A Thomas Bess review of:
Directed By: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, Michael Sheen, Serinda Swan
Running Time: 127 minutes spent wondering if formatting your old hard drive made you a party to genocide.
Hello friends! First off, in response to the several (two) polite inquiries (death threats scrawled in blood) I’ve received regarding my absence these last few months, not to mention the startling lack of output during October, let me just say that the Atomik Brain Canisters work in mysterious ways and hopefully my recent offering of a genuine hecatomb will result in a veritable flood of brilliant (if somewhat off season) movie reviews hitting the interwebs quite soon. As to my own whereabouts, I can only say that November is somewhat of a Missing Time event for yours truly. I dimly remember Thanksgiving and sitting through the new Potter flick, but other than it’s all a blur. Anyhoo, while I’m waiting for my memory to return, we can take a few moments to talk about this year’s Christmas 3D fest-a-palooza, Tron: Legacy. Full geek disclosure, I hadn’t seen the original until the night before taking in the sequel and because it was well after midnight when it started, the last twenty minutes are a blank. What I remember was fun in a silly 80’s sort of way and it was obvious that the folks in charge were doing their absolute best with the resources available. This new version has all the budget the original lacked and it certainly shows in one astounding FX sequence after another, but it lacks that special something that made the ’82 film such a cult favorite. Simply put, it might not take thirty years to get another sequel, but I seriously doubt we’ll be talking about Tron: Legacy in 2038.
The Plot
For the handful of you who have somehow managed to avoid the rampaging behemoth that is the ad campaign for this movie, the plot goes a little something like this. Sam Flynn (Hedlund) is the brilliant son of the equally brilliant Kevin Flynn (Bridges), a revolutionary game designer who disappeared twenty years ago just when he was on the verge of a discovery that would “change everything”. As a result, Sam’s considerable genius has gone to waste as he spends his days annoying the higher ups in his father’s old company and generally being one of those X-games loving nuisances straight out of a Mountain Dew commercial. All that changes after a visit from his dad’s old business partner (Boxleitner) reveals that pop might not be as vanished as everyone thought. Quick as you can say “impulse control issues” Sam finds a secret office below his dad’s abandoned arcade and accidentally blasts himself into a spooky digital realm where programs are people, everything is edged in neon and the entire populace can wear skintight leather or vinyl and actually pull it off. Upon his arrival, Sam is captured by a digital goon squad and forced to compete on “The Grid” which is basically the Coliseum for more electronically-minded types. Since he was raised by a TV, Sam does pretty well until villainish shenanigans lead to him being rescued by Quorra (Wilde), a renegade program who just happens to be the ward of his absentee father AND have the extremely good fortune to look like Olivia Wilde. So the Flynn’s are reunited amidst hugs and blue lemonade and following a brief discussion about the downside of living in a motherboard, the unlikely trio sets out to find the portal that will take them back to the real world. And oh yeah, the bad guy is a megalomaniacal action figure version of Jeff Bridges who wants nothing more than to take his snazzy new army into our world and do…well, that’s never made quite clear. Suffice to say, both factions are heading for the portal and wouldn’t you know it, they arrive at exactly the same time.
The Good
So what’s good? First and foremost, the visuals of the digital world, both in design and execution are nothing short of amazing. Alternately bleak, mysterious, sleek, chaotic and vibrant, there’s no mistaking their world for ours. And while it’s expansive enough to simply wanna walk around and see what’s going on, the real fun happens down on The Grid during the Frisbee Death Duels and the Light Cycle battles. Yes, it’s a bit like watching a demo for a new video game, but if you aren’t basking in the big noises and shiny things like an awestruck five year old, my heart goes out to you. On the acting side of things the work is solid, though no one really stands out either. Hedlund plays Sam with a certain amount of wounded defiance that might’ve been easier to sympathize with if his character wasn’t the heir to a Fortune 500 company. As the elder Flynn, Bridges channels The Dude quite a bit, while his take on the despotic CLU would be right at home alongside Mumm-Ra and Cobra Commander. Wilde carries the burden of requisite hot chick easily enough (it could’ve been shared with Serinda Swan, who’s pretty much wasted here, alas) though she never really gets that one shining moment to prove herself the badass that she’s supposed to be. Also worthy of praise, the folks behind this sequel have tied it to the first film in such a way that longtime fans will enjoy the references (That’s a BIG door) while those who are new to the universe won’t be completely lost. This is nice considering there are other franchises of the stripe that require freakin’ annotated handbooks to make sense if you didn’t start at the beginning.
The Not So Good
What’s not so good? Well, while no one thing in Tron arises as a deal-breaker, enough nagging problems pile up to make you question the movie’s logic. Not in the sense that you’ll ponder it after you leave the theater but in the sense that you’ll want to throw a box of Skittles at the screen. For instance, CLU is hell-bent on taking over the world of man, but there’s no indication that he or any of his millions of underlings have ever been to the outside. So how do they know their weapons will work on flesh and blood folks? Sure, the glowing Frisbee thing deals death on The Grid, but what if it just bounces off some guy on the street? Then it’s BLAM! Hollow-point round to the face, douchebag! And your invasion goes even worse than the one in Signs which is just embarrassing. Moving on, CLU has a minion named Rinzler and you get the sense that he was supposed to be the film’s version of Darth Vader but because he speaks maybe one line of dialogue and doesn’t really do anything jaw dropping you’re left to wonder why the heroes are running from a dude who looks like any other extra, albeit one sporting a slightly different style of helmet. The fact that the script bungles what should’ve been a startling revelation about him in the last act doesn’t help matters either. One last thing, if you’re going to get Cillian Murphy in your movie, then use the man in your damn movie. Slipping him into one scene strictly as sequel bait is just wrong.
Should You See It?
Should you see it? If you’re a fan of the original and want to see how a massive budget can improve the world of Tron or if you’re just out looking for an entertaining brain escape, you could do a whole lot worse at the theater this holiday season. But if you’re hoping for something along the lines of Inception with more neon, put the price of your ticket toward a few bags of glo-sticks. Crack em, dim the lights, then grab a copy of Inception and settle down. It’ll give you all you’d get from Tron: Legacy and better use of Cillian Murphy at no additional cost.
The Verdict
In a nod to those two numbers that make everything possible, I’d rate Tron: Legacy, 110 out of 1010 and that ain’t bad.
Til next time, always remember that the calls are coming from inside the house.
Tom Bess recently shaved his legendary sideburns at a cost of two hours and five pounds. The end result is a slightly puffier, but much more aerodynamic movie-reviewing machine who is still patiently waiting for Allison Mack to return his calls. While he’s waiting, he’ll read copious amounts of Lovecraft and eat too many Peach Gummy Bears.
