TRON: Legacy (***)

Directed by: Joseph Kosinski

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, Martin Sheen, Beau Garret, Cillian Murphy, James Frain, Daft Punk, Owen Best

Seen: December 27^th 2010

*** Out of ****

TRON: Legacy is excessively cool. My thoughts continually went in the direction of: “Holy Crap, this is shiny!” The special effects are fantastic, the action is high octane, and the soundtrack by Daft Punk is brilliant. Throughout the movie I wanted to open my eyes and ears wider to let more awesome in.

Things start off in 1989 with Kevin Flynn (Bridges) telling his son Sam (Best) stories about a virtual world he created where Clu (also Bridges) works at creating the perfect system, and Tron (Boxleitner) keeps the Grid secure. Sam doesn’t realise that when his father walks out of his room, it will be over 20 years before he will see him again, as Kevin is ‘delayed’ inside the Grid by events of his own inadvertent making. 20 years later Sam is the largest stock owner in ENCOM, Kevin’s company, but he only drops by once a year in rebellion against what is being done to the company.

Alan Bradley (also Boxleitner) drops by Sam’s apartment to tell him of a page from Kevin’s arcade, from a phone disconnected for 20 years. Sam investigates, and when he runs the last command on his father’s PC he himself gets transported into the Grid, where he is immediately captured and, gladiator style, forced to compete in the games. From him entering the system the movie switches to 3D, and this certainly is some of the most immersive use of 3D seen since Avatar. The special effects, again, are cutting edge, and the imagination that must have been invested in some concepts in this movie (and obviously inherited from the 1982 prequel to this movie) beggars belief.

The movie’s flaw however, is that there is only the bare essentials of a story – son goes to save dad and they’re interrupted by various action scenes en route. At points the exceptional music from Daft Punk is so overpowering that it completely drowns out some of the already sparse dialogue, and there is a definite sense that some ideas could have been expanded to create a more convincing story. Visually this is one of the most impressive movies I’ve ever seen, and even though the screen is filled with only black, blue, orange and white, you never tire of it – it just looks so cool.

Jeff Bridges has been aged down for both his 1989 version and Clu, and while he squarely inhabits the uncanny valley (that almost creepy quality animation exhibits in attempts to be real), it works perfectly for Clu, the creepy tyrant of the Grid. Even in a story so preposterous, Jeff Bridges shines, bringing some true emotion to the reunion of father and son after 20 years. Garrett Hedlund is a good choice for Sam Flynn, even though he’s not asked to stretch his acting chops by too much; and Olivia Wilde is great as Quorra, Kevin’s apprentice of sorts.

As I said, TRON: Legacy is excessively cool, and just for its high level of eyeball pleasing awe I will see it again and again, just a pity the plot couldn’t also be as awesome.