Disney’s nifty new sequel-reboot of 1982’s TRON is, to quote the hip young kids this stylish action-adventure is catering to, “pretty fine and dandy.” (Kids say that, right?) It’s an odd choice for a sequel in many respects: the original movie is almost thirty years old, and the target audience is more familiar with TRON parodies on South Park and Family Guy than the actual film itself. And let’s not forget that the first TRON is as stodgy as special effects extravaganzas get, with leaden plotting and joyless characters working in tandem to undermine every visual innovation that those pre-natal CGI effects were throwing at indifferent audiences worldwide. That’s the supposed “legacy” that TRON Legacy is harkening back to. How the hell did they make a good movie out of that?
Actually the pieces are clearly labeled. In fact, a lot of them are labeled Batman Begins. Garrett Hedlund (who was apparently in Eragon) stars as Sam Flynn, the youthful majority stockholder in a multibillion-dollar company that’s actually run by greedy board members looking to make a quick buck at the expense of their own good name. Bruce Boxleitner plays Lucius Fo… I mean, Alan Bradley, the last member of the board who’s still interested in preserving the ideals of Sam’s father Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), the company C.E.O. who went missing back in 1989. Kevin’s son Sam spends most of his time these days doing ninja stunts and standing on top of tall buildings while cameras fly around in a circle waiting for him to dramatically jump off. And most importantly he has to contend with Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins), playing the son of David Warner, the (conspicuously absent) villain from the original film. Murphy has so little screen time that he may as well have a sign on his chest reading “I’ll see you in the sequel.”
Eventually the movie tires of its own setup and just dumps Sam into “The Grid,” the fantastical universe inside the world of digital information. Here, programs walk like men, wear fetish outfits like hot women and play elaborate videogames using deadly Frisbees and motorcycles that spew force fields instead of exhaust. It turns out that Kevin Flynn has been trapped in “The Grid” for over twenty years, trying to keep his evil programming identity “Clu” from breaking out and wreaking havoc on the real world. Clu is played by a “young” Jeff Bridges, voiced convincingly and animated as well as can be expected via state-of-the-art CGI but never for one second actually mistakable for the real thing. He’s a very impressive wax sculpture at best, which is almost fine in the virtual world of TRON but whenever they trot out this strange creature in “the real world” it’s distracting as all hell. This technology still has a long way to go.
But wait… This is a positive review, isn’t it? TRON Legacy boasts an impressive 8/10 from CRAVE Online. Why are we complaining? For all the familiar story elements and weird technical nonsense TRON Legacy still manages to pull off the strange feat of taking all the high-minded and stuffy intellectual mumbo-jumbo of the original and making it absorbing. A great cast is largely responsible (a hackneyed plot is not): Bridges is his lovable hippy-guru self, Hedlund has the “hero with daddy issues” part down pat, and Olivia Wilde and Michael Sheen steal the film as the only two computer programs who could actually pass a Turing test. Wilde is hilarious and Sheen hams it up a bit, but they inject life into a world that – rather by definition – otherwise has none.
That world itself is pretty but still sterile. TRON Legacy’s special effects are beautiful in a “pass me the ecstasy” sort of way, but the 3D effects are more pointless than ever in a world in which every background is black. “Oh look, the foreground is popping out of the background… which doesn’t exist.” (Save your money. DO NOT reward them for this.) The action sequences are more gorgeous than thrilling, which fits the New Age tone of the film perfectly. Also perfect is the ethereal score by Daft Punk, which plays like the ideal marriage between Tangerine Dream and Escape From New York-era John Carpenter. Many a hipster will be having sex to these sweet Oscar-worthy beats in the coming weeks, I assure you. (I bought my copy as soon as I got home, if you get my drift. Snicker…)
Like the original, TRON Legacy is an experience: stylish beyond substance, certainly, but a feast for the senses you’d be foolish to turn down (unless it’s in 3D, then turn it down all you want). Unlike the original, it’s got an actual storyline and more than one character with a personality. It’s the kind of film that puts you into a hypnotic trance, which is fitting since TRON Legacy is a totally far out way to spend an evening even though you won’t remember a damned thing about it the next day.
CRAVE Online Rating: 8/10
