TRON: Legacy DVD Review: Beautiful And That’s About It

TRON: Legacy is without question one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen. The storyline however left me wanting a little something more…

It’s as much of sequel as it is a reboot. In the original film TRON, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) disappears into a digital world. Flash forward 20 years to TRON: Legacy, and Flynn’s son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) doesn’t really know what to believe about his father’s disappearance. Sam receives a message that he believes was sent from his father, and as he tries to track down the source of the message, he soon finds himself reunited with his father inside the same digital world. In efforts to escape back to reality, the viewer is taken on a visually spectacular thrill-ride with Sam, Flynn, and Quorra (Olivia Wilde).

My main issue with the film was that I never felt an emotional connection to any of the characters. I found the script so un-engaging that I was about 30 minutes into the movie and just wanted to turn it off. Sure it’s visually stunning – the effects are amazing aside from the fact that Clu (or evil Flynn as I like to call him) was clearly computer generated. Couldn’t they have done some Curious Case of Benjamin Button style effects to achieve the 20 years younger version of Jeff Bridges?

Then there was the acting. FanBolt’s Paul Myers said it best after he saw the movie last year:

Glossed over without a notice are the performances throughout the picture, which are scattered to say the least. Jeff Bridges seems to be channeling a little too much Jeff Bridges, who in recent interviews seems to live in a fun, hippy dream world of Credence Clearwater Revival records and Transcendental Meditation. Focused more on the effects than anything his actors did it, Kosinski must have let Bridges adlib most of his lines because Flynn utters pure nonsense like, “You’re really ruining my Zen, man.” Michael Sheen is similarly unfettered channeling the Thin White Duke as his portrayal of Zeus, an androgynous owner of a nightclub for The Grid elite. As the obligatory female lead Olivia Wilde does her job looking pretty, though, like Garrett Hedlund’s Sam, her Quorra takes such a back seat to the actual setting of the movie the young actors have trouble standing out.

A few things are for sure though: the film is visually stunning, the tech gadgets are pretty damn cool, and the soundtrack is epic. We’ve come a long way since the original TRON. And if you’re a fan of the TRON films this is without question a great DVD to pick up as it has both the new and the original film – plus a ton of extras.

Special features are insane on the Blu-ray release. With a 2-movie 5 disc collection, you can only imagine. There are a number of featurettes including The Next Day: Flynn Lives Revealed, First Look At Tron Uprising, Launching the Legacy, Visualizing Tron, Installing the Cast, and so much more!

Grade: B- (for the stunning visual effects)
Official Website: http://disney.go.com/tron/
Review By: Emma Loggins

Responses

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *