By Matt Brunson
TRON: LEGACY
DIRECTED BY Joseph Kosinski
STARS Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund
If the Disney-manufactured hype is to be believed, 1982’s TRON was the Gone With the Wind of its day, a Citizen Kane for the modern age, a blockbusting, award-winning blah blah blah. No. TRON was a lightly entertaining movie (and notorious box office underachiever) whose sole claim to fame was its groundbreaking, computer-generated effects. So not surprisingly, the primary focus for the makers of TRON: Legacy was to create visuals that take us to the next level. But did they have to do so at the expense of virtually every other department? Certainly, the effects in this sequel are sometimes astounding (although the 3-D immersion is less pronounced than in Avatar), and, for the first hour, the film offers no small measure of fun. As he searches for Kevin Flynn (TRON star Jeff Bridges), the father who disappeared two decades earlier, Sam Flynn (wooden Garrett Hedlund) finds himself whisked into a digital landscape fraught with danger. The setup is sound and the early action sequences are stirring, but then the film settles into a sameness that allows viewers to focus too intently on the feeble plotting, the tired dialogue, the unfortunate performances (as the opportunistic Zuse, Michael Sheen camps it up like a villain from the old Batman TV show) and the awful use of the character of TRON himself (returning Bruce Boxleitner). By the time this overlong feature arrives at the anticlimactic standoff between Kevin and his digital alter ego CLU (a creepily de-aged Bridges), most viewers will be wanting their quarters back.
(Matt Brunson releases his list of the 10 Best & 10 Worst Pictures of 2010. Go here to see the complete article, with write-ups and photos.)
This article appears in Dec 14-20, 2010.
If anything the sole claim to fame of Tron would be the idea of life in a computer/network. The only other movie I can think of that did this, and it was cool, was Lawnmower Man.
The thought of computers was hotter and more interesting at the time than awesome computer graphics. Computers were very mystrious, at least to me. That’s why Tron and War Games will be forever classics to my generation.
I loved this film and I’m not a Tron-boy. I found the first (1983) Tron a crushing bore. The new one is a dazzling spectacle-adventure; it makes little pretense to being a “message” film or high drama. Based on the disengaged, idiotic reviews like this one, I went in with low expectations. I left amazed after a wild ride. I don’t want my quarters back and have heard nothing but raves from others like me. My kids, by the way, aged 9, 12, 15, went nuts over this film, whose “thin plot” was supposed to bore them to tears.
This review proves what I’ve known to be true for more than a decade. These so called professional reviewers are out of touch with the real movie going audience.
PREPARE TO GET DEREZZED,SNOTTY CRITICAL PROGRAM!
YOU SUCK
IM A NERD WHO’S PROUD TO SAY TRON IS THE BEST, WHETHER BALLS OF SNOTT LIKE YOU ENJOY IT OR NOT
PS. you probably gave it this review because light bikes, light disks, cyberpunk, badass techno, visuals which rival avatar, strong acting and a clever story with emotional impact are to awesome for old farts like you
Did these reviewers see the same movie that we did?
Actually, I’m kind of wondering if the reviewer was old enough to have even seen the original back in the 80’s? If you were a fan of the original, there’s A LOT to like here. At the very least, this movie wasn’t filled with a bunch of WTF moments like the newer Star Wars films were! The “light-cycle” battle is worth the price of admission alone.
Easily the worst movie I’ve seen in years. I’m still angry about the $10.50 extracted from my wallet, and the 2 hours deleted from my life. This movie had not a single redeeming feature. If this comment were meant to be a review, I could go into exquisite detail about why, but this isn’t the place to do that. I just wanted to support the reviewer and warn people off who might still be debating whether to go see this waste of celluloid. I would have walked out on it but ended up falling asleep instead. Really, there’s no excuse for releasing films that are this egregiously awful. Wish I’d asked for my money back.