Tron: Legacy (2010)

Movie Info

Come back to Flynn’s Arcade and pop another quarter in Tron

Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) was a computer and gaming genius who built ENCOM up into a powerhouse…and then he abruptly disappeared.  When Flynn disappeared, he left behind his son Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) who grew up to have demons of his own to exorcise.  Sam lives a carefree lifestyle with no ambition to run his father’s company, but the discovery of a secret email might give Sam the location to his missing father.  Finding a secret laboratory, Sam is accidentally transported to the Grid where he learns that the world his father always talked about might not be as perfect as he said.  The Grid is under the control of a dictator, and Sam finds himself teamed with Quorra (Olivia Wilde) in a battle to protect not only the Grid, but potentially the world.

Welcome back to the Grid!

Directed by Joseph Kosinski, Tron:  Legacy is an action adventure science-fiction film.  A sequel to 1982’s Tron, the film was rumored to be in production for years before finally coming to fruition.  The movie was met with mixed to positive reviews and a strong box office.  It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Achievement in Sound Editing.

Tron was a childhood movie.  Though extremely imperfect, it was highly visually compelling and explored interesting aspects of freedom and predestination.  I was pumped for a sequel to Tron for years because of the evolution of the internet and the technology used to make movies, Tron:  Legacy had untapped potential that it somewhat met.

Save me, Quorra…you’re my only hope!

The story is like Tron in many ways without being a remake.  You have a character like Kevin Flynn in Sam Flynn, and his path has some similar branches.  The core story of the film (aka Clu’s attempt to make perfection and to bring that perfection to Earth) was a new story and felt in many ways like a natural segue of the original film’s exploration of programs and their purpose.  Oddly missing from the movie was a real solid “Tron” character with Tron being under Clu’s control and having really no impact on the plot (except setting up potential sequels).

Let’s get this party started!

Garrett Hedlund is a good Flynn replacement and has a lot of the spirit of Bridges mixed with a more modern take (aka he’s into extreme stuff like base-jumping…something that Flynn would have probably been into).  Bridges has the toughest role in the movie playing both another version of The Big Lebowski’s “The Dude” and the cold de-aged Clu (which gives his role more meat than anyone else).  Olivia Wilde plays the romantic interest for Sam and manages to hold her own in her scenes.  Original Tron Bruce Boxleitner does appear again in the real world, but a hooded Tron keeps him from getting the Jeff Bridges de-aging.  Martin Sheen plays a smarmy showoff computer program (which he excels in), and Cillian Murphy has a small role as a programmer at ENCOM (which also feels was a set-up for future movies).  Musicians Daft Punk who provide the soundtrack also cameo in the club scene.

Hey, man…trust me! I’m the Dude!

Tron:  Legacy could go two ways.  It could have created a virtual Earth (like The Matrix) to demonstrate the evolution of computers, but it chose (smartly) to stick with the stylized visuals of the original film which gave the movie an odd German Expressionism style.  The visuals and smooth and sleek, but do miss out from the shock value that the original Tron created in the reveal of the world of the Grid.

Tron:  Legacy like Tron is flawed, but as a fan of Tron and all it tried to accomplish, I still enjoy it.  While watching the movie in the theater, a guy in front of me did a fist-pump and a “yeah” when Tron came back from his evil side near the end of the film…I wasn’t that into it, but I still liked it.  Plans for an immediate sequel were scrapped though the Tron:  Uprising TV series was released on Disny XD and ran for one season.  In 2020, a new Tron film was greenlit by Disney for future release.

Related Links:

Tron (1982)

The 83rd Academy Award Nominations