Sequel City — Tron: Legacy
Published by Pop Bunker, December 20, 2010
I know I promised a treasured holiday sequel for this holiday edition of Sequel City, but I couldn’t resist covering the new Tron movie fresh off its opening weekend. I loved the original Tron to death…well, actually, I loved the arcade game that the original spawned. So much fun to play! Those awesome light cycles that gave off the light trails you couldn’t cross or you’d die, the bugs, the slow-moving tanks firing pellets around, the flying disc/weird colorful pylon thing, all controlled by a glow-in-the-dark control stick and a spinning dial. Ah, memories!
I loved playing the arcade game as a kid. I honestly don’t even remember seeing the movie for the first time—I was only five when it was first released. But when I did catch it, probably as a teenager on cable or VHS, I thought it was ok. Shrug worthy.
Anyway, a staggering 28 years later, Disney has released the sequel. And it is a true sequel, not a reboot, which means Jeff Bridges reprises the role of computer programmer turned freedom fighter Kevin Flynn. It even has the same iconography from the original—the above-mentioned light cycles, the computer grid universe, the brightly-colored good guy=blue, bad guy=red jumpsuits.
And the same basic problem from the original: although most of what happens while people aren’t talking is good, the opposite is also true. Maybe this is just time playing a trick on me, but in Tron: Legacy, the wait between good stuff and bad seems longer than in the original.
Tron: Legacy begins with Bridges in 1989, tucking his young son into bed. He talks about being on the verge of something huge with his computer software company, then leaves on his motorcycle, never to be seen again. In present day, the young man (played by Garrett Hedlund) is a rebellious dropout who looks good with his shirt off. He says he wants nothing to do with his dad’s company, but when the story offers him a way to get transported into the computer world, off he goes. Sam Flynn is caught in The Grid, and he needs to get out again…and deal with his daddy issues.
As with the original Tron: Legacy is all about the eye candy. (And no, I’m not talking about Olivia Wilde.) The original storyline was a silly excuse to get a real man inside an arcade game/computer world, to set up what a creative, fanciful place that world really was. There’s more stupid plot in the sequel—and more of the patented corny Disney Live Action Movie dialogue that you will desperately want to fast-forward through.
But when we’re not trudging through exposition, when the movie is not over-explaining its over-done plot, we get some truly stunning visuals. The original’s universe is expanded and built upon. Those old light disc wars and light cycle death matches are presented in 2010 digital, and they are just gorgeous. And it’s not just the action that looks great. The backgrounds of the Grid are updated to great effect as well, and so is…other stuff. I don’t want to spoil anything, but if you’ve seen the commercials or a trailer, you probably know that there’s another impressive CGI effect that the movie pulls off, one paramount to the story. Well done.
And it is genuinely cool to see Bridges as Flynn again. I think Bridges was great in this, as I do in just about everything he’s in. I’m glad that the filmmakers went the Indy 4 route and did it “father and son” instead of just “son.” I’m not saying Bridges’ role was anywhere near as iconic as Harrison Ford’s, but the kid in this was just as underwhelming to me as what’s-his-name from Indy 4. (Yes, I know I could look him up, but I think it’s funnier this way.)
Still though, maybe if the filmmakers weren’t so married to the original Tron, and the original’s family, maybe we could have gotten a story that wasn’t so…bad. One not quite as implausibly silly, with logic holes big enough to drive a fleet of blue light cycles through. And with a better story, maybe the wait between the boring yapping and exciting action wouldn’t have seemed so interminable.
It’s pointless to dream. As a sequel, Tron: Legacy delivers on what you need from it: cool special effects and a decent nostalgia/revamp combo. I recommend it on visual spectacle alone, and it will help if you can forgive the talky/preachy/plot-exposition parts in between stuff flying around at ungodly speeds.
(And the background music by Daft Punk is incredible. iTunes describes music much better than I can—basically, electronic-meets-orchestral—but I can say that fits the action perfectly. This isn’t the best endorsement for the movie, but there were times when my friend and I were enjoying the music much more than what was actually happening on the screen. I left the theater vowing to purchase the soundtrack, and I don’t know when the last time I could confidently say that. Jackie Brown, perhaps?)
As I did with my review of the new movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, I’m forgoing my usual Entertaining Scenes here to avoid spoilers. So that means it is time to bid you adieu. As always, if you have any comments, complaints, ideas for future columns, recipes for German potato salad (no mayo please), please leave those below.
Have a great set of holidays everyone! See you in 2011!