Joseph Kosinski’s follow up to the 1982 cult classic Tron is an electro-gothic sci-fi adventure continuing the story of videogame and software designer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges). Tron: Legacy largely takes place in a ‘bio-digital’ world of wonder where a young man – Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) – searches for his missing father who disappeared mysteriously one night in 1989.
The first thing you’ll notice in Tron: Legacy is the daring computer-animated version of a young Jeff Bridges. It is both freaky and brilliant in its application and was always going to be a gamble to undertake and deliver.
Directors obsessed with technological advances have been banging on about photo-realism for ages. Here, the bar is raised incredibly high, yet it still looks peculiar and unconvincing – especially when he’s talking.
There’s plenty of homage paid to Lisberger’s work and more than vague echoes in the narrative itself. There’s a lot to set up with regards to back story and also the very concept of Tron. Will you need to have seen the first film to understand what’s going on in Tron: Legacy? The answer is, perhaps infuriatingly, both yes and no. Some will remember it and some won’t. Some weren’t even born and some just about.
However pretty much everybody in the world who loves movies knows the iconic light-cycles and neon-striped costumes/set designs that made it stand out from the crowd. Knowing what occurs in the 1982 movie adds nice reference points and nuances, but a first-timer won’t be lost.
Kosinski and his production team take the material and expands it in terms of scope and depth, and not just on visual and special effects terms, alone. Claudio Miranda’s cinematography is pretty extraordinary and one of the major positives.
In the Imax format Tron: Legacy offers an elegant, exciting and thunderous experience. The crisp palette and cavernous dimensions of space make it a rich and sumptuous feast on the eyeballs. If you have the chance to see it in Imax you must take it.
Along with a returning Jeff Bridges it’s great to see Bruce Boxleitner reprise his role as Alan Bradley, the man responsible for Tron back in the day as a security program that marshalled Encom’s Master Control Program. Does he make an appearance in his digital guise? That would be telling…
The Grid has been upgraded to such an extent that it bears only a passing resemblance to the original. It’s like a grandson meeting his great-grandfather. The general ambience is unmistakable but long gone is the basic graph paper lines now heightened and defined with much sleeker streams of colour-coded light.
The high point on the acting front is the delightful ‘tronimatrix’ Quorra, excellently played Olivia Wilde. She gives the film a goofy sort of charm with her passion for Jules Verne and dreams of the outside world. Quorra’s introduction during a perilous moment for Sam Flynn is very cool and her narrative arc clearly sets things up for any potential sequels. Beau Garrett, too, also livens things up as the super-sexy ‘siren’ Gem in a couple of scenes.
The sheer amount of detail in every single aspect of design really demonstrates Joe Kosinski’s architecture school background. There’s a mixture of futurism, modernism and gothic clashing to birth some new vision of a computer world. In Imax, the world of Tron, is staggeringly beautiful. And how many sci-fi films get called beautiful? Along with the ‘Man becoming God’ storyline, Tron: Legacy it feels like a fresh take on romanticism. Shall we call neon-romanticism?
Wait until your eyes are exposed to the light-cycle race and the incredible aerial battle between villain Clu (Codified Likeness Utility) and our heroes. The Imax ratio will have you drooling at the eye candy on display. It’s the beams of light trailing behind the vehicles and sense of speed that really grabs the imagination. All this goes hand in hand with Daft Punk’s pitch-perfect score mixing grandiose string arrangements with colossal techno beats.
So in all this brilliance and excitement is there anything that doesn’t quite work? Yes, there is. Garrett Hedlund is a bit wooden in the lead role when it comes to emoting but thankfully he’s helped by a brilliant supporting cast. The CG Jeff Bridges, as noted, is more than likely not going to convince you too much. Cillian Murphy’s brief cameo as Edward Dillinger – son of David Warner’s villain Dillinger/Stark – is quite pointless. Thankfully the slight flaws don’t impede the overall enjoyment.
For a first time director like Joseph Kosinski this is a rather incredible and masterful debut. There is, however, an interesting schism between the two movies. The original Tron had a rather obvious religious subtext and has now been replaced with a much less controversial political one. Clu is a bit like a computer Hitler or Stalin with his aggressive policies, genocide and warmongering. One moment towards the end recalls the Nuremberg rallies of the 1930s re-designed by a robot Albert Speer. It is certainly an uncanny reference point and quite striking.
If one wishes to bestow ‘critical theory studies’ on Tron one certainly can. It’s not an empty-headed Michael Bay blockbuster on display. Kevin Flynn is a man taking the role of God and being destroyed for his folly. It’s an ages old cautionary tale. Flynn could also be seen as a Dr. Frankenstein figure. Does this make Quorra the Bride of Tron?
In the first film Flynn is a cheeky, smiley sort convinced of his own brilliance and sense of justice against the greedy corporations. Twenty-five years later, he’s an old man weathered and beaten by his time spent in the digital prison of his own making and obsession. He’s the mad scientist who wasted his life searching for perfect without realising it was unknowable until it was too damn late.
Tron: Legacy, like all films, has its flaws but for two hours you’ll be sucked into the dream world and savour every minute and second of this sci-fi spectacle. Some pictures were definitely made for Imax.
Rating: ?????
US Release: 17th December
UK Release: 17th December