Some 30 years ago, I watched in fascination as TRON turned my world upside-down. In retrospect, the story of TRON was probably partially responsible for my interest in computers and programming. But ultimately, it was the stunning computer-generated special effects that really blew me away. For the first time, I was inside a video game — seeing reality from the other side of the screen.
Already a science fiction fan and lover of video games (yes, I played Asteroids when it first came to my local pizza parlor), seeing TRON introduced me to another side of computers. The story, filled with floating bits and I/O towers, seems almost archaic today. But it’s still a pretty good story. Having watched it again this week, I decided it is more than a guilty pleasure. It’s a fun movie, even if the visuals are dated by today’s standards.
Enter TRON: Legacy. Just as 30 years has improved our computer-generated graphics, it also changed the landscape of the world Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) created in the original film.
According the back story told in the first few minutes of the film, Flynn was at the height of his success when he disappeared fifteen years ago. His son, Sam (Garrett Hedlund), is now in charge of his father’s company. Though Sam prefers to be a silent owner, protesting the board’s corporate greed.
When Sam goes to his father’s old office to find the source of a mysterious phone call, he is swept away to the fabled “grid” his father often spoke of in his bedtime stories. No longer a place for free information, the grid has become a closed system under the fascist regime of Clu (also played by Bridges). Clu was programmed by Flynn to create a perfect system. Under his totalitarian rule and his warped idea of perfection, the grid has become a model of order where any program considered imperfect is either “repurposed” or sent to the games.
This is where Sam finds himself when he arrives in the grid, without any identity disk. He is quickly ushered through preparation, where his only training is advice to “survive.” He then finds himself competing in a disc battle, followed closely by a race to the death on light cycles.
A recognizer floats over the grid in TRON: Legacy. ©2010 Disney Pictures.
After a timely rescue by Quorra (Olivia Wilde), Sam’s reunited with his father. The homecoming is filled with tension, however, as the elder Flynn disagrees with Sam about the best way to free the system and keep Clu from gaining access to our world.
As someone who has been down on 3D films after last year’s stunning Avatar, I didn’t really think I wanted to see this film in 3D. But seeing TRON: Legacy in IMAX 3D was like going through the looking glass. Like watching Dorothy go from black and white to color in The Wizard of Oz, the transformation from Sam’s 2D world to the 3D world of the grid is amazing. Coupled with the stunning update in computer-generated graphics, the TRON universe has never been more beautiful or surreal.
The film also boasts a soundtrack with a score by Daft Punk. I am partial to Wendy Carlos’ 1982 score that featured the digital synthesizers, and miss that original sound. I understand that may be more fueled by nostalgia than an appreciation of good music, but a nod to Carlos’ inventive score would have been nice.
While the special effects of TRON: Legacy beat the heck out of the original, the story is more simplistic. In 1982, the original film seemed to speak a different language. Maybe it’s a byproduct of the Information Age, but the grid now seems more like a video game than another world. Sure, it’s still filled with “programs” who inhabit it the way people inhabit our world, but little is made of the computer-ness of that universe.
For all its nods to the original — and there are quite a few — TRON: Legacy ultimately feels more like a new version of The Matrix, with a philosophical undertone that pushes audiences to examine their reality in a digital age.
Even so, it’s a fun film to watch and a worth successor to the original.
Rated 
for sequences of sci-fi action violence and brief mild language
127 minutes
FilmGuru’s Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.
Exclusive TRON Legacy image courtesy of Disney Pictures. Click for larger image.
The FilmGuru is proud to be one of the select few fans who has received access to a new Tron Legacy image via Facebook. The image (right) shows what appears to be a promotional banner for the film. On Facebook, poster Laura Schibinger said this is the billboard that they put up on Santa Monica Blvd. Interestingly, the word Legacy doesn’t appear in the image. However, it does say “IN 3D DEC 2010.”
A description of the film from Facebook also refers to the film as TRON, not Tron Legacy:
TRON is a 3D high-tech adventure set in a digital world that’s unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), looks into his father’s disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of fierce programs and gladiatorial games where his father has been living for 25 years. Along with Kevin’s loyal confidant (Olivia Wilde), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous.
Is there a name change in the works for this film, or is going to be marketed both ways? More information as it develops!
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