Great sci-fi, like wine, only gets better with age. When Tron was released in 1982 it was a financial disaster. However as the years went by it started to grow on people, and now has a big enough cult following to sell out a sequel for an entire weekend at theaters all across the country.
Sam Flynn is a rebellious young man who refuses to take control of his father’s billion dollar video game company. It may be because he’s too busy pulling pranks on the board of directors, or having a huge chip on his shoulder from when his dad disappeared on him as a boy. His dad’s partner sends Sam to an old arcade where Sam is soon transported to a world he never imagined known as The Grid.
The Grid is ruled by carbon copy of Sam’s father known as Clu, both played by Jeff Bridges. Sam must play the games and survive if he has any chance of finding his father. Along the way Sam gets help from a mysterious girl known as Quorra, played by Olivia Wilde. Quorra helps Sam find his father, who has been trapped in The Grid for decades, or thousands of cycles in computer time. The three must then find a way to stop Clu from taking his army of technological foot soldiers into the real world and bringing his idea of order to the masses. You know, I just realized a lot of good sci-fi stories are tales of boys with daddy issues. I find that peculiar.
My decision to wait and see this film for the first time in IMAX 3-D was well worth it. Like Avatar, I couldn’t possibly get the same experience from watching it in a regular theater. The film didn’t switch to 3-D mode till Sam entered The Grid, which I found very proper. From there the light cycle battles and air combat action scenes where some of the best I’ve seen on screen. Rookie director Joseph Kosinski definitely knew what it took to wow fans that have waited over 20 years for a Tron sequel.
The bad thing, however, about waiting for a film for over 20 years is that it’ll never live up to your expectations. Tron: Legacy is a film with a simple story and characters that are unfortunately not fleshed out enough. Garrett Hedlund does a good job of playing Sam, especially in the more emotional scenes. But I felt like a few more sarcastic comments would have served the character better, and gotten the audience to care about him more. Also, as a user, Sam should have seemed more powerful in The Grid. In Tron, Kevin Flynn had the ability to make things, like a bridge to help him and his allies escape. In this film Sam just seemed no different than the programs?
The special effects crew not only did a great job of creating the virtual world, but also creating a Jeff Bridges that looked like he was still in his twenties. The close-ups even looked great, and if you think they didn’t, just chalk it up to the idea that he’s a computer clone so he’s supposed to look a little digital. The two best performances in this film I think where by Olivia Wilde as the doe-eyed Quorra, and Michael Sheen playing an underground gangster type who is a little nutty, but entertaining.
My question to whether the actual Tron character was going to be in this film was answered, but he was only on screen for nano-seconds, and not done properly. Cillian Murphy seemed to play the role of Sam’s rival in the real world, but also had less screen time than Natalie Portman in Episode III, which gave us no time to see what their possibly relationship is like. I also expected to find more actors in The Grid that where in the real world, like in Tron, but that was not the case.
A special treat for Tron fans was that most of the film’s score sounded a lot like that of the original Tron, only an updated versions of it. Which was something the resonated in every aspect of the film. Plus the bad-ass music that was heard in the trailer actually was in the film, which rarely happens in cinema.
Through all its faults I did find this an entertaining film that is worth seeing. I think I may have to see it again, not necessarily in IMAX, but in a regular theater, just to process the story more. My belief is that all the little things they skipped in this film, like Murphy’s character and the fate of Tron, will actually be played out in another sequel, but left the story in this film a little less complete. Then again, maybe we just expect more from our movies than we did 20 years ago.
RATING: B
No comments:
Post a Comment