Director: Joseph Kosinski
Story: Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis, Brian Klugman, Lee Sternthal
Screenplay: Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis
Producers: Sean Bailey, Jeffrey Silver, Steven Lisberger
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, Michael Sheen
MPAA Rating: PG
Running time: 127 min.
(3/5)In 1982, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences refused to nominate Walt Disney’s Tron for an effects Oscar on the grounds that the films use of computer generated imagery gave it an unfair advantage. My, how the world has changed since then. In the current cinematic era, the idea of a Hollywood blockbuster without the use of digital effects is unimaginable; characters, landscapes, even entire worlds can now be created on computers with as little as a few well chosen keystrokes, amazing and engrossing audiences all around the world. Like it or not, CGI has forever changed the face of the motion picture industry, altering the way we make and consume movies every bit as much as Technicolour or even sound. Twenty-eight years later, the much anticipated sequel to Tron has finally emerged, and like the original it is a film that reflects both the present and the future of the digital moviemaking age. For both better and for worse.
While Tron marked the beginning of a new and exciting time in digital animation, Tron: Legacy is indicative of an era where the effects look shinier than ever, but where audiences are all too willing to be overpowered by CGI at the expense of a story. There is no doubt that Tron: Legacy is an impressive film to behold – the grid, once monotonous and without texture, is now a stunning environment of dark graphics and dazzling lights. The cinematography both in and outside of the computer is beautiful, while the CGI and costumes are striking both in their realistic feel and their creative design. Likewise, the action, featuring a variety of different weapons and vehicles, is thrilling and thoroughly eye-popping. Matching the visuals beat for beat is a phenomenal score by French electronic duo Daft Punk; the group combines their typical cyber-punk tracks with some sweeping orchestral pieces, the results of which compliment the film both in magnificent scope and electrifying tone.
Unfortunately, like so many modern day blockbusters, Tron: Legacy is all style and no substance. Although the movies aesthetic is engaging enough that we often do not notice, when we are forced to examine the story, we see that it is filled with predictable twists and turns, convenient coincidences and sudden unlikely changes of heart. The nuts and bolts of the plot follow Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) trying to escape from the same cybernetic world that his father disappeared into twenty years earlier; a world that since the events of the first film has fallen under the rule of the malevolent program known as CLU. Young actors Hedlund and Olivia Wilde do a good job making the more cringe-worthy dialogue sound genuine, and Jeff Bridges is unsurprisingly terrific in his dual roles as both CLU and Sam’s captive father Kevin Flynn, bringing the kind of entertaining levity to the latter role that only “The Dude” can provide. Michael Sheen also has an entertaining turn as a flamboyant night-club owner, but ultimately none of the actors can do much hamstrung by such a mediocre script.
Like its predecessor, Tron: Legacy arrives at a time in cinematic history when a new technology seems on the verge of taking over. Since James Cameron’s Avatar hit screens this time last year, 3D has become the word on every studio-heads lips, the fall-out of which has been a glut of atrocious looking action films being hastily converted into 3D during post production. Tron: Legacy was meant to be different; filmed in 3D rather than post converted; this film had the potential to be the Avatar of 2010. Unfortunately, it seems that director Joseph Kosinski is no James Cameron: the 3D in this film is abysmal. Whenever the camera moves, or whenever there are bright lights on display (which in this movie is always), the effect is blurry, unfocused and extremely distracting. This is a film where you’re entire enjoyment is predicated on crisp and captivating visuals, and if you cannot see Tron: Legacy in 2D, do not see it at all.
I have no special place in my heart for the original Tron. To me, the effects seem dated and cheesy, and story quite frankly is no better than what we get here. Yet Tron will always be an important film, because it showed audiences something on a visual level that they had never seen before – in a lot of ways it was the Avatar of its time. Its sequel, by comparison, does nothing new or innovative. Tron: Legacy, while perfectly entertaining and visually stimulating, is ultimately like the dozens of other forgettable blockbusters of 2010, films whose greatest achievement is that they remind us why movies like Inception and Scott Pilgrim should be held in such high regard; the former because it is thrilling without ever bombarding us with CGI, and the latter because it does just that, but in a way that serves the narrative rather than overwhelming it. In this current cinematic climate, films like those are in the slender minority. That perhaps is Tron’s true legacy: a world that favours effects over story, eye-candy over food for thought; where visuals are everything, and where its sequel is just another film.
