I loved the first Tron. I didn’t really get it for some time, until I realized that it really wasn’t all that deep. Taking both Tron and Tron: Legacy at face value is paramount to enjoying them at all, I think. So I flipped my willing suspension of disbelief to eleven and put on real pants to go see it in 3D.
It’s important to note that I don’t see very well, so a good bit of 3D technology is lost on me. I do appreciate the ginormous screen, but nothing was flying out at me when I wore the glasses, everything just sort of glowed green. No matter, I still enjoyed the hell out of the video effects, including but certainly not limited to a pretty freaky accurate CGI rendition of Jeff Bridges.
The plot is simple, Bridges’ video game designer and protagonist of the first Tron film, Kevin Flynn, disappeared in the 80’s. His son, Sam (Garret Hedlund), with the indirect help of Bruce Boxleitner’s Alan Bradley, manages to get himself inserted into the grid, the virtual world his father invented, in an effort to bring the senior Flynn home.
The grid is a visually stunning dystopia in shades of blue, white and steel. Sam is instantly scooped up and dropped into the games, where he competes in feats similar (but oh so much prettier) to those his father played (and dominated) in the first film. In my opinion, the film could have spent more time on the games, and less time on the plot, which I believe most of the audience figured out pretty early in.
Olivia Wilde plays a Manic Pixie Dream Sprite named Quorra, and while I think she did a great job, I was continually reminded of V.I.C.K.I.E., otherwise known as Small Wonder.
Daft Punk had a very nice cameo. Let’s listen to the trailer to remind us of their multi-media domination.
Also, watching that trailer pretty much tells you everything I can in this review.
All in all, it was spectacular to look at. The story was crap, but the story was crap in the first one, too. Jeff Bridges remains awesome, as does Michael Sheen.
