TRON: Legacy Review

There are no spoilers in this review.

PLOT: Twenty years after Kevin Flynn, the CEO of ENCOM International, disappears, his son Sam finds himself sucked into a mysterious computer world ruled by his father's doppelganger, who rules with an iron fist.


THE GOOD: Special effects. TRON: Legacy is eye-candy. It rivals the effects in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World as best of the year for me. When Sam Flynn (played by Garrett Hedlund) first enters the Grid, the mood of the film completely changes and you're sucked into the gorgeous visuals. It looks wonderful and I think director Joseph Kosinski and the visual effects team, led by Academy Award-winner Eric Barba, really focused on the details and creation of this world. The new light cycles, the disc wars, and the looks of the Grid itself is very imaginative. Will it stand the test of time? TRON's visual effects in 1982 were a breakthrough, but now they look a bit cheesy. How will Legacy's effects look in about 30 years? To give you an idea of how much work went into the effects of the film, here's a little trivia fact: Shooting the film lasted only 64 days.... post-production lasted 68 weeks.

SAM: "I totally crashed your Ducati." KEVIN: "What!?" SAM: "lol, j/k."

Sound effects and music. TRON: Legacy is also ear-candy. Daft Punk was perfectly chosen to create the score and it is flawless. It captures the sound of the first movie while also being its own. And it is also very much Daft Punk and their style, but a little more orchestral. I can't imagine anyone else doing this soundtrack. I've been listening to it like crazy, especially in the car trying not to speed. I named it one of my favorite albums of the year and it's my favorite soundtrack of 2010, hands down. Also pleasing to the ears were the sound effects. Kosinski did what any good director of a blockbuster movie should do and deployed Skywalker Sound for the effects and mixing. They used a lot of real-world sounds in Legacy to make the Grid feel more real. Since the Daft Punk score was done before the script was really even finalized, the audio team had a chance to really fit the sounds and dialogue in the movie. By the way, you get all this beautiful noise in 7.1 surround sound. Try to sit in the middle of the theatre for this one.

Costumes. Great job on the wardrobe department's front. All of the main characters have the own unique costumes. All of which are quite form-fitting, with the exception of Kevin Flynn's (played again by Jeff Bridges) black, glowy Obi-wan robe. Kudos to Michael Wilkinson and his team. Would love to see a nomination here. Those with a latex fetish will certainly enjoy this movie. The wardrobe budget for this film was $13 million. Probably because all of the suits use electroluminescent lamps made from a flexible polymer film for the lights. One custom suit alone for the racers cost $60,000.


THE BAD: Screenplay. You will hear about the weak story in just about every review you read, including mine. But, you know, I'm not going to get into the details of it all. Reason being is that the effects are just so cool, that no lame plot, no inexplicable plot hole, and no bad character development can hurt this movie too much.

SAM: "Ummm, so, Quorra... what are you doing later?"

CLU 2's look. I first want to point out that CLU is actually CLU 2. Call me a TRON nerd all you want, but it's true. The first CLU was destroyed by the MCP in the first film. Anyway, there are two ways to make CLU 2 (who looks like Kevin Flynn did when he first made him in his 30s): make-up or CGI. Kosinski decided to go with CGI which is a brave move. Unfortunately, I don't think it looks flawless. He does look really good in some moments, but the close-ups on his face when he talks or even smiles are just awkward. I think it's the lips that they just didn't get right. One could argue that CLU 2 is a computer program and that's the reason he looks like that, but I would believe that if Kosinski wasn't going for a more realistic feel. Still, would make-up have been any better? Probably a combination of make-up AND post-filming special effects would have been better. I'm kind of surprised that they weren't able to do better with this since Eric Barba worked on Brad Pitt's character's look in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I thought they did a great job with his facial features there. Maybe it's harder with an older actor?


THE END: TRON: Legacy has a very weak plot and the character development leaves something to be desired, but the visuals and audio make up for it, big time. Just as Disney has recognized, this sequel is a great opportunity to reboot the excitement in the TRON franchise. Already, Disney is working on an animated television series called TRON: Uprising, starring the voice of Elijah Wood. They are also building "ElecTRONica", an interactive nighttime dance party in Hollywood Pictures Backlot at California Adventure. Legacy is a movie worth catching in the theatres because of its effects. The question comes down to whether or not you should see it in 3D or conventional. I saw the movie twice. The first time in a conventional theatre and the second time in IMAX 3D. I found there to be little to no benefit of seeing the film in 3D. It does look good in a few scenes, but overall, not necessary. If I knew the difference going in, I wouldn't want to pay $4+ extra for it (save that for the poppy corn). But really, you can't go wrong no matter which version it is you see.


DISCUSS: Did you like TRON: Legacy? Did you like the original? What did you think of the music and special effects? What did you think of the story? Did you see the film in 3D? Are you looking forward to more TRON in the future? Do you think Joseph Kosinski will make a good remake of The Black Hole?

One more Olivia Wilde picture. You know... for good measure.