Plot Summary

“TRON: Legacy” is a high-tech adventure set in a digital world that’s unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), a rebellious 27-year-old, is haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his father Kevin Flynn (Oscar®- and Golden Globe®-winner Jeff Bridges), a man once known as the world’s leading video-game developer. When Sam investigates a strange signal sent from the old Flynn’s Arcade—a signal that could only come from his father—he finds himself pulled into a digital world where Kevin has been trapped for 20 years. With the help of the fearless warrior Quorra (Olivia Wilde), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe—a universe created by Kevin himself that has become far more advanced with never-before-imagined vehicles, weapons, landscapes and a ruthless villain who will stop at nothing to prevent their escape. (from MovieWeb.com)

Film Review

The original TRON film released in 1982 when this reviewer was just a mere two years of age. I revisited the technological sci-fi film earlier this year and discovered just how bizarre and dated the film seemed. The story was an interesting one, however, about a game designer named Kevin Flynn who, when trying to expose the corporation he was fired from as having stolen his game and design is sucked into the computer system himself. Inside the system, he finds a world of digital people who are “programs” written by real programmers outside this digital universe. Some of these programs believe that the “users” that created them are almost like gods, with most of the programs not believing in such mythology. A dictator-like villain controlled this digital universe and enslaved many of the programs for the purpose of playing in life-or-death games in arena style death matches. When Flynn is inserted into this world, he turns it upside down, enlisting the help of a heroic program named TRON and ultimately defeating the villain and freeing the system of the oppression. Flynn then is able to release the truth of his creation to the real world and get the rights to the game he created.

The 1982 film was essentially twenty or so years ahead of its time. The technology used to bring the story to the big screen was limited in the early 80s and ultimately looks as primitive as some of the first video games look today (like those on the original Atari or Intellivision, the latter of which I used to play myself). A proposed sequel has been talked about for many years, so the fact that TRON: Legacy is now a reality twenty eight years later is quite amazing. The special effects are incredibly improved upon from the original design. The textures are unbelievable and instead of the digital universe looking like blocks of solid color with glowing lines, the world that Flynn has created – called “The Grid” – is rather realistic and tangible in appearance. The look and feel is actually quite similar to something like that seen in Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones, but pulled off in an undeniably “TRON” sort of way with a much more grounded feel. First-time director Joseph Kosinski takes over the 2010 universe of TRON, helping to reunite two of the original cast members — most importantly Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn — and introduce the new character of Sam Flynn as Kevin’s son, played quite well by Garrett Hedlund. Kosinski and Disney do an wonderful job paying homage after homage to the original TRON – from using the original theme to recreating “FLYNN’S” arcade, lounge, and even the huge entrance door to Encom. It’s all done so well that Legacy feels like a natural follow-up to the original story. The only real hiccup might be the overwhelming twenty-eight year jump in technological advancement.

One of the things that really strengthens TRON: Legacy may actually be its greatest weakness. The first TRON was light on action and heavy on story and introducing this new world, causing a lot of the scenes to drag some. And when there wasn’t story or action, the film seemed to lose itself in the ever changing, increasingly more complicated sci-fi logistics of the TRON universe. Legacy feels a lot less cerebral and more grounded, due in part I’m sure to the more incredible special effects and imaginative landscapes. But there are moments in Legacy where the film’s pacing comes to a crawl. It does help the characters to breathe and interact and for the story to develop, but it does threaten to disrupt the flow of the film too much. Still, nearly everything about the original is improved upon in Legacy, right down to the script and acting.

It’s great to see Bridges back in the saddle as Flynn, but it’s also a bit bittersweet to see just how much the character has aged. Buried under a bushy beard and often shown in unflattering lighting, Bridges looks even older than he normally does (and the monk-like robes don’t feel very much like his character either), and it’s unfortunate to see such a once-lively character become so limited in what they can do. Legacy‘s villain is a digital look alike of a much younger Kevin Flynn, named Clu. This program version of a younger Flynn is essentially a CGI-reproduction look alike of Bridges, but never really looks all too convincing. If anything, Clu often just looks lifted out of an animated motion-captured Robert Zemeckis film. It works just enough to keep the Bridges appearance from the original, but Clu never looks as good as he should. They also use the exact same effect on Flynn for flashback scenes and it’s just as ineffective and fake-looking there. It’s unfortunate, too, because just about every other effect in the film is looks incredible.

As an added bonus, mainstream act Daft Punk created the score themselves, keeping the soundtrack feeling especially faithful to the original, giving it a very 80s tone, while occasionally glazing it with a bit of a modern touch. But because there’s such a resurgence in anything 80s in recent years, it doesn’t sound quite as dated as one might expect it to.

The content of the film is pretty on par with the original. A couple uses of “h*ll” and a use of “d*mn” are the extent of the profanity usage in the film, sticking tightly to the PG rating. The action is intense enough, but every program’s demise in the film is shown as little cubes shattering and digital fragments spraying everywhere. It never even feels gory or gross and looks pretty impressive. We briefly do see some droplets of blood when Sam is injured during one of his first games (and the droplets are clearly digitally animated), and a couple random program characters appear to have deformed, mechanical faces or scars, but it’s something that is never focused on for very long (or all that disturbing).

