I must begin this Tron Legacy movie review with a confession. At 23 years old, I’m not at all familiar with the Tron Legacy and the Tron franchise history until I saw the subway ads recently. Ironically, it wasn’t until I was heading out of the house for the screening that I saw the trailer. Honestly, I wasn’t really moved by the 30-second teaser of the Disney movie. What I did know was that the movie was in 3-D and the event was hosted by the good folks at Vibe Magazine. Unfortunately, I’m not a big fan of all this 3-D stuff so I wasn’t too excited about this Tron Legacy movie review. However, by the time this film was over I was highly impressed with what they created visually, conceptually, and even musically.
Spearheading the Tron franchise history was the original movie released in 1982, featuring live-action and animation. It was written and directed by Steven Lisberger after about six years of concept development. Disney eventually picked it up after it was rejected by some other studios. The movie found success and eventually sparked the Tron franchise, which included video games and comic books. The film starred Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, the man who creates this game, and CLU, a character he creates to help him make it through the first film. Bruce Boxleitner also starred as Tron. Tron was basically the story of video game creators who become the players in the game.
The Tron sequel movie, Tron Legacy starts up shortly where the last film ended with the disappearance of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Brides returns to reprise the role) who leaves behind a young seven-year-old son, and heir apparent, Sam Flynn. The movie flashes ahead 20 years later to find that the son is still devastated by the disappearance of his father and although he has majority control of his father’s company, ‘Encom,’ he refuses to take part in its operations except for his once-a-year disruption. Sam still has doubts about his father’s disappearance but has come to grips with the fact that he’ll never see him again. When Kevin Flynn’s old friend Alan tells Sam that he received a page (yes a page, because he kept his pager from 20 years ago) from Kevin from the original Flynn office, he urges Sam to go check it out. When Sam goes to the office, he finds the true cause of his father’s disappearance and that’s when the Tron sequel movie really begins!
The movie does take a while to start because it has to give you all the backstory if you aren’t old enough to know how the Tron franchise history all started. There’s still tons more to find out throughout the movie though which helps make the 2-hour movie bearable. The Tron sequel movie is directed by newcomer Joseph Kosinski and Steven Lisberger returns as the producer.
The soundtrack for the film was put together by Daft Punk and they may have changed the way the Tron franchise history and movies sound forever. There was music everywhere in the film and it always fit perfectly! The 3-D technology is also used precisely for this film, a true compliment to the colors, the action sequences, and the costumes. Besides Avatar, this is the only movie I’ve seen that probably wouldn’t look as good without the 3-D use. There is a Matrix sequel feel to Tron Legacy with all the underground activity and advanced machine technology. Tron finds a way to make it much more visually appealing than the Matrix sequels were able to.
For science fiction, comic book, and Tron franchise history fans, the Tron sequel movie may easily be the best movie of the year and quite possibly the best thing since Avatar. Although this is a Disney movie, this isn’t really for young children. Feels just a bit too deep for them, I feel like they’ll be one too many questions during the movie then you’ll want to answer, but if they like lights and bright things then they’ll be too engaged to bother.
If you’re looking for a good movie to end your year off right, the Tron sequel movie is probably your best bet. It will be the topic of conversation going into the new year for film lovers and it’s going to lead the way for 3-D films in the new year. Take the time out. You’ll enjoy it, and this Tron Legacy movie review guarantees it.
Tron Legacy movie review
This film receives a PARL
Rating System:
P… Horrible
PA… Tolerable
PAR… Good
PARL… Kinda Great
PARLÉ… Classic
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