Movie Review: TRON: Legacy (2010)
The effects are impressive, the script is embarrassing
Photo: Walt Disney Pictures
I would say the original Tron was a product of its time. Considering I was only five-years-old when it came out, you may say I'm a product of Tron's time. Yet, I hadn't seen Tron until two years ago and suffice to say, I wasn't impressed. However, ever since first getting a look at test footage for TRON: Legacy back in 2008, it was clear this film was going to attempt to be as visually revolutionary as the first film. But, while TRON: Legacy is visually impressive, it's narratively impaired. The story is overly melodramatic and features dialogue you'd expect from a rough draft, not to mention it feels like more of a "History of Science Fiction" stew than an original product.
The cast includes Jeff Bridges, Beau Garrett, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, Garrett Hedlund, Michael Sheen, James Frain and Cillian Murphy. For more information on this film including pictures, trailers and a detailed synopsis choose from the following menu.
Review
"TRON: Legacy" is a Walt Disney Pictures release, directed by Joseph Kosinski and is rated PG for sequences of sci-fi action violence and brief mild language. The running time is 2 hours 6 minutes.
Okay, that's not entirely fair. Early on the film shows promise. Twenty-plus years have passed and Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) has been gone this entire time. His company, Encom, has experienced massive growth, but it's a mere shadow of its former self — greedy and corrupt. Sam (Garrett Hedlund), Kevin's son, is the majority shareholder, but he shows little interest in having anything to do with the company except for a couple times a year, when he allows the rebel in him to come out.
Things begin to change, however, when a mysterious message sends Sam back to his father's old office at Flynn's Arcade, where Sam finds himself thrown onto the digital grid and face-to-face with his father for the first time in over 20 years. Sam's first hours on The Grid are among the best minutes the film has to offer in an impressive Disc Wars scene and a light cycle battle that proves to be the only reason to really watch the film.
Once the action dies down the words begin to roll and this definitely isn't an Aaron Sorkin or Coen brothers script. Rote, uninspired and uninteresting is the best way to describe this long-in-the-works screenplay by "Lost" TV series writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. It's no wonder why these guys have been stuck scripting cancelled television series up to this point, this story is about as dumbed down as it gets.
When Flynn isn't telling us stories of "isomorphic algorithms" and "quantum teleportation," he's laughing off wifi as he channels the days when Bridges played The Dude. I know it was an intentional decision to make sure Kevin Flynn's vocabulary hadn't updated with the times, keeping him stuck in the '80s when he first found himself trapped, but at some point it just gets old. While I did get a laugh out of his "The guy doesn't dig imperfection" line, the rest of it never comes across as funny or authentic.
Hedlund is fine in the lead role as Sam, but that's only when you compare his performance to the words he was working with. Had the material been any more heady he would have been lost. Olivia Wilde is a nice distraction, but she's just that, a distraction from whatever story is trying to be told around her. When her character sends Sam off to find the enigmatic Zuse we find ourselves in a rave scene out of Matrix Revolutions (only with blue laser light instead of green) and it's at this point the story sputters to a halt.
As I mentioned, the effects are, for the most part excellent, but there's one effect that hurts more than helps. Anytime you see the digitally altered face of Jeff Bridges as his 20-year younger self, CLU, you begin to cringe. Digital Domain successfully took Brad Pitt through the aging process in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but the attempt to deliver a younger version of Bridges is primarily a failure. The end result looks like a combination of live action and the uncanny characters from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Anytime his mouth moves you're wondering how they felt this was acceptable.
On a positive note, the score by Daft Punk is a lot of fun and far more fitting than the goofy score that accompanied the first film. The electronically inclined French duo don't overstep their boundaries and deliver a score Kosinski easily infused into the production to the point it seems the music was just as much an inspiration as were the visuals.
