FILM REVIEW - Tron Legacy
By The Masked Medic
Finally! I have some time off and I have two weeks to watch and read whatever I like. You know what that means? That means maybe you guys will get a couple of reviews soon. Starting with this one. I’ve been contemplating for a while to decide if I get a BFI membership but thought, why not? I went to see one of my favourite films of all time last weekend!
‘Tron Legacy’ is the sequel to the hit 1980’s film ‘Tron’. The film starts with a flashback, telling the story of Kevin Flynn, the CEO of ENCOM, who goes missing one day, leaving his son, Sam to be raised by Kevin’s parents. Years later, and Sam has become a bit of a troublemaker, breaking into ENCOM to release its latest product onto the web for free. His father’s old partner, Alan comes to him telling him that he got a page from Kevin from his old office at the arcade. Sam goes over there and whilst investigating, he gets pulled into the Grid, a digital world where computer programs are sentient. Sam comes face to face with CLU, a program his father designed to help build a perfect digital world within the Grid. But CLU seems to have gone rogue and Sam soon learns that he was drawn into the Grid as a pawn in CLU’s game against Kevin Flynn. During one challenge set by CLU, Sam is rescued by the enigmatic Quorra who manages to take Sam off-Grid and to a secret location. It’s here that Sam reunites with his father who explains why he went missing all those years ago. Despite the catchup, it appears that Sam and Kevin have opposing ideas on how to take CLU down, escape the Grid and go home. Can Father and Son put aside differences and find a way home? Or will CLU have the last laugh? Also, who’s Tron?
So there are a number of acting performances to comment on for this film. I’ll start with the lead roles. Garrett Hedlund plays Sam Flynn, and given that this was arguably his first-ever lead role, he does a pretty good job. I remember reading that he got the role after the producers tested hundreds of actors and thought he had the ‘unique combination of intelligence, wit, humour, look and physicality’. Personally, I’d agree. Next up is Quorra, who was played by Olivia Wilde. Wilde was another actress who I assumed would go on to have an illustrious career, and although she has received success from a director’s point of view, her acting roles kinda fell off. There were a couple of minor roles too. Bruce Boxleitner reprised his role as Alan Bradley and also the warrior Tron. Michael Sheen plays the slightly zany Castor, a program whose interests in power mean that you don’t really know what side he lies on. Sheen has a knack for slightly over-the-top roles, but he is a quality actor. Finally, we come to my standout performance which goes to Jeff Bridges, who plays both protagonist Kevin Flynn and also antagonist Clu. Regardless of his acting, Bridges’ voice has this gravitas that I think is just so awesome. Love the guy!
The original ‘Tron’ film has often been described as a cult classic, and there were certainly moments of this film which also felt the same. From my perspective, I think the story was great. I’ve not seen ’Tron’ but to jump in with the sequel, I felt that it was easy enough to follow and distinct enough to be watched as a standalone. Re-watching the film, I had the fear that maybe it would be nostalgia that would make this viewing memorable, but I actually felt the opposite. This film was way better than I imagined. Given the time that it came out, and the themes it dealt with, there was a lot of stuff shown that may be quite indicative of the future to come for mankind!
Right, let’s get to the highlight of this film. The cinematography was fantastic. There was no doubt about it, the aesthetic of this film was beautiful. This ties in very nicely with my second observation; the CGI was incredible. The first ‘Tron’ film broke barriers and was revolutionary in what it did in the 80’s and ‘Tron Legacy’ is no different. The usage of CGI to de-age Jeff Bridges's face for CLU was remarkable. Admittedly now, I’d expect that technology to be a lot better, but given it was the first mainstream film at the time to implement it, you have to give credit where it’s due. Now the music? Well, this film hired legendary musical duo Daft Punk to compose the soundtrack and it could not be more perfect. Overall, this film was Joseph Kosinski’s directorial debut, and given his success with later films, it’s clear to see that ‘Tron Legacy’ was the ship that got his career sailing. It was my second favourite film and remains so. Go see this film!
Rating:
Story: ★★★★
Acting: ★★★½
Cinematography: ★★★★½
Music: ★★★★½
Enjoyability: ★★★★★