TRON: LEGACY

TRON: LEGACY (2010)
US
Directed by Joseph Kosinski

CAST:
Jeff Bridges - Kevin Flynn/ Clu
Garrett Hedlund - Sam Flynn
Olivia Wilde - Quorra

PLOT:
     Sam Flynn, the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn, looks into his father's disappearance and finds himself pulled into the world his father created and has been living in for the past 20 years. Along with Kevin's loyal confidant, father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous and dark.

REVIEW:
     Well I waited to write this review just so where I can actually go back and think about and pick it apart in my mind. But something happened while I was doing that. I actually didn't think about the movie at all almost since I watched it. Usually when this happens with movies with me, it means that I could really care less about the movie, or that it was just a "Okay, now I've seen the movie, now what?" I know one of my friends is highly critical of reviews for this film, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go easy on it (please don't spam my inbox!!!)

      I'm going to start off with the basics for this, the main story. If anyone actually stops to think about it, it's not the story of Sam Flynn finding his dad, but instead it's a true Frankenstein story. The creator's invention goes nuts and starts killing while keeping the creator terrified. Now this part of the movie I loved completely. Here's why I like this part, it's because this is what Clu was programmed to do. To be perfect. To create a perfect world set by his creator, Kevin Flynn, lets call him "Frankenstein". While Frankenstein keeps on evolving over time, Clu does not. He has his orders and nothing else. When he sees something new, it doesn't compute so he has to destroy it to keep that perfect world going from his original programming. Due to this, Clu commits almost a complete genocide on  what is a new self evolving species. He does not understand it so he has to destroy it. Hmm, almost sound like Clu is human! Hence starts a 20 plus year game of chess between Frankenstein and his creation/monster Clu, in which Frankenstein has decided he cannot beat his perfect Monster and has decided to do nothing instead, which in turn only makes the whole situation worse. Way to go Dude! Now Jeff Brides I just love in this movie. Just like in the first movie, as is with this one, Bridges makes the movie. Let me explain why. About two weeks back my friends and I watched the first Tron for a movie night, and one of them cracked a joke how The Big Lebowski is the unintentional sequel to the movie with The Dude as a burnt out Flynn. Perfect! Ever since then I've had that in my mind, and it still fits perfectly with the Tron: Legacy. The Dude just got burnt out in the real world is all and he created his own universe! Not really the last part, but wouldn't it be fun if that was what really happened. Anyway, Bridges brings back a older more Zen Dude to this role and it fits perfectly.

     I will also say this for the movie, it is amazing to watch. It will basically melt your eyes it is so cool looking. From the disc fights at the beginning of the movie in which it seems everyone seems to know capoeira and  kung fu, specially cool when the fight goes upside down, to the new light cycle battles. Now this, was so much fun to watch. While the original was amazing to watch back then, it moved kinda slow and in a set pattern. Not anymore now. The bikes can now make jumps, zigzag, and shockingly, make true turns and not 90 degree angles! In the light cycle battles now you actually feel the danger and speed to it. Loved it when the bikes started to wobble before they end up crashing also. Everyone knows that Daft Punk did the score for the movie, and I have to say, if it wasn't for them the movie would have been less than what it is. Their music set the tone for the movie and it stayed that way all the way through to the end credits. Not a lot of people notice the background music in movies which is a shame. Let me put it this way, imagine the first Star Wars movie set to disco music or Aliens set to music by Mozart. Done? Both would not be the same movie without the music which helped make both classics. Music helps a movie out so much due to the fact that it helps create the atmosphere for the whole film. Tron: Legacy will have that advantage thanks to the music. I should also should mention that Daft Punk is in the movie as the MP3 programs in the club. I laughed when I saw this even though I knew they were in the movie.

     Now comes to my gripes about the movie. If you have not seen the first movie, you will be lost about whats going on. Even though some of what happened before is explained, it will still be hard to follow due to there is a back story to the whole movie as well as this movie retreads the past movie in parts, more than it should infact.  As for Sam Flynn, does this character actually evolve over the course of the movie? Does he understand what really was at stake both in the real world and on the Grid. I'm going to say no to that one as even though he is told, quite specifically in fact, that his dad will not be able to make it back through to the real world. But what happens at the end of the movie? He whines that his dad won't be able to make it. I really didn't like the character one bit, it's as if  Garrett Hedlund doesn't really care for most of the movie about the character, or understand, I'm going for the second one. As for the CGI monster, which is a young version of  Frankenstein, graphics have come a long way, and have almost made it to the point where it looks real, it still has trouble with human faces. When they show a young Frankenstein, the colors look off on his face, and the eyes are just dead and have no soul to them. Even in the Grid, the monster still looks as if he's out of a video game half the time. Another gripe, this one is more of a bitch, there should have been a lot more Tron in the Grid. I mean, come on, the movie is named TRON, not Sam Flynn and not Rinzler, who by the way is actually a corrupted Tron. Also the movie had a great actor in it, who's character went nowhere. The actor was Cillian Murphy. Talk about a total waste of talent for such a bit part when it could have been so much more.

     Now while I won't say the movie is great, it is good and fun, which is what the movie needed to be. For the movie to be great it had to have been about more about Frankenstein and why he was truly afraid to confront his monster, due to the fact at the end of the movie you find out he is basically God in the Grid and can reprogram, destroy, or rebuild anything he touches. The movie shows him as such during the air transport scene while his son and Quorra are talking, if you pay attention in the back ground they show him in a zen position like Buddha with a halo around his head. Which by the way,  I found to be brilliant use of scene setting due to the fact during that whole time you could always see Frankenstein as an all seeing and knowing presence.

BEST DEATH:
     The program who gets a hole in his head during the light plane chase/ fight. Hilarious!

BEST LINE:
     Change the scheme! Alter the mood! Electrify the boys and girls if you'd be so kind.

FUN FACTS:
     The skintight "electric" suits worn were actually fitted with embedded light strips, thus eliminating the need for any such effects modifications in post production.
 
     Cillian Murphy appears in an uncredited role as Edward Dillinger Jr. He is the son of former ENCOM Senior Executive Ed Dillinger.

     Jeff Bridges noted that as he was being scanned by laser into a computer (for CGI effects), he realized the same thing happened to him (fictionally) in the original TRON.

     The movie makers opted to painstakingly recreate the original interior and a portion of the exterior of Flynn's Arcade in Vancouver, with the rest of the location filled in with CGI. The exterior even includes the "Space Paranoids" billboard on the roof, but with the addition of the "TRON" logo - in-universe, TRON is an arcade game that Flynn created after the events of the first movie.