Tron: Legacy

Nearly 30 years after the original Tron, Disney revisited Tron brought along the sequel with Tron: Legacy. Interestingly this film took a few years to produce with teaser trailers being shown at ComCon three years in a row. Fast forward into the future the story continues focusing on Kevin Flynn's son, Sam. After receiving a tip from a family friend Alan the curiousity of what happened to his father gets the best of him and he goes to the old Flynn arcade to look into a page that came from a number that has been disconnected. Tron: Legacy is a movie that while it has its weaknesses, it is a fun movie that catches the aduience with some great special effects and amazing visuals.

Jeff Bridges reprises his role as Kevin Flynn and he does an adequate job in his role. With the role of Kevin Flynn being a very laid back, almost zen like the difficult part of it for me was simply him using the phrase dude various times made throughout the movie, took me immediately back to Bridges into his role of "The Dude" from The Big Lebowski. Bridges is not as strong as he has been in many of his other roles but he does have his moments where he shines. The moments within the movie where he is the strongest are those moments where he is alone on screen with Hedlund, while he falls flat the rest of the time. The real star of this movie is Hedlund as Sam Flynn. He does a great job at carrying the movie and really does a great job at showing general astonishment throughout the movie at not only finding out his father was alive but the extraordinary world that he has been living in.

 The supporting cast is very workable. Olivia Wilde's Quorra is interesting, as well. There's an intriguing twist to her character, but her fascination and curiosity revolving around the world Sam is from is what gives her character heart. Michael Sheen as Castor/Zuse was very over the top and David Bowie like. I enjoyed that aspect of his role and he really did a great job at making the most of his small time on screen. 

Tron: Legacy received a lot of mixed reviews from most movie critics. The problem seems to lie within the way the film is written and its screenplay. To tell the truth, you don't see a movie like this for a great story alone. The special effects are the main attraction and boy, do they deliver. The way programs disintegrate when they're disposed of, the light cycle battles, airborne chases, and the many fight sequences in the film are just a small example of the dazzling display of some of the most exceptional and impressive special effects ever seen in a cinematic feature. The most astonishing special effect was that of Clu. It was amazing that they used Jeff Bridges today to get all of the facial features that he would have and then using the same technology used to make Brad Pitt older in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, only this time making him look the same as he did when he first entered the grid. While there were moments where you could tell it was CGI, I was truly impressed with how fluid and seamless the look was.

The weakness of this movie was not the storyline like I am sure many have stated. This story is simply a father and son story and if they would have added anything more on top of the other sub plots it would have completely bogged the movie down, which would have taken away from the visual and special effects that keep the audience at the edge of their seat. The storyline moved and that is what is most important in a grand action film like this. The story simply did a great job at serving its purpose in giving us a beginning and end.

Tron: Legacy was a strong movie that I really enjoyed. I think while it had the big name star in Jeff Bridges it truly focused on the rising stars to help make the movie successful. This was vital because now that we care about Hedlund and Wilde's roles it sets up perfectly for a third Tron film. This is not far fetched to say because simply in movies today they always leave them open for the sequels. I really enjoyed this and wish now I would have made it to seeing Tron: Legacy in the theater to get the full sound and visual experience. I am giving Tron: Legacy three and three fourth buckets of popcorn out of five. This is a movie that I will be adding to my movie collection.