Unfortunately, a solid score and a few scenes of impressive visual effects can't save this stunted two hour feature. From a 3D perspective very little is done to impress and while Kosinski may have the visual eye, his narrative inclination is lacking, but considering this is his first feature film judgment should certainly be held for a later date.
TRON: Legacy isn't a tragic mess of any sort, kids should love it, but if you've seen even a handful of classic sci-fi films you'll find yourself frustrated at how such a cool idea can be ruined by lack of narrative imagination. The bits and bytes are there, but the overall software needs reprogramming.
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Some scenes where obligatory paralels to the first film, (lightcycle and disc duels,the solar sail transport scene) the effects were way better than the original, somehow I found myself more intrigued toward the power struggle between Sam and the Encom execs (specially the pedigree of one of the chief programers), which if explored would have given the movie more depht; since Disney has mentioned trilogy, it is nothing more than a setup to the next film, I'm a fan of the first one wich I saw in New York back in 83, in a sense the original film inspired and indeed was a precursor for all the virtual world movies that followed (which all owe Carrol's Alice in wonderland big time!) but this sequel lacks the originality of the first one because it borrows too many ideas and visuals from the Matrix.
I'm so sick of the Matrix comparison, the Matrix had NOTHING to do with this movie.
As for the obligatory parallels you have to admit the scenes are much more than better effects. If the first film was 8bit, these scenes were at least 128bit. All of these scenes are bigger and better in every way.
The dialog was fine, the only reason people are attacking the dialog is to have something they can complain about. Attack the dialog because you know damn well you can’t attack the effects.
I grew up watching Tron, I have it now for my kids to watch and we all love it still. Tron: Legacy will be added to our blu-ray collection as soon as it come out.
We as a family have voted this Tron to be a B+ (could have been an A- if Cindy Morgan or David Warner had a cameo)
End of line
Did you just insult Lost ? >_<
Brad, we shall agree to disagree here. Thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Never felt the script kept it down too much. Effects and 3D was ridiculous. I felt it was well worth the wait I had to go through.
I cannot explain the movie better then you did. It was quite better in IMAX 3d because of the amazing visual effects. It made me laugh that he slept with his beeper for twenty years… The actors, actresses, music, visual effects, costumes, action scenes were amazing but the script!!! The lines should have been redone.
Not sure when I'll be able to catch this but that rewiew seems to fall in with the majority of the ones I've read so far.
Which is to say, not glowing at all.
Good review, but I haven't seen a lot of sci-fi movies so far, so I guess I'll look at it as a lot less unoriginal.
I guess you could say the only thing glowing about Tron: Legacy are the sets and costumes.
Lost ended on its own terms, not canceled.
btw, if James Cameron directed and wrote this, it probably would've been the highest grossing film of all time and a multiple academy award nominated film; since it sounds like the same type of movie.
Yeah, I was about to say, this reads like a review of Avatar….
If he had directed this movie, it would have probably been quite different. He may not write original scripts, but they are still entertaining and have a lot more quality.
The script was weak, sure but effective still. I really enjoyed this. The soundtrack and the effects however are the star of the show.
The script wasn't even that weak outside of maybe one or two cheesy moments. Hyperbolic to call it "an embarrassment."
That said it was good, but nowhere near Avatar's level for those that want to compare.
i think Brad was being quite measured in his description. You want hyperbolics? Here's my first comment to a friend who suffered through this with me: "I would call this a steaming pile of excrement, but I have more respect for s### than to insult it by comparing it to that movie." What a waste of time and money. Sadly, Dude, standards have fallen in adult entertainment……….
I felt exactly the same way about Bridges' face. What the hell was that? And I made the Benjamin Button comparison to a friend of mine. After seeing such phenomenal effects in Benjamin Button, these guys should have felt embarrassed when they made this movie.
I agree the movie pretty much sucks. But the saving grace was Michael Sheen. Always a nice addition to any movie.
That's funny, I made that exact same Button reference to my friends as well.
