When the original Tron was released some 28 years ago, it was regarded as both a dazzling special effects marvel and a huge commercial failure. It certainly wasn't the traditional Disney adventure, with princesses or cute orphans and talking animals. Instead there were sentient machines and computer programs personified within the confines of the digital world -- a world intended as a bold new frontier, but which quickly transformed into a stark landscape of digi-slavery and neon-striped battledom. Over time, the film has endured as a cult classic, in spite of the fact that its once state-of-the-art technology now looks like highlighter drawn across the lens, and its story makes the convoluted mythology of the Matrix films seem simple.
Now we have Tron Legacy, a decades-later sequel that lives up to its predecessor on both the visual and screenplay levels -- which is to say, it looks incredible and feels increasingly leaden and cumbersome as the story unfolds. The film is an infuriating dichotomy of visceral thrills that pulsate off the screen and a plot so inexorably drawn to mundane family emo-drama that it loses stream in spite of its impressive CG rendering.
The films opens with the thundering intrigue of Daft Punk's all-consuming score, which builds epic-level tension even in the film's drabbest moments. Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges, made digitally youthful in certain sequences), creator of the awesome-but-dangerous world of Tron, sits with his young son, Sam, sharing the ultimate bedtime story -- a tale of digital wonders and artificial intelligence in a world where anything is possible. "One day I'll take you there," Kevin promises, before riding off into the night on his Ducati and vanishing from the known world...for the next 20 years.
Shift to the present. The 27-year-old Sam (Garrett Hedlund, effectively brooding) lives alone in one of those film-tastic man caves full of awesome toys and a refrigerator full of beer. Sam is an aimless rebel now, the primary shareholder in his father's company, Encom, though he refuses to take the reins as CEO. Instead, Sam rides through the city on his own sweet Ducati and makes a habit of dare-devil jumping on skyscraper ledges, Dark Knight-style. Specifics of the plot can quickly suck all the life out of a simple synopsis, but soon Sam is alerted to a message sent from his father's old office -- an office that's been vacant ever since Kevin's disappearance. Sam revisits the condemned Flynn Arcade, fighting his way through cob-webs to find the legendary Tron machine. Soon he is zapped into "The Grid," where he quickly finds himself doing battle with light-up discs and hyper-stylized light cycles. Turns out Kevin has been sealed inside The Grid and unable to escape, and in time has ascended to a sort of Obi-Wan Gandalfobi status. Meanwhile, his hopeful creation turned sinister villain, Clu (once again, the digitized younger Bridges), presides over this digital frontier with designs of invading the human world on the other side.
Discussing the various aspects of the film's plot can be exhausting, and they are equally tiresome in the film, as the screenplay drones on about society's perfect imperfection and Kevin's irresponsible adherence to work over family. The laborious plotting is unfortunate, given the film's aptitude for creating strong characters. Bridges and Hedlund make a believable father-son duo, and they get wide-eyed support from Olivia Wilde as a naive computer program who lives with Kevin (the precise nature of their relationship is disturbingly unclear). Michael Sheen also turns up in a brilliantly loopy role as a twisted rogue who looks like a digital Jack Frost and acts like a feverishly flamboyant Cyber-Bowie.
And of course there is the film's visual landscape, which is bold and vast and all-consuming. Veteran commercial director Joseph Kosinski brings a slick and shiny sensibility to his first feature film, and at its best moments Tron Legacy feels like another great landmark not unlike how the original film is perceived in many circles, a living, breathing sci-fi epic for the digital age. Problem is, there is more to a movie than just the special effects. The story plods along, at first intriguing with its possibilities and gradually disappointing when it can't pay any of them off. The action sequences quickly dwindle and we're left with a lumbering anti-climax leading to a limp denouement. There is a lot of great ambition to make Tron Legacy an exciting epic, and for a time it is exciting. But when the epic takes over, the exciting crumbles to digtized dust, leaving an unfortunately mixed Legacy in its wake.
Now we have Tron Legacy, a decades-later sequel that lives up to its predecessor on both the visual and screenplay levels -- which is to say, it looks incredible and feels increasingly leaden and cumbersome as the story unfolds. The film is an infuriating dichotomy of visceral thrills that pulsate off the screen and a plot so inexorably drawn to mundane family emo-drama that it loses stream in spite of its impressive CG rendering.
The films opens with the thundering intrigue of Daft Punk's all-consuming score, which builds epic-level tension even in the film's drabbest moments. Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges, made digitally youthful in certain sequences), creator of the awesome-but-dangerous world of Tron, sits with his young son, Sam, sharing the ultimate bedtime story -- a tale of digital wonders and artificial intelligence in a world where anything is possible. "One day I'll take you there," Kevin promises, before riding off into the night on his Ducati and vanishing from the known world...for the next 20 years.
Shift to the present. The 27-year-old Sam (Garrett Hedlund, effectively brooding) lives alone in one of those film-tastic man caves full of awesome toys and a refrigerator full of beer. Sam is an aimless rebel now, the primary shareholder in his father's company, Encom, though he refuses to take the reins as CEO. Instead, Sam rides through the city on his own sweet Ducati and makes a habit of dare-devil jumping on skyscraper ledges, Dark Knight-style. Specifics of the plot can quickly suck all the life out of a simple synopsis, but soon Sam is alerted to a message sent from his father's old office -- an office that's been vacant ever since Kevin's disappearance. Sam revisits the condemned Flynn Arcade, fighting his way through cob-webs to find the legendary Tron machine. Soon he is zapped into "The Grid," where he quickly finds himself doing battle with light-up discs and hyper-stylized light cycles. Turns out Kevin has been sealed inside The Grid and unable to escape, and in time has ascended to a sort of Obi-Wan Gandalfobi status. Meanwhile, his hopeful creation turned sinister villain, Clu (once again, the digitized younger Bridges), presides over this digital frontier with designs of invading the human world on the other side.
Discussing the various aspects of the film's plot can be exhausting, and they are equally tiresome in the film, as the screenplay drones on about society's perfect imperfection and Kevin's irresponsible adherence to work over family. The laborious plotting is unfortunate, given the film's aptitude for creating strong characters. Bridges and Hedlund make a believable father-son duo, and they get wide-eyed support from Olivia Wilde as a naive computer program who lives with Kevin (the precise nature of their relationship is disturbingly unclear). Michael Sheen also turns up in a brilliantly loopy role as a twisted rogue who looks like a digital Jack Frost and acts like a feverishly flamboyant Cyber-Bowie.
And of course there is the film's visual landscape, which is bold and vast and all-consuming. Veteran commercial director Joseph Kosinski brings a slick and shiny sensibility to his first feature film, and at its best moments Tron Legacy feels like another great landmark not unlike how the original film is perceived in many circles, a living, breathing sci-fi epic for the digital age. Problem is, there is more to a movie than just the special effects. The story plods along, at first intriguing with its possibilities and gradually disappointing when it can't pay any of them off. The action sequences quickly dwindle and we're left with a lumbering anti-climax leading to a limp denouement. There is a lot of great ambition to make Tron Legacy an exciting epic, and for a time it is exciting. But when the epic takes over, the exciting crumbles to digtized dust, leaving an unfortunately mixed Legacy in its wake.
