Grid's gladiatorial games. The disc fighting, picture deadly glowing frisbee dodgeball, and the light cycle death matches provide eye wateringly perfect 3D visuals that pop against the pitch black back ground of The Grid. Bodies crumble and explode in a digitally perfect neon bloodbath providing enough 3D goodness to even get a smile of approval from James Cameron. The intensity of the films visual style is boosted by its sound track with Daft Punk stepping up to provide the digital beats needed to get the films heart beating. Annoyingly though once the games are over so too is much of the excitement that gave the flick any sort of any edge. Not even the fantastic Michael Sheen's turn as Castor, a sort of creepy, dancing, light-saber cane wielding character can do much to improve the situation. Visions of an all in white, star wars, child snatcher were difficult to shake. That said, the cast as a whole do a fairly good job with Garrett Hedlund (Sam) and Olivia Wilde (Quorra) providing the youthful hollywood eye candy needed to keep you watching when the 3D visuals take a rest.

All in all it is easy to be hard on Tron Legacy's plot and its almost wishy washy sidelines about genocide, religion, dictatorship and evil inexplicably taking over the world. Maybe its not the sort of film thats meant to be dissected and torn apart at the seams and when you consider the screenplays writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz both have previous credits on television's LOST... maybe thats for the best. If you fancy going to sit back and let a little 3D magic wash over you then you probably wont be too disappointed.