Both Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde are worthy additions to the TRON universe and it would be interesting to see where the story could be taken further if Legacy is a success. Hedlund was a wise choice to play Bridges’ son and he even did well to capture some of the nuances of Flynn from the original. The only actor to not fair quite as well as the others was the over-the-top Michael Sheen who played a flamboyant and obnoxious club owner inside The Grid. His character doesn’t fit within the TRON universe and his dismissal from the screen couldn’t come too soon.

As a sequel, TRON: Legacy improves upon the original in almost every way. It’s a grand sci-fi adventure of epic scope and ultimately a visually delicious film. It’s a fun movie that could possibly jumpstart a new budding franchise, but even if Legacy is the only other TRON film we get, it’s a strong effort and a nice wrap-up to complement the original.

– John DiBiase, (reviewed: 12/17/10)

 

4K UHD Review

With the release of the third installment of Disney’s TRON franchise on the horizon, the studio has remastered the films in stunning 4K for release to digital outlets and on disc. We revisited both films (via Apple TV) in preparation for the release of TRON: Ares, and I was super impressed with the result.

After watching the new 4K update for the original TRON – which looks spectacular – I had high hopes for TRON: Legacy, given that it’s almost 30 years newer. I have to say, it didn’t dissappoint. The clarity for the 1982 film is such a jump from the original’s look that it’s more noticeable, whereas the distance from HD to 4K is a lot shorter for a 2010 movie like this one. Still, the High Dynamic Range of the new transfer for TRON: Legacy does give it more contrast, making the glowing suits and light vehicles pop even more. I forgot how entertaining this movie is – and even 15 years later, the visuals are still pretty impressive. The aspect ratio does shift throughout the film, giving us that bigger IMAX scale during the action scenes, and it does feel slightly more immersive that way.

According to the PR for this transfer, “TRON: Legacy has been remastered in High Dynamic Range from the original digital sources under the supervision of director Joseph Kosinski.” With that said, I do think it looks better than ever, and – aside from the lackluster digital de-aging effect they have for the younger Jeff Bridges – this movie still looks pretty great!

– John DiBiase (reviewed: 10/6/25)

 

Blu-Ray Special Features Review

Disney has brought TRON: Legacy home on Blu-Ray in a pretty extraordinary way. There are a slew of buying options via combo packs for the movie, including: A 2-disc set with the Blu-Ray and DVD of TRON: Legacy; A 4-disc set that includes a 3D Blu-Ray disc, a Blu-Ray disc, a DVD and a Digital Copy of TRON: Legacy; A 5-disc set that includes everything from the 4-disc set but also includes a 2D Blu-Ray disc of the original TRON; The 5-disc set in a collectible “identity disc” packaging; Or, finally, just the DVD by itself. This is a review for the regular 5-disc set.

You sure can’t go wrong receiving four formats of one single film. If you don’t own a 3D Blu-Ray player and TV yet (like I don’t), this is still a great combo pack if you think you may ever upgrade to one. I did see the film in 3D on IMAX and the scenes on the Grid were pretty incredible in 3D. I’d love to see how the 3D looks on a TV at home (Incidentally, this movie was actually shot in 3D, not converted to it in post-production). In addition to four copies of TRON: Legacy, you get the complete story with the inclusion of the first film on Blu-Ray. It’s the very first time this movie is available in high definition and it’s never looked so good. The Blu-Ray disc for the original TRON has its own array of bonus goodies, including everything that first appeared on the previous DVD release of the film (unfortunately, those special features are NOT in HD and look a little crummy on a nice TV, but it’s great to have them included here at all).

TRON: Legacy Blu-Ray Features:

The Next Day: Flynn Lives Revealed – This is a fake documentary about the “Flynn Lives” movement, chronicling what happened to Encom after Kevin Flynn’s disappearance. It’s neat for TRON fans and those who really enjoy the lore of the TRON world. It’s also cool because the short film also brings back RAM from the first movie! At the end of the segment, we see an arcade game screen that looks like one where you might type in your initials after a game is over (to record your score). It gives a list of the initials from previous winners, but some of them are actually codes to type in for additional footage that was made for this short film. It’s basically extended footage from portions of “The Next Day.” You can simply watch every one of these bonus segments together by typing in the initials “ALL” on that screen.

Disney Second Screen: TRON: Legacy – For iPad users especially, this is a unique function that allows you to watch the film on your TV while accessing bonus features that simultaneously coincide with the film via your iPad (a special app must be downloaded first from the iTunes store). There is also an option to use your Apple computer if you don’t own an iPad, so for fans who don’t mind the multi-tasking that this involves, this is a cool feature to check out. It highlights the vehicles and details of the film that take you beyond what is seen on screen.