I can understand why people don't like this movie. I dug it. Then again, I loved the first film. This one had enough visual and aural sheen (as well as good ol' Michael Sheen, natch) that I enjoyed myself regardless of the weak script. Plus, Daft Punk soundtrack. Dude! Also, lightcycles!
Honestly the CGI Bridges wasn't bad in darker scenes. It was only in the bright light when it looked weird.
It's flawed, but I enjoyed it. Best Imax 3D presentation I've seen, even more so than Avatar-though I'm not saying its a better film than Avatar-and other IMAX 3D films I've seen in recent memory.
Why isn't Michael Sheen a big star starring in his own movies?
He can definitely carry his own film as he was phenomenal in both Frost/Nixon and The Damned United. He was also a great character on 30 Rock and all he is always the saving grace of crappy movies (New Moon, Tron, etc.)
I nominate Michael Sheen for next big movie star.
Well I saw it, and I'd say it was just Ok (like Avatar :-D haha, couldn't resist). But I'll agree with the soundtrack, excellent, as well as Michael Sheen and his Bowie-esque performance, I wish he was in it more then he was.
Oh and yes, Olivia Wilde was a wonderful distraction. I'm falling for her.
That "goofy" ole Wendy Carlos…
I just want to add that the ending was so rushed, and could have been WAYYY better…
LOST is not a cancelled tv show, get your facts straight. And seeing as you probably can't name one episode that you know they have written, it's unfair to insult them based on one screenplay.
Oi mate get your facts straight about lost before you start douching on probably one of the best tv shows I have ever seen.. First of all lost ended on its own merit and not being canceled you fag and Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz weren't the only ones writing lost. The main writers in the lime light were Carlton Cuse (screenwriter and producer) and Damien Lindelof (co-creator, writer and executive).. I think Tron is one of the best movies I have seen all year compared to every movie I've seen this year.. Its one of those movies you can watch again and again in 3d and would never get sick of it..
O'yeah and clu was a digitally imprint of Jeff bridges made to build the digital world, so he was made to look digital. The scenes at the start with his younger self in the real world still looked superb I reckon. Just like Arnold Schwarzenegger was done younger in the 4th terminator..
While I generally agree with most of Brad's reviews, I disagree with lots of this. Giving it a C grade is probably accurate in my opinion (C+ for me) but I didn't feel it ripped off other sci-fi films much at all. The script was a little on the weak side but for a visually entertaining action/adventure movie I can deal with that. One of my main disappointments was the lack of 3D. I watched it in IMAX 3D and while it still looked great I expected a bit more popping out at me.
i saw this movie with a friend and i hated it it was dumb the action & special effects were good and daft punk's soundtrack was really cool but the acting was horrible the script was laughably bad and all the jokes fell flat cause duh they weren't funny (except jeff bridges basiclly playing the dude from the big lebowski again that was funny) and why the hell didn't they show tron as the new program when sam was shooting at him and kevin reminded him who he was i was waiting for a big reveal and it didn't happen and i think we watched the wrong one cause in the 2D version everything in tron came out blurry in the background well i guess that's what i get for saving money dammit this movie was a huge mistake
i whole heartily agree. Having it in 3D was pointless, all this 3D up roar is just down right annoying and a waste of money, i could care less. This movie was boring after the first half i started to fall asleep. My boyfriend did as well. Only my 3 half witted friends seem to enjoy the film. Honestly though they have horror-able taste in films. =) I should of read your review first but it was a last minute thing.
I honestly have no beef with this movie. Sure, the plot is pretenious and often silly, but honestly, there was effort put in! Daft Punk scored the movie. Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxlitner reprise their roles. They go beserk with the visuals. It wasn't trying to be a Dark Knight or Wrath of Khan. I don't like the snide little cracks at it, like THe Big Bang Theory. Overall, i give it B+. Real effort, just very cracked script.
I too didn't view it in 3-D. I just don't like the concept that, if Avatar banked on it, so should this.