Easiest thing you can do is compare it to its cinematic cousin, the films of Wachowski, for me its better than Revolutions and its pretension, but no as good as the fun of Reloaded, to be honest its better than the original, cause it has lesser acting and economy and more chess but has much better effects, cool and music.
Did you see it at IMAX Tom? I’m in Hobart (where I also saw Somewhere, King’s Speech on Friday NICE) for three weeks, so missed out on the light-skateboard ramp, the tron bar and all others wackiness at the Melbourne Museum, so missed that, instead I had to pay for 3D glasses for the first time and was in a school-leaves crowd, my experience could have been better though I did take myself out of the story (though it didn’t have much of one) with all the head-shaking I was doing.
I don’t know what I wanna say, that it did’nt feel 127mins long though I wasn’t having fun, it was cool, a worthy alt-from-reality, I think I know what I wanted, what with The Dude on screen, a SCI FI COMEDY MAN!
Yeah I saw it at the museum – it was a pretty cool experience. A lot of people in TRON T-Shirts!
Saw Somewhere (hated) King’s Speech (quality comedy) am also seeing Sarah’s Key & This Way of Life, but no Black Swan, you going to either Nova screening tomorrow or at Palace on New Years, I ain’t back in Melbourne till Jan 8th (time in Sydney as well)
Look forward to meeting-up maybe at a movie event sometime in Jan/Feb maybe. Let’s hope Wiseau comes for anniversary screening of The Room at Nova, would be a great way to cap off his Love is Blind tour. PS: My new blog debuts Jan 1st, will twit.
This movie was dumb as shit (it actually has the sand-dialogue from Episode 2 in it), but the Tron shit was awesome.
Cinematic Blockbuster without Special effects: INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS.
“Cinematic Blockbuster without Special effects: INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS.”
Proof? Otherwise I don’t believe it. Even editing digitally is a digital effect.
Just got back from seeing this, and I enjoyed it a good bit. The script is all kinds of obvious for sure, but the design is gorgeous (I liked both the callbacks to the original and the, for lack of a better word, enhancements), and I did find some of the themes intriguing – even if the script tended to drop them right when they started getting interesting (like Flynn as a God whose creation got out of control, and the different ways of interpreting “perfection”).
I disagree with you about the 3D, though – I generally don’t like 3D that much, but I thought it was subtle and well-used here. It’s the only time other than maybe Avatar that it hasn’t given me a headache, and I really liked the decision to only use 3D in the virtual world.
I seem to be in the minority on the 3D issue, although even at the best of times I’m not a fan. I did really like the idea of 3D as a sort of story-telling device (I’ve seen a lot of reviews comparing it to The Wizard of Oz), but at the end of the day I thought it looked pretty weak.
Did you say you saw it IMAX 3D? If so, I wonder if that’s the difference – I think Matt Gamble has mentioned a few times that 3D doesn’t work as well at IMAX sizes. I made sure to find a non-IMAX showing.
It was IMAX 3D yes, and come to think of it, most complaints of poor 3D I heard came from people in the same screening as me. Perhaps that is the problem
I thought the 3D was the best since Avatar, and it looked pretty cool. Didn’t see it in IMAX.
It seems odd that a studio would allow screening of their film that aren’t in the highest possible quality available – particularly with the battle to win the hearts and minds of the people over 3D.
There are two different IMAX “versions” out there. True IMAX screens are pretty rare (they are fucking gigantic!) and used to only be used for educational stuff like nature and space docs. Then slowly they started rolling out these films in IMAX. Now regular multi-plex screens have been retrofitted to show IMAX films. Maybe the larger display size just is not conducive to high quality 3D (I realize those last three words are an oxymoron).
Maybe the worst movie I’ve seen in cinema this year. Certainly in the top three.
That’s probably it then. I saw it at a “real” seven stories tall IMAX screen at the Melbourne Museum
Visually, this movie blows Almodovar out of the water. /bait taken
A) that’s completely subjective, B) like comparing apples to fountain pens and C) doesn’t matter how awesome the visuals are if there is absolutely zero of anything else to back it up. If the movie is heartless, storyless, confusing, boring, poorly acted, lazy and convoluted then I don’t care what the film does visually; I’m bored and annoyed.
