REVIEW COLLECTION: “TRON” Series, Part 2

(Courtesy Amazon) 

Tron: Legacy (2010) 

Visual effects have certainly come a long way in the three decades that followed the release of Steven Lisberger’s groundbreaking and daring live-action feature about a computer world. It’s interesting that, one year after James Cameron’s game-changing blockbuster Avatar took a quantum leap in photorealistic CGI and risky filmmaking, a long-awaited sequel to Tron also justified that leap into the quote-on-quote “digital frontier.” 

Opening in the late-80s, game designer and computer company CEO Kevin Flynn goes missing, leaving his only son Sam without a father. Years later, when a now-20-something Sam (Garrett Hedlund) has become disillusioned with running his dad’s company, a signal comes from Flynn’s old and abandoned arcade. Echoing its predecessor, Sam gets zapped into the same world (known as the Grid) that his father disappeared into—now a much more expansive, complex, and dangerous universe—and must get to a portal to get them both back home. 

Led by first-time director (and former architect) Joseph Kosinski, Tron: Legacy is visually spectacular. Its color scheme consists of bright, chrome neon lights, from blue disks to red ships and yellow light jets. Not to mention bigger arenas, high-speed action, and more detailed “de-resolutions,” including the gladiatorial games that pit various programs in do-or-die battles. The set design of Flynn’s arcade in the real world is like a retro relic of the past, while his warehouse “off the Grid” recalls 2001: A Space Odyssey. And wait until you see the upgraded light cycles, complete with an incredible sound design. Select scenes in IMAX (which can be viewed on home video releases as well) makes the action and spectacle both dazzling and jaw-dropping, balancing (at best) practicality and computer data. 

Bruce Boxleitner returns as Alan Bradley and his titular program Tron. An uncredited Cillian Murphy makes an appearance as the son of Ed Dillinger (the antagonist of the first film), while Olivia Wilde also stands out as sentient program Quorra. As American rock band Journey contributed to the first film’s soundtrack, it makes sense (both nostalgically and thematically) that their famous song, “Worlds Apart (Separate Ways),” appears in one scene of Tron: Legacy. Speaking of music, one of the film’s real highlights is the awesome score by French electronic duo Daft Punk. (They are huge fans of the original film and make cameos as DJs; ditto Lisberger as a bartender.) 

One thing that hasn’t aged well is the de-aging technology on lead actor Jeff Bridges, who plays both the older and grizzled Flynn and his rogue and corrupting program known as Clu. (Bridges himself wasn’t happy about the uncanny valley results in retrospect.) The story itself feels like a bit of a retcon and polarization of the mythology and world-building established in 1982. For the uninitiated, the story may feel like a slog, despite some thought-provoking themes related to science, religion, philosophy, socialism, and self-sacrifice; especially complicated dynamics between creator and created, parents and their children, perfection and imperfection. (There’s an interesting fact in the trivia section of this film’s IMDb page, mentioning how this secular tentpole echoes Biblical parallels.) Like Avatar, Tron: Legacy is more style over substance, lacking much character development and a strong or coherent story. But what an otherwise visual experience it is. “End of line?” Not yet.