Tron: Legacy (2010) Review

“Game on old friend”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

When people say exploring a place once is good enough, that just makes you want to go back.


PLOT


2010’s Tron: Legacy is a sequel taking place after the 1982 predecessor. In 1989, ENCOM CEO Kevin Flynn has gone missing and ever since his disappearance, his son Sam has been primary shareholder. As an adult, Sam pranks the company releasing the company’s signature operating system online for free. ENCOM executive Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) approved of this, but it doesn’t stop the police arresting him for trespassing. When he posts his bail, he tells him of a pager messsage left by his dad in his old arcade. When Sam checks it out, he gets sucked into the virtual reality known as the Grid. In a short period of time, he encounters a corrupt program named Clu that once belonged to Kevin due to their shared resemblance and almost kills him in a light cycle race until saved by Quorra, an apprentice of his father. Outside of Clu’s territory, Sam reunites with Kevin who explains Clu closed the portal to the real world, betraying him because he deemed ISOs an aberration in an effort to create a perfect computer system. Clu lured Sam with the message to also lure Kevin, hoping to use his laser disc to enter the real world and perfect it to his liking, knowing his master disc is the only way to open the portal. When Sam goes against his dad’s wishes of returning into Clu’s territory, he encounters a Siren named Gem (Beau Garrett) that takes him to a probability program named Zuse aka Castor (Michael Sheen) who can take him to the portal in safe passage. This would lead to a trap for Clu to spring, forcing Kevin & Quorra to save him and lose the disc. In the process, Zuse & Gem die in a failing effort to negotiate with Clu. Moving forward, Kevin tells him Quorra is the last ISO, thus trying to protect her ever since Clu’s betrayal. When they stow away a Solar Sailer, they get intercepted by a warship and Quorra allows herself to be captured by a reprogrammed Tron, who was presumed dead and renamed Rinzler, as a distraction for the father son duo. As Sam gets Quorra and the disc back, Kevin takes control of a Light Fighter to head towards the portal. Clu chases him down but when Tron remembers him, he sacrifices himself by deliberately colliding into Clu, falling into the Sea of Simulation. Kevin then returns the favor by reintegrating with him, destroys them both and level the Sea of Simulation. Luckily, Sam returns to the real world due to his dad trading discs and Quorra comes with him. Once back, the film ends with Sam vowing to officially take control of ENCOM, starting with naming Alan the chairman of the board.


THOUGHTS


Considering Hollywood really went loose in the 21st century when it came to bringing the 80s back to the big screen, it was a matter of time for Disney to bring back something younger audiences wouldn’t be so familiar with. Rather than a do over, this is a sequel that does the past justice and gives a fair amount of improvement to hook everyone in. I think there is a big payoff to it because what was a gripe before is now a standout here and I’m talking about the layout of the Grid. With improved VFX and costumes that appear surreal in a post-Avatar era of filmmaking, every scene leaves you glued to the screen in the best way imaginable. Add this with a fascinating Daft Punk score, it’s hard to not finish what gets started. I mean I already enjoyed how the light cycles and disc fights looked before, but they’re so sharp in comparison here and it’s insane how it all looks. The only technical gripe I can say is the de-aging on the returning Jeff Bridges because while they seem fine when he is Clu, but not when he is young Kevin which is ironic. Other than that, I can’t complain with all the efforts done to top the past. Now what truly sets this film apart from the predecessor besides the modern technology, I think director Joseph Kosinski does a great job in teaching us that there is a benefit to persistence; You can let it drive you to be on top of yourself or control you to go past priorities. This is the case when seeing Bridges be two sides of the coin. With this being a whole new version of Clu, he was one who let ambition get the best of him, worried that ISOs were more of a threat than what he became capable of. In a result for wanting a shared goal to follow through, he became dangerously relentless to the point where he refused to accept he was the problem. That is where we still love Kevin because he is far more open minded and sees the great aspect of trying something new with things like ISOs, thus protecting Quorra for so long. Because he knows how to manipulate the grid, it’s obvious he didn’t kill Clu sooner because he didn’t want to. Although this wasn’t the end of Flynn due to returning in Ares, his sacrifice wasn’t in vein because his last creation gets to live on. And this chance would’ve not happened if the past didn’t come back to save him. Garrett Hedlund makes a solid protagonist as Sam because he shares the explorer traits of his dad and used it well for his advantage when it maintaining his vision and wanting to bring him back. Although he didn’t get to do the latter per se, he still got a part of him to back. Olivia Wilde was such a standout as well because she is most naive and shares the high curiosity both generations of Flynn have. She understands Kevin’s fear, but she still helps Sam with reaching Zuse she too gets that hiding doesn’t solve anything, knowing how beautiful the world will be if she’s part of it. She was proven right when seeing the sunset and while I found it disappointing neither she nor Sam appear in Ares,  I like to believe it’s a good idea they’re away from whatever chaos that can come after their journey. While I think this is the superior entry in the franchise, there are still many things that don’t make much sense upon rewatching. Like it can be one thing to have only one floor that had a camera to spot Sam, but my head explodes over how the Dillinger were allowed back into the fold of ENCOM after Kevin disappeared. Edward stole from him and even if his son Junior (Cillian Murphy) proved he wasn’t anything like him, that’s too big of a leap to have him have a job in the company when being desperate for inventive minds if not Sam. Hell, even the security guard overdoes his job going up the balance beam to catch up to him. There’s not even security at the old arcade, which makes it hard to believe no one ever tried looting the place that would lead to getting sucked into the grid on accident. And between both films, the grid doesn’t know how to detect users sooner? If Clu is so paranoid of protecting his vision of a better world, the technology should have improved on that aspect. Moving on, how did Sam get his disc back before their duel? Clu took it and if he wanted to kill him so bad, he should’ve not allowed him to have a fighting chance since his army is already obedient. There also should’ve been better security if he didn’t want programs like Quorra to intervene. And if Kevin was going back and forth into the grid before Clu’s betrayal, he should’ve had Alan on the know so that he could’ve helped him escape, even if it meant giving an opportunity for Clu to get out as well. And I can give Clu credit for luring out Sam to get what he wants, but how did he know how to use the pager to do so? He may know Alan is Tron’s user the way Kevin is his, but that doesn’t immediately mean they’d talk about pagers. If you can ignore these factors, then you can still appreciate Tron: Legacy as the ideal legacy sequel that does its best in making something new out of the old. If you enjoyed general sci fi like the first film, check this out