State of the art, and thrilling: yes, but an overall great movie, no. I find myself in the minority when I say that Tron: Legacy is better and certainly more enjoyable than the 1982 film, Tron, which had the best graphics at the time, but today is obviously dated and mediocre.
Tron: Legacy, the sequel to Tron, is a fun ride, and is a movie that I would say is still worth paying your dollars to see, because of the visuals and memorable fight sequences. When I sat in the theater, the sound and special effects were in one word: awesome. Nevertheless, you will still find the plot mediocre and disappointing.
The film stars Garrett Hedlund as Sam Flynn, the son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), the greatest computer designer ever, who finds himself in the digital world of Tron in an attempt to find his dad who disappeared when he was a kid. After a few disk throwing and light-cycle battles, which are basically future gladiator fights, Sam is reunited with his father, who explains that a digital copy of himself, Clu (also Jeff Bridges), who was designed to ‘create the perfect system’ overthrew Flynn, shut down the portal to the outside world, and has taken control over the grid. Kevin, Sam and the ISO Quorra (Olivia Wilde) race the portal before Clu and a new villainous Tron can stop them.
The stunning light-cycle match, fight scenes and state of the art visual effects are the highlight of this pic. Unfortunately, the film is hampered by a mediocre plot and a predictable father-son relationship story. The plot is middling and average, and Jeff Bridges gives the only somewhat strong performance, or performances, in the film.
The script is obviously clichéd though still not horrendously bad. With almost 30 years passing between the two films, I still find it weird at how the filmmakers failed to come up with a better story (a sequel has been in development since 1990), by this time. It sort of makes me feel disappointed.
Even so, Tron: Legacy still deserves some high marks for its impressive computer generated effects, the entertaining fight scenes, and how it’s more enjoyable then the 1982 Tron. In addition, I didn’t think that the young director Joseph Kosinski did all that bad behind the camera.
That being said, I think I’ll give Tron: Legacy a pass because it’s also family friendly and never especially scary and it’s an action movie that’s appropriate for kids.
Due to the fact that Tron: Legacy received high box-office success, a third sequel is in development. My hopes for that sequel are the same level of brilliant computer generated effects and a much needed better plot.
***/5
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