And for the record, I wasn’t really blown away by the visuals and they get a little bit stale by the end. That 20 minute “climactic” scene was so fucking trite I was almost offended.
We have several ‘classic’ IMAX (Frickin’ huge) screens. They are quite pricey to see a movie in, and are small number of seats based on the design, I’m going to wait until the new year and see it on one of those screens, eventually.
Don’t. It’s so bad (not bad in the way Michael Jackson says it, but bad as one of the biggest pieces of shit in theaters right now).
I think my enjoyment of TRON: Legacy was because I knew what I was getting into from the get-go and didn’t have expectations for greatness. I mean, the original wasn’t all that either…just an effects showcase starring Jeff Bridges. I was really intrigued by some of the themes that Legacy brought up and I wonder if perhaps the film might have been stronger if they stuck with one of them instead of the theme-hopping that they did. I wouldn’t say it’s the worst I’ve seen, but I had fun. Also…Jeff Bridges.
It’s official. Looking over my list of movies I’ve seen this year (theatrically), this is BY FAR the worst one I’ve seen.
I have a checklist of about 12 things ready to discuss on the Cinecast tomorrow night. Jeff Bridges is one of those things. He’s either digitally terrible looking or for some stupid reason channeling The Dude (“dogs are cool”, “far out man” – ugh). Play THIS character, not one from your past. In terms of characters, Michael Sheen was the only semi-inspired role or anything memorable.
What the fuck was Cillian Murphy doing in here!!?
I kind of thought he was channeling Flynn (who is a character from his past, but THE SAME CHARACTER), who’s kind of a Dude-like character in the original Tron. I really enjoyed his surfer zen approach within the super-earnestness of the rest of the movie.
I wish Kurt had seen it before you talk about it on the Cinecast. I could be wrong, but I think there are enough touched-upon themes, even if they’re a bit derivative, to interest Kurt. Maybe I was just intrigued personally by the parallels to Christianity and how that played out.
“I kind of thought he was channeling Flynn (who is a character from his past, but THE SAME CHARACTER), who’s kind of a Dude-like character in the original Tron.”
Fair enough. That would really be a nitpick criticism I would have anyway.
“Maybe I was just intrigued personally by the parallels to Christianity and how that played out.”
Huh?
No mistake, this movie is dumb as shit like I said earlier. Anything that they clunkily manage to get across beyond the trip (Daft Punk + Visual effects) has been said countless times before, and often times much better.
Yea, the ‘Christ Parallel’ is often a goto in ‘hero-quest-slash-the-ONE’ type adventures. They went quite nutty with it in the 3rd part of the Matrix Trilogy. It was much better done in Superman Returns and oddly enough, Donnie Darko. I’m sure there are many others.
Alas, I will be sitting out of the TRON conversation. But I did catch THE TEMPEST, RABBITHOLE and THE FIGHTER. All will be fodder on Tonites cinecast recording….
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It’s actually less of a Christ parallel that I noticed, which is what interested me – you’re right, the Christ story gets retold in almost every hero story. It’s almost the story of pre-human creation – Flynn/God creates a world/computer system with the capacity for perfection and creates angels/programs to populate it, with one angel/CLU/Lucifer to run it and make it perfect. But when Flynn/God discovers (this is an interesting divergence, because Flynn doesn’t create the isos, not totally) another race of beings/programs with unpredictable DNA (i.e., the capacity to be imperfect, but also the capacity to be more than perfect in the computer sense), he abandons the angels/programs for the humans/isos, which makes Lucifer/CLU upset and lead a rebellion, sending God/Flynn into exile for a time, until his son comes. It actually breaks down a bit when the Christ figure/Sam comes in (or does it? Human/iso is saved and taken to another world, but through the death of God/Flynn rather than Christ/Sam), but it’s extremely close to Christian mythology about the fall of Lucifer/Satan. That I haven’t seen done too often. I wouldn’t say Tron did the best ever with it or followed through on those themes, but I found it fascinating that they were there so clearly.