For quite some time now the hype machine has quickly been building to gargantuan levels for Tron Legacy, and now it’s firing on all cylinders as the movie hits the big screen. I haven’t seen the original Tron movie in its entirety in over 20 odd years. I’ve caught glimpses here and there and it looks quite dated. None the less, I resisted the urge to watch the DVD before heading off to Tron Legacy.
Jeff Bridges plays Kevin Flynn who more or less upped sticks and left the family home and pitched his digital tent on the grid, in a virtual world which he created, or in other words, he disappeared. Garrett Hedlund (Troy, Friday Night Lights) plays his cool geek son, who is so cool that he has no interest in running his fathers company, Encom. Instead he plays a yearly prank on the board and lives in a glorified truck trailer….with a dog. Bruce Boxleitner plays Alan Bradley who is quite the Sam Flynn fan. Bradley gets a page from Flynn's arcade, which has been closed for years and gives the keys to the building Sam, and lo and behold Sam ends up on the Grid after going back to the arcade. From here, he sets out on a quest to find his father and escape the virtual world back into reality, all while taking on a digital bad guy, a younger Jeff Bridges who “plays” Clu.
Tron Legacy takes it’s time before it brings out the neon Frisbees and super cool light cycles, but when it does, man is it impressive….to a point. The light cycles are one of the coolest movie vehicles of all time and their modernisation is one of beauty. The grid itself is equally impressive…to a point. Visually Tron Legacy is a sight for the eyes….to a point. Once you get over the initial wow factor, things get very bland and sparse quite quickly and the constant neon gets very tiresome, very quick. I’m sure you could make the argument that the original was quite sparse as well, but technology has moved on and I did expect a bit more.
Some of the set pieces are incredibly well done and tightly edited and at times you can be almost left on the edge of your seat. Tron Legacy is also in 3D (or Disney Digital 3D to be precise) and comes with a disclaimer at the beginning which more or less states that some of the movie was shot in 2D and that’s the way it was intended to be shot, but you should leave your 3D glasses on for the entire movie. I’m not sure why such a statement appeared, maybe its quite possible the house of the mouse are aware of the damage shoddy 3D conversions have done of recent times. A movie like Tron which is visually quite impressive (to a point) should really pop in 3D and leave your mouth hitting the floor, and it does…to a point. There’s not a single moment in Tron Legacy where the 3D will blow your mind, but there’s enough sense of depth going on that you know this ain’t no Clash of The Titans. Contrary to what I have read, the digital Jeff Bridges is quite impressive and for the best part you wouldn’t really think he is a digital character at all.
A lot of hype has been made of the soundtrack. Daft Punk (who make a cameo appearance) have come up with a unique twist on the movie score, and for the best part it works quite well. Actually it works far better in the movie, as opposed to listening to it on your iPod or what not. That said, it’s not entirely memorable either, but it does it’s job well enough not to be a distraction.
As for the story, it’s by the numbers. Get in, Rescue, Get out. The cast don’t really break a sweat and in particular Bridges doesn’t seem to bothered, but they don’t put in a bad performance either, although at times it gets quite wooden with occasionally poor dialogue. I wish more effort could have been made of the story and whilst the rumour mill is saying there’s another 2 movies in the offing, first impressions aren’t great.
There is more style over substance here and that style gets quite irritating after a while as you find yourself making zero connection with the characters and just waiting for the next set piece to happen. Visually Tron Legacy is impressive..to a point but once you get over the “WOW” and “COOL” factor (which will be very quickly) you are left with a bit of an empty movie, that is worth a watch, but it’s ultimately a missed opportunity.
