Tron: Legacy (2010)
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Stars: Jeff Bridges, Garret Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Michael Sheen
Disney have been pushing this one heavily over the last year promising something on equal par with Avatar and delivering a film many fans of the original would be very happy to see. I think they might want to reconsider that prediction.
Let's get this out of the way first, Tron: Legacy looks brilliant. It features the best 3D since Avatar and it certainly looks like they spent a lot of time creating this updated computer world with top notch special effects. Complied with an electronic epic score from Daft Punk, which I'd easily write here and now is one of the best soundtracks of 2010. So, at a casual glance, Tron: Legacy could get a comfortable good box office haul over Christmas for its first week at least. It's perfect for all men who like a good sci-fi tale, from the teenagers to the grown ups.
Yet, somehow, Tron: Legacy will not be able to hold a candle anywhere near the staying power of Avatar and the many audiences that came to see it over and over again. The reason? The great fault that plagued Avatar despite the film's success - story.
The first half of Tron: Legacy is very entertaining. Sam Flynn (Hedlund) gets zapped into the Tron universe after trying to find his missing father (Bridges) and ends up taking part in the deadly games this universe knows and loves. Crazy disc flinging games, light cycle showdowns, this is great.
Then he goes to the digital mountains to find his father...where not much happens and a lot of exposition gets dumped on everyone. If you know your technobabble, this might be a nice moment of computer fun. Everyone else could get bored out of their skulls.
And this is where Tron drops the ball big time despite shifting its story in the second half to stage a great escape from the computer world. Now if I look at Avatar by comparison, yes the story was a little hokey and all the jokes about Pocahontas in Space aside, actually had some fun moments in its bloated runtime. Plus there was an appeal for all audiences, a love story, science fiction, robots, aliens, monsters, battle scenes. All the boxes were ticked despite the flaws and I hate to admit that!
Tron doesn't tick all those boxes. It has a few moments after the promising first half but it never recovers. It's just too serious.
You can't fault the cast, they try the best they can. Jeff Bridges, now pretty much putting The Dude into any role nowadays, is always watchable. Hedlund makes good typical generic male lead, yet I think he might have benefited from a better director that deals with actors. Olivia Wilde makes fine eye candy and Michael Sheen pretty much goes into overboard in his brief fifthteen minutes of fun at a nightclub.
You know you're a badass when your playing a mock electric guitar as a fight breaks out around you. That or possibly easily distracted by noises.
I don't regret my time with Tron: Legacy. I'm happy with the visual aesthetic and Daft Punk's amazing score. The problem is that there's just no joy to be found anywhere else. And considering the lengths they went to make this film for the fans, for the geek community that thrived with films like Avatar, it really doesn't work. There's something way too serious about this nostalgia and not a lot of audiences are going to like it. Especially from a big blockbuster. That's why it won't get a continuing audience after opening weekend. How can you appeal a film like this to every audience?
Saying the words Tron and 3D just doesn't cut it.
When all of 2010's Xmas releases look dull, dire, and unexciting, you'd hope Disney would have downloaded a fun patch to keep this film head and shoulders above the others.
The download failed.
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