First Look at TRON: Uprising, The Disney XD Animated Series (1:15) – This is a short trailer for the new cartoon series featuring the voices of Elijah Wood, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Mandy Moore, Nate Corddry, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reubens and Bruce Boxleitner as Tron. The animation seems like a mix of CG work and 2D hand-drawn-style animation, so it could be interesting. I’m eager to see how it plays out and where the series would go.

Launching The Legacy (10:20) – This is a real treat as it nearly goes into step by step of how the sequel came to be. The filmmakers talk about a test trailer that was made to see if there was any kind of fan interest and this featurette includes the entire thing (I do remember seeing this online quite some time ago). They tested it with a San Diego Comic-Con audience and its warm reception convinced Disney to give TRON: Legacy the go-ahead. It then goes into the conceptual planning of the sequel, showing some great on-set footage and lots of discussion into what a sequel would look like twenty five years later. It’s a wonderful featurette.

Visualizing TRON (11:46) goes into the design of the series and its focus specifically on the importance of light. Another fantastic featurette, this one goes into great detail about the make-up of the new TRON world. It mentions how director Joseph Kosinski has a background in design and architecture and how that came into play in the look and feel of the film. One of the best parts of this segment is they take a quick look around the set that was built for Kevin Flynn’s secret underground lab, and we see incredible detail that wasn’t as apparent in the final film. From there, we see how they designed the light suits which have real lighting effects embedded in them, and then get to see how they brought the younger Jeff Bridges as CLU to life. It was cool to learn how Bridges acted out the scenes as CLU and then had a stand-in mimic his performance and then that actor’s head was replaced with the younger CG version of Bridges.

Installing The Cast (12:04) opens with a behind-the-scenes filming of Bridges as CLU meeting with Zeus in the bar. We then hear from the cast talking about Jeff’s return to the franchise. It also focuses on Bruce Boxleitner’s reprise as Alan and Tron and the careful selection of Garrett Hedlund to play Flynn’s son. Finally, there are interviews with Olivia Wilde and Michael Sheen about their selection for the sequel as well. It’s a great watch too, as we see some really great behind-the-scenes footage here.

Disc Roars (3:00) reveals that the arena crowd noise in the film was actually recorded at Comic-Con 2010. It shows Joe directing the 7,000 fans at the press conference and what the crowd cheers sounded like in the final film. It’s pretty incredible.

Music Video: “Derezzed,” Written, Produced and Performed by Daft Punk (2:58) – This is a pretty sweet music video that shows the Daft Punk duo walking into Flynn’s Arcade and starting up a game called “Derezzed.” From there, it takes the song from the soundtrack and shows a mix of animation from both TRON films to create a new visual experience (with heavy influence from the original TRON), complete with a sort of jousting match at the end that reveals Olivia Wilde to having been one of the players.

TRON Lithograph – There’s a TRON lithograph included in this set. It’s an old photo of Bruce Boxleitner in the original TRON outfit and a red glow to his suit (which is weird, because his suit was only ever blue). It’s a neat keepsake, but it’s only the size of the inside of the Blu-Ray case, so it’s pretty small.

That’s about it for the TRON: Legacy Blu-Ray goodies, but the original TRON Blu-Ray disc also has some cool extras…

– John DiBiase, (reviewed: 4/3/11)

 

Parental Guide: Content Summary

 Sex/Nudity:
Four shapely women in tight outfits approach Sam once he’s entered The Grid and one uses a light beam on her finger to slice his pants open down the side of his leg and they drop to the floor. We then briefly see him without his shirt and in his shorts as they refit him with his suit.

 Vulgarity/Language:
1 possible “s” word, 4 “h*ll,” 1 “d*mmit”

 Alcohol/Drugs: There is a bar on The Grid where Clu makes a drink for Castor (who doesn’t drink it) and other programs appear to be drinking unidentified beverages

 Blood/Gore:
We see some bruises on Sam’s back as he changes his shirt; We see a program in The Grid with half of its face missing; We see a little bit of blood ooze out of a slice in Sam’s suit. Then the camera focuses on the droplets as they hit the ground; When programs are destroyed in The Grid, they shatter like glass into tons of tiny shards. We often see the bodies fragment in different ways. At one point, the camera focuses on a character’s arm shattering off.

 Violence:
The people inside the digital universe are digital programs that fight to the death in arena style games. The characters toss discs at each other, destroying the environment around them to cause them to fall to their death, or the discs cause their demise directly. There are some vehicle chases that also result in the demise of quite a few programs. There are several hand-to-hand combat sequences with punching and discs being used to slice through program limbs, etc. It’s not shown graphically. Clu blows up a building with programs in it. (SPOILER: There is a large explosion that kills a person and surrounding programs)

 

Disclaimer: All reviews are based solely on the opinions of the reviewer. Most reviews are rated on how the reviewer enjoyed the film overall, not exclusively on content. However, if the content really affects the reviewer’s opinion and experience of the film, it will definitely affect the reviewer’s overall rating.

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