Review

Review Date: 19-December-10
Spoiler Rating: Low
Juju Judgment: Junk

Tron: Legacy (2010)

The popularity of video gaming, the rise of 3D, and the public's insatiable appetite for loud, computer-enhanced action flicks can explain why Disney thought the time was ripe to resurrect its 1982 flick Tron even though it wasn't a hit. After all, Tron's claim to fame, such as it was, stemmed from a visual originality which represented a new age of special effects. Wouldn't the experience be improved with today's exponentially advanced technology?

The answer is: Possibly, if the studio had learned from the first movie's failings and paid attention to story as well as pretty lights that go zoom and boom. Yet despite a 28-year gap between movies, Tron: Legacy appears to have been written in less than an hour, and by a 9-year-old. The soporific plot revolves around a boy's longing for his father, which might have been borrowed, along with several scenes, from Star Wars. (Chasing Lucas? How 1982!) Reprising his role from Tron, Jeff Bridges slums it as a software magnate who, in 1989, was trapped in a digital world of his own making, leaving behind a motherless son. Now grown to adulthood but not yet a man, the son (Garrett Hedlund) follows his dad into "the grid," where he meets "programs" (humanoids in tight bodysuits), is forced to play "games" (gladiatorial matches with Frisbees and motorbikes), and meets a nice "girl" (a superbeing of vague description played by Olivia Wilde). The characters speak stale monosyllabic dialogue, with the exception of Michael Sheen as an albino glam rocker of sorts and the eponymous Tron, who doesn't speak and is barely a character at all. At least Bridges seems to amuse himself with the Zen-messianic silliness of his character. Hedlund lacks all humor and spirit. In a world built from 1s and 0s, he is definitely a zero.

After the family reunion, the goal becomes catching the last elevator back to the real world, which ranks rather low on the list of heroic quests. (Disney's hoping for a franchise, so finality is taboo.) Unfortunately, the special effects of Tron: Legacy don't serve to pass the time.* The movie's milieu is short on architecture and definition; it's mostly a black background with light and color to denote movement and texture. This is true to the original but doesn't spark (or suggest) the imagination. Then there's the unnerving sight of a pixelized Jeff Bridges from 30 years ago. Another returning character is the father's cyber alter-ego, who of course does not age. Recent strides in technology have not enabled capturing the fluidity of a human face, so the young cyber-Bridges can only be described as creepy, which I don't think was intended even though he is the bad guy. Combine a stinker script and lackluster effects (and overlay an aggressive soundtrack) and you've got Tron: Legacy, a movie that makes you hope this particular bloodline will run out.

*I saw it in 2D, but 3D alone can't create a "wow" factor.

Copyright © 2010 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.