Lightcycles, When You Positively Have To Derez Every Mofo On The Grid, Except No Substitutes

After a year of marketing and high hopes, Tron Legacy has been critically mauled on it's cinematic release this week. While some of the criticism is fair, much of it has been from lazy, wingeing fanboys who expected something different. Quite what that something is, I cannot say, but the Tron sequel blew me away.

1/ It. Looks. Stunning. Not in the way Avatar did which was a revelation in how realistically computers can animate nature, but in the way CGI can bring to life a completely alien world...just as Steven Lisberger and company did back in 1982 with the original Tron. If you're prone to getting a 'semi' from visuals alone then this is pure Playboy (I know visuals alone do not a satisfying movie make, but they sure go a long way.)

2/ While a great score can never save a movie it can certainly elevate a lesser movie to great heights. Part of the reason I like trash like The Black Hole, King Solomons Mines, Rambo III and Battle Beyond The Stars is because their outrageously brilliant scores elevated the storytelling of solid, if silly movies. In an age where a good film score is a rare beast, Daft Punk's soundtrack is masterfully original. Both 80's retro and 21st Century cutting edge it dominates the movie's soundscape helping define the tone, style and emotion of the movie from the opening frames. It's a heady mix of John Carpenter, Jean Michel Jarre and James Newton Howard and it's effectiveness cannot be underestimated.



3/ Part of it's appeal is that is a genuine sequel to the original Tron rather than a cynical remake of that movie. As such, events in the movie have weight to those that have seen the first film (I still have vivid memories of seeing it with my parents at the local fleapit). Kevin Flynn, CLU, Dillinger, Dumont, ENCOM, Lightcycles, Identity Discs, Recognizers...all are featured or name checked adding texture to this weird digital universe. There are some cute gags referencing the original too, such as when hero Sam breaks into Software corporation ENCOM, noting the same "big door" as the original film. It's also great to see Bruce Boxleitner back on the big screen. Consigned to cheap DVD fodder, TV movies and cable TV series (the stupendously excellent Babylon 5) it's cool to see Bruce back, if only for an extended cameo.

4/ The script is where Tron Legacy falters. Storywise this is another mythic take on Star Wars...which itself was derived from Joseph Campbell's book "Hero With 1000 Faces" which noted that most tales can be distilled down to a few basic structures. Originality isn't the issue though, after all the 2009 Star Trek reboot retold Star Wars, and that was a blockbuster classic. No, it's not what you do but the way that you do it. Legacy stumbles but it gets the job done. It's problem is that it's undisciplined and overlong. Greater thought should have gone into how to communicate the masses of exposition in a visually compelling way, and structuring it so that the story builds to it's logical conclusion. Inception and The Matrix are two classic examples of movies with complex back stories and multiple layers of subtext, which are streamlined in such a way that they're involving and exciting. It's not that the content of Tron Legacy is poor, far from it , just that its script is muddled and poorly paced at times. Then again, that's a complaint leveled at the original too.



5/ While many critics have complained about the 'style over substance' present in Tron Legacy (an argument I rarely subscribe to...style IS content), I strong disagree as there's a lot going on under the surface. Rather than go into detail here, I'll direct you, via the highlighted phrases, to a couple of blogs which have given these themes much more consideration than I. Legacy has something to say about freedom of information in the modern world, then there's the religious subtext (The Father/Kevin Flynn, Son/Sam Flynn, and Holy Ghost/CLU) complete with sacrifice and rebirth, plus themes of Fathers, Sons, and what you leave behind once you're gone, and an examination of the need for individuals to discover their own identities (and how that ties in inescapably to ones parents).

6/ While the original gave us the immortal iconography of Lightcycles and Recognizers, the sequel has different visual imagery to burn in our brains. Cyber babes. Both the gorgeous Olivia Wilde, as Quorra, and Beau Garrett as Gem devour the screen when they appear. Wilde has the best part in the movie being naive, playful and a warrior babe combined. Garrett, with synthetic robo-voice, mechanical movements and odd contact lens is also completely alluring in her digital catsuit. If she's the future of household appliances then put that on my Christmas wishlist for next year.

7/ In 1982 the original Tron's groundbreaking effects were the creation of the digital universe itself. With computers now the norm in visual effects creation, the showcase CGI to marvel at in 2010 is the CGI de-aged Jeff Bridges. Building on the Oscar winning effects from 2008's Benjamin Button, Bridges head is digitally reconstructed to look like he was in the late 80's. Unfortunately the effects aren't advanced enough to make him convincing as young Jeff looks unsettling plastic and fake. The skin appears unnaturally synthetic, the upper features stiff and the eyes flat and lifeless. Still, the film mostly gets away with this as young Kevin Flynn appears mostly in shadows and his computer alter-ego CLU is a cyber doppelganger who needn't appear 'real' anyway. Still, it's a disappointment they couldn't make it work.

8/ And the rest. Joseph Kosinski directs with a great eye and a restrained hand. The tone is less fun the the original and more sombre and subdued like The Matrix. Michael Sheen goes wildly over the top in a small role but it fits in asthetically with the bizarness around him. Garrett Hedlund is solid in the hero role, far better than Hayden Christensen was with performing his "sci-fi teen with issues" and Bridges picks up where he left off 28 years ago with Kevin Flynn now a cross between a hippy dude (no not The Dude...Kevin Flynn came first, 'tards) and Obi Wan.

Tron Legacy is one enjoyable ride. Like the original it's visuals will be celebrated for years to come and it's story will be complained about for eternity. But like the first Tron, this sequel will be rewatched to death by geeks like me for it's visual splendor and ability to provide a unique escape environment from the real world. For the people who demand a great story too, I understand your position, but I decline to agree.
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