Made fairly recently in 2010, Tron Legacy was the little anticipated sequel to the 1982 underground hit. Originally Tron didn't do perticularly well in box office sales so for Disney to make a sequel didn't seem wise. Disney instead tried to make more family friendly live action movies like Flight of the Navigator (1986), Return to Oz (1985), and Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989).
Tron initially was praised for it's visuals and great acting, but heavily criticized for it's story. Over time, Tron had more than a second look and was praised as one of the best sci-fi movies of all time. Fast forward almost 30 years later and Disney surprised everyone with not remaking Tron using new visual techniques but a direct sequel; bringing back Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner from the original movie. (Both have gone on to great careers) Fans of the original Tron were chomping at the bit to see just where the story goes.
What we got was something with much more bright lights and far less depth. The original movie challenged the audience to think about God and technology in radically different ways. The only thing Tron Legacy inspired were video games and a great soundtrack.
Much like the original Tron Legacy had top notch visuals. The Lightcycles and disk throwing was beautiful to watch. They also took some interesting technological risks in digitally trying to de-age Jeff Bridges to make him look more like he did in 1982. But the problem with taking risks is that the effect could fall flat. The digital de-aging effect looked terrible. It never looked real enough and when Jeff Bridges is playing the villian, CLU it might be okay, but when we first see it in a flashback, it's just really bad. In some ways, doing the effect worse for CLU would've been better. By making him less humanlike, it could've made CLU more menacing and unworldly. In the 1982 movie, the grid was far from picture clear. It was blurry with this weird light thus making it clear that this isn't the normal world.
And then there's the story. Oh my God is it just dumb. Here's the story in a nutshell. Flynn (Jeff Bridges) had a son named Sam and when Sam was young, Flynn disappeared. He got stuck in the Grid when CLU turned nazi and began exterminating a new race of programs that were born inside the new Grid Flynn built. You might be thinking I'm taking a cheap shot by calling CLU a nazi, but when a mass extermination is called "the final solution" I make no apologies. So, Sam somehow ends up on the Grid, and must save the ISOs and his father.
While the first movie took great pride in the anthropomorphism of different computer programs, in Tron Legacy that concept is completely abandoned. And that's probably the worst problem with this movie. After almost 30 years, what a great time to update the series! Imagine all the great technical breakthroughs in computer science even in the last 10 years let alone the last 30! Can you imagine what a wi-fi telecommunications program would look like? How about a multi-core processor? Instead we get a prissy, blue tinged douche air guitaring with a cane.
The movie itself is like a disney theme park ride. It'll hit all the highs and lows of a standard action movie and does it with a kick ass soundtrack and beautiful scenery. But for me, this movie could've been so much more and just didn't want to be. It dumbed itself down in order to appeal to a larger audience and sell video games. The movie itself is satisfying as a popcorn flick but I was greatly disappointed.
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