Tron Legacy Review “Get on the Grid”

- By Nick McLamb


If you are an extreme Disney fan, you may or may not remember the 1982 film, “Tron”. It told the story of Kevin Flynn, a former employee of Encom, now a arcade owner, and still trying to get credit for all he’s created over at Encom. Long story short, Flynn gets the credit (after a plot in which most would never consider good, but interesting) and he then becomes the CEO of Encom once again.

So, that’s a short and simple take on the first film. Now to “Legacy”.

I’ll skip a lot of what you see in the plot and film itself, because director Joseph Kosinski and his team that produced this second film did an extremely well job of story telling in this film, compared to the first. From the opening credits to the end, it’s obvious it’s Daft Punk at the reigns of this film’s musical score. I was not to sure how it would sound, the first one’s was good, just not great for me. Daft Punk did not disappoint. The ever familiar theme song of this film (you’ll here it a lot) sounds a lot like Fanfare for the Common Man. If you don’t believe me, take a listen for yourself: http://tinyurl.com/2woknrb (you be the judge). Overall, Daft Punk’s mix of orchestration and electronic sounds are probably some of the greatest pieces of movie music since Pirates of the Caribbean. Actually, it is the greatest. Daft Punk has produced one of the greatest soundtracks in movie history. Well done robot guys, you have made Disney proud.

The music is only one of the highlights! The action scenes in this movie grabbed me and placed me into the scenes themselves. I’ve never seen anything like it. Between light sabers, disc wars, light cycles (you will be amazed by that scene, let me just say), giant aerial war machines, the weapons, the battles themselves, man the special effects are some of the greatest since Avatar. Maybe greater! I was kind of getting tired of the Avatar talk, it became almost like this, “It was good, but it just doesn’t compare to Avatar”. If you believe that, and you have not seen Tron Legacy yet, you need to stop reading now and go see it. This film’s effects and 3D models are spectacular. Avatar was a great film, don’t get me wrong, but Tron Legacy takes everything to a new level.

Jeff Bridges reprises his role as Kevin Flynn, Garrett Hedlund is Sam Flynn, Olivia Wilde plays Quorra, Bruce Boxleitner reprises his role as Alan Bradley, as well as Tron. Bridges also plays a sort of “Polar Express” version of himself as CLU, Flynn’s creation from the first film and as you soon find out in Legacy, he’s not exactly a nice guy. That’s one of the little number of negatives I find. The dead small eyes of CLU freaked me out! He was a great villain, and let me just say, he was relentless in everything he did.

The story if you don‘t know by now, is Sam Flynn, the son of Kevin Flynn (now missing for 20 years), goes to find out what the meaning of a page (courtesy of a tip from Alan Bradley (Boxleitner) is, and he soon finds out that he’s not in Kansas anymore. He finds himself on the game grid, a place where his dad promised him that he would take him one day. He meets Quorra, who he finds out soon is a protégé of his father, who he finally finds. It’s a great story of father son, and has a great meaning in the end. You find out from some very true words from Flynn in the end what that meaning is. I’ll stop there.

Overall, the film is a wonderful experience. I love the original, and as bad as the original was, I still love it. It was ahead of it’s time, and you would never think of the story in a million years. With that being said, “Legacy” takes the story to the highest level. It has such a presence on the screen, you won’t realize the presence until about halfway through. Just wait till the End of Line Club scene. Anyway, Tron Legacy is one of the biggest leaps forward in film technology that I’ve ever seen. If you want a film with the story of family, action, imperfection, and all around beautiful scenery and a soundtrack you can really get into, Tron Legacy is your film. Get up now and buy tickets and see the epic film of 2010.

Overall Rating (4.5 out of 5 stars)
Why? I don’t like perfect reviews. It was the closest I’ve ever came.

End of Line.

Film Rating (PG)
Running Time (2 Hours and some change)

-By Nick McLamb