I was really looking forward to Tron Legacy. The original Tron was one of my childhood favorites. I saw the trailers for the new film and was excited. Then around last week, I became worried when i started to hear mixed reviews. Some said it was just ok. I heard one that said they hated it more than The Phantom Menace!! But I try not to let early reviews cloud my judgement. Let's face it, this is a Disney movie! It's not supposed to be high drama. It's a fun popcorn movie.
So my friend and I marched off to the theater and walked in with my ticket and 3-D glasses in hand. (It had been a while since I saw ANYTHING in 3-D!) The preview for Pirates of the Caribbean looked AWESOME in 3-D! So I thought maybe the reviews were wrong. This movie might be great!
Here is the plot from Wikipedia:
In 1989, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), an innovative software programmer and the CEO of ENCOM International, tells his eight-year old son Sam (Owen Best) about a new "digital frontier" he has created called The Grid, a virtual domain existing inside the game system. Kevin tells Sam of the two programs helping him, Tron and Clu. Tron keeps The Grid secure, while Clu is tasked with creating the perfect system.
Twenty years later, Sam (Garrett Hedlund), haunted by Flynn's mysterious disappearance, investigates a page that originated from a supposedly disconnected number at Flynn's long-shuttered arcade. Exploring the arcade, Sam discovers a concealed door leading to a computer laboratory in the basement. Attempting to discover what his father was doing by calling up the command logs and reissuing the last command entered Sam activates a digitizing laser which transports him to The Grid.
We spend about 20 minutes in the "real" world. Then we are in the computer! The special effects look great. They really did a great job of updating them for the 21st century. The problem is with such a big gap in time between films, there is lots of explaining to be done. Which is fine. We want the answers. But the story needed a few re-writes. All the special effects in the world can't make up for a bad story.
Once father and son reunite, we find that Flynn has been in the computer for a long time. A really long time. Time goes much faster in the computer than in the real world. And in his time in hiding, he as almost become a zen like master. When Sam runs off to save them both, Flynn has to jump into action and his response to Sam is "You're ruining my Zen thing man!" (the best line of the movie, by far...)
I understood the story, but for some reason, it just wasn't enough. It needed more. And as for the 3D, I really didn't think it added anything to the film at all. But, at the end of the day, it's still a Disney film. So it was better than most films, but after so many good films over the years, I kinda hold them to a higher standard.
And let's face it, who wouldn't want to go into a computer? For the last few years, I've been addicted to Twitter. I could just imagine the addiction if I was in the damn thing!
So unfortunately, I would have to say that this is a wait and rent it film... Maybe the next one will be better?
