Tron Legacy Review

Tron Legacy is a sequel to the 1982 film Tron, and stars two of the leads from the original (both Kevin Flynn and Alan Bradley). However the film makers seemingly understood the cult but none the less limited appeal and knowledge of the first film and thus made this follow up as accessible to new combers as it is fans of the original Tron.

The star of this film is a new character Sam, the son of Kevin Flynn. The film begins as Sam is a young boy with his father suddenly disheartening and presumed dead. This leaves Sam the soul heir of the multi-billion dollar company Encom, whom twenty years later he plays a yearly stunt on Encom which is the only time he is shown to be involved with the company. Meanwhile Alan Bradely who is seemingly the only person to believe Kevin Flynn is still alive receives a page from Kevin's old arcade and tells and lets Sam investigate this for himself. Whilst their Sam finds his fathers old workstation and soon their after find himself in the grid (essentially inside a computer).

Needless to say for those who have seen any trailers or similar, the film is undeniably spectacular, from its light cycle chases to its brief but exciting real world action scene and of course it’s light disc battles and many more. The score is likewise simply phenomenal and I would argue is alone worth the price of 'admission'. However the film is not just a visual and audio treat as it does contain several interesting themes that seem to have been largely ignored by its critics. This is particularly evident with the relationship between Clu and Kevin Flynn and what Clu represent with regards to Kevins character. Their are also themes regarding perfection and imperfection and what that constitutes as well as the role technology plays in our life. Whilst this themes are not going to act as an interesting foreshadowing to our own reality as is the case with the original Tron they are none the less relevant to how we live our lives.

Tron Legacy is a film I would strongly recommend viewing with a quality surround sound system and in 3d (as it's video and audio minus some bass clipping is simply breath taking). Simply put Tron Legacy is a film that comes with my highest recommendation.

Tron Review

“The Original Classic”

As proclaimed in large capitalized text on the blu-ray cover, Tron is indeed a classic that was no doubt not fully appreciated upon release, but more on that soon.

Tron stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn a young enthusiastic programmer who worked extensively to create some of the most popular video games released. Unfortunately his work is stolen by Ed Dillinger (David Warner) who then uses these stolen games to propel himself to the head of the company whilst Kevin Flynn is simply removed from the picture and left to scrape what money he can through his arcade. In spite of this Flynn remains determined to clear his name and return to his rightful place and so starts Tron which sees Kevin accidentally enter a computer world which is populated by users, which are essentially virtual representations of people in the form of programs.

As previously mentioned Tron does not seem to have been appreciated on release however over thirty years later and I imagine it has become increasingly appreciated as some of the ideas and concepts present have become a reality. The most obvious of which being ones second 'life' in the computer world which is indisputably occurring with such wildly popular websites as Facebook and Twitter. Whilst it is true that many ideas are more hinted at rather then fully explored they remain none the less astonishingly present for a film that was made before terms like bit or program where common knowledge.

The acting throughout much like the film is fittingly campy and Jeff Bridges enthusiasm practically oozes of the screen and provides for a particularly fun performance that helps mask the films several shortcomings. The other actors are for the most part are not as impressive as Jeff Bridges but still manage to help give this film heart that it so could easily have not had and saves the film from being nothing more then what today still remains a visual splendor.

Some may argue that the computer generated imagery (CGI) of Tron hasn't aged well, but to do so would to not understand the film makers intent. It is true in the more recent Tron Legacy the film-makers wanted the world to look real, however in the original Tron they wanted the world they created to look digital which they are undeniably successful in achieving, often with more standard techniques although a heavy amount of CGI is none the less present which is particularly impressive given that Tron is over thirty years old at the time of this review.

As I previously mentioned Tron is a classic but it is not without its flaws, but when a film is as overwhelmingly interesting and simply fun as it is in this case, the minor issues are easy to forgive.

Highly Recommended.