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Tron: Legacy (2010)

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Blu-ray Disc Released: 4/5/2011

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Review by Mike Long, Posted on 4/3/2011

The Walt Disney Co. is often referred to as "The House of Mouse", referring to the fact that animation was what cemented the company's foundation and reputation -- a practice which continues to this day. However, Disney has dabbled in live-action films over the years, and recently, they've produced some good ones, such as Pirates of the Caribbean and National Treasure. This wasn't always the case. Just look at some the entries from the 70s like Gus, The Cat from Outer Space, and Candleshoe. (These may be good for camp value, but they aren't good movies.) So, the bottom line is that Disney's live-action movies are a mixed-bag. The same can be said for Tron: Legacy.

Tron: Legacy continues the story which began in 1982's Tron. The story opens in 1989 where we see Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) speaking with his son, Sam (Owen Best), where they are discussing Kevin's adventures inside the computer with Tron. Kevin promises that they will play at his arcade very soon. Following this, Kevin disappears. The story then leaps ahead to the present. Sam (Garret Hedlund) has become the majority controller of Encom (Kevin Flynn's company), but he's much happier sabotaging the company and living on the edge. Kevin's old partner, Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner), visits Sam to inform him that he received a phone call from Kevin's old office -- a number which was disconnected 20 years ago. Sam visits "Flynn's" arcade and finds a secret lab. When he turns on the computer, he is pulled into a cyberspace world, where he is immediately captured and taken to the game grid. During the games, he's spirited away by a program named Quorra (Olivia Wilde) and taken to Kevin, who has been living in exile in this world for 20 years. He explains that Clu (played by a computerized version of Bridges), a program designed by Kevin, became power