Film Review: Tron Legacy

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Just short of 30 years after the original Tron movie was released, a sequel was released bringing back old favourites like Jeff Bridges as Flynn and Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley who were the heroes of the original. It was a movie I had put off watching since its release in 2010 as the original was probably my favourite movie as a kid and didn't want the memory tainted by a sub-par sequel that wasn't needed. The original spawned fantastic retro games and was praised for its pioneering graphics which were revolutionary at the time.

The new look lightcycle

Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is missing causing many problems at his company Encom which is losing money and his son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) is convinced by Sam Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) to investigate a signal from his Dad's old video arcade. There he discovers a secret tunnel which leads to him to be teleported into the virtual realm that his Dad created 20 years ago. In there he is instantly forced to fight on the grid before he is rescued during the light cycle contest by Quorra (Olivia Wilde aka Thirteen) and taken to his Dad who has become trapped because his duplicate is now in charge of the Grid. They then plan to get to the portal before it closes so they can escape back to reality.

My immediate reaction is that it wasn't as bad as I first anticipated after falling in love with the first film as a child but felt that the film didn't really know what it wanted to be. It is a sequel as we come back 20 years later but the plot is inherently the same as the original in so many ways that it might as well be a remake. I understand it wanted to remain true to the original in terms of the games and how the grid works but they didn't have to make the same movie but branded as a sequel.



Kevin Flynn returns (Jeff Bridges)

Naturally with the huge improvements in the years since the original it is visually a fantastic spectacle with the high definition gloss making the light seem pin sharp but this is something you would instantly expect in this day and age. The score for the film was written and performed by the popular French electronic group Daft Punk which is again superb and in perfect keeping with the context of the movie which again should be applauded.

There are a few moments where the movie creeps into Star Wars territory with light saber like battles but one of the main gripes is the cheesy and clichéd acting of Garrett Hedlund, in fairness some of the problems stemmed from the script but his delivery of certain lines were obviously meant to appeal to kids. Look out for a superb cameo by Martin Sheen in the second half of the movie.

2/4 enjoyable but muddled return for Tron