After the massive box office bust that was “Tron” it was surprising that Disney would ever invest in another movie from the property again. In many ways while the film was a failure, the concept was merely ahead of its time and it deserved another chance at box office gold and a fan base. Even decades after the film caught on with cult buffs and garnered a fan base, the success of another “Tron” is still in doubt and with this sequel, it’s all still a gamble. Especially in the age of cynicism where CGI epics are a dime a dozen. “Tron Legacy” isn’t so much about a game and the user that masters it as it is a son re-connecting with his dad.
Kevin Flynn is a man who was once like his son, very rebellious and weary to the world who accidentally lost himself to his work. And his son is now the carbon copy of his father, a young rebellious idealist who has every intent to protest the system. The game of Tron is not so much a tool to play a game as it is for a son to find his dad who lost his soul in the cogs and circuits of his master creation, and the lengths he’ll go through to re-connect with the very man he worshipped who taught him every lesson about fighting back imaginable. Garret Hedlund is a worthy successor to Jeff Bridges as the new Flynn, a young man named Sam whose entire world view is based around finding every chance to tick off the master computer from the inside. And when he finally gets the chance to fight the system and find his father once and for all, he gets much more than he bargained for. This time the game has changed.
The game has evolved. Instead of signifying the battle for corporate control and the beginning of the video game age, this is now a tool for love and family, a prop for a man to not only find the only role model in his life, but for a man to find himself. This is a man who finds himself through video games like many men do in the modern era, and with Tron, the experience will bring Flynn in to age as a man willing to accept responsibilities. Much like we saw in the original “Tron” with Kevin Flynn. When Sam confronts his father finally, he’s forced to confront two versions of his dad. The apathetic hermit and the megalomaniacal program, both of whom have plans for the grid, and both of whom promise imminent destruction of their worlds that Sam can not abide by, no matter how anxious he is for a role model.
“Tron Legacy” forges its own path as a sequel and reboot and manages to pay tribute to the original film as one of the most technologically and visually stunning films of the past two years. As a “Tron” property it delivers on all levels of action packed segments including light cycles, characters who are just as involving as the original Tron was, and a villain just as menacing and even more so as the original Master Computer hoped to be. One of the major caveats of the story is that it suffers from a flabby run time, most of which is comprised of weighty exposition with characters who have to explain where they are, how they came to be, etc. all to give us a better grasp of the narrative. The story sometimes comes to a screeching halt just to explain characters and situations and fails to really let us figure out character motivations on our own.
Especially when it comes to character Quorra. It’s a shame a movie with such a visual feast feels like it has to hold our hands through most of the story. With special effects that defy age, “Tron Legacy” is able to deliver for both sections of old and new fans of the premise and is one of the more criminally underrated science fiction epics of the last year I hope sees more sequels and opportunities to tell its story of the grid and the Flynns fighting for a better tomorrow. In spite of weighty exposition and a long in the tooth run time, “Tron Legacy” is a creative and imaginative success. It’s a reboot and a sequel that pays respect to its roots while also paving its own path in to the annals of science fiction and action cinema, and it’s a visually dynamic science fiction epic that satisfies on all corners.
Great review. You either got Tron when it came out, or you didn’t, and the original was weirdly polarizing. Those who disliked the first will not change their minds this time around despite a better score, tighter screenplay, Bridges now an A-lister.
It’s like rolling Stone and Led Zeppelin. When the band first came out, the magazine wrote them off as late to the British Invasion. Decades later, they still can’t suck it up and admit they were wrong.
Hear hear on that last comment.