Review of TRON: Legacy (2010) by Phillip B — 02 Apr 2013

I have to admit I did not see the first Tron, which came out in 1982 and also starred Jeff Bridges as computer programmer Kevin Flynn. It cannot have been anything like this one, though, because they decided to make a sequel. While the first few segments in the "computer world" were visually exciting, I quickly became bored with the the CGI constructed cityscape that persisted until the end of the movie. The contrast of darkness and quickly moving bright lights was almost seizure-inducing and left me with a head ache when the film was over. Additionally, I had no idea what was going on most of the time.

The basic plot premise was straight-forward enough- Sam Flynn falls into the computer game his father created and had also entered previously, Sam tries to find his father, something about Kevin Flynn's "disk" being really important and potentially destroying the real world.... How the disk is so powerful is not really explained, but whatever, I get it. However, the smaller details of the plot are hard to follow. During most of the action sequences, I was not sure what any of the characters were trying to accomplish at that moment. Or how this computer game worked- the "rules" and consequences of this computer world. Applying some physical laws, like we have in the actual world, would have given the audience an idea of what could potentially happen to these characters and would have added suspense- we would have had expectations of what was about to happen, and the screenwriters could have manipulated those expectations to keep us interested. Instead, we have this strange Matrix-like plane of existence where some characters can apparently do anything because there are no physical laws. I guess they had gravity, actually.

I am only giving an extra half star because there were a few elements of the writing that I liked...actually let me say "I thought they were OK." For example, Sam rides a motorcycle in real life, and that later comes in handy in the computer world. I thought to myself, "OK, that is a clever bit of writing," but then I was let down because nothing else like that occurs for the remaining 90% of the movie. Trying to be positive again...there were some mythical aspects of the overall plot that I thought were interesting. The concept of a creation that is allowed free will rebelling against its creator is an ancient theme (man and God) and also relates to more modern concerns of artificial intelligence and the coming robot apocalypse. Actually, I imagine these plot elements were probably also central to the original Tron, so I am taking my half star back. One star.

I would not recommend Tron Legacy. Unless you want to spend over two hours in a state of pure confusion or are actively trying to have a seizure, I would not watch this film.