I went to the midnight showing last night to be among the first to see Tron Legacy. A few friends and I went to Cinetopia in Vancouver to enjoy the experience in as much comfort, and with as much access to booze, as possible. I was charmed that they opted to show the original, for free, before the start of the sequel. In fact, if we’d known that we probably would have arrived even earlier to catch the whole thing. The ability to order a glass of wine, beer, or some food isn’t totally new, in that McMenamins has been offering an even more robust set of offerings for some time, but the quality of the theater experience is pretty much superior to anything you will find in the Portland-Metro area.
This movie was very very shiny.
Everything was stylized and beautiful, dark and bright all at once. The CGI was very impressive, so much so it was almost distractingit was so seamless. We all know Jeff Bridges isn’t so young and tart as once he was, but he certainly looks that way for quite a good bit of the film. From an aesthetic standpoint it was a gorgeous pleasure to behold. The battle and gaming sequences were all flawlessly choreographed and unfailingly exciting. Our main players were all quite nice to look at in their skin tight grid-gear, and the soundtrack by Daft Punk was nothing short of glorious.
From the standpoint of a spectacle, this film has everything you might want in a piece of engrossing eyecandy, and I say this even without being able to appreciate the full effect of the digital 3-D in which we saw it.
And that’s about all I can say in its favor.
The original Tron definitely had some elements that seem sort of silly at a thirty year remove, but it remained utterly charming nevertheless. It managed to engage the audience at an emotional and intellectual level in a way this installation really fails to achieve. Here instead, there is too earnest an attempt to create a gripping pseudo-political cum digital genocide plot line that both fails to make rational sense or an emotional connection with the audience. I would have preferred a return to a more technically driven origin of action, and I’m much sappier and less of a computer nerd than most of the fan base this film is aimed toward.
That being said, at least one of my cohorts claimed to have really enjoyed the film, so I may just be a grouch on this one. I do not mean to imply it isn’t enjoyable, because it is, but I would say the vast majority of its appeal is in the visual and aural experience rather than an especially engaging plot.
End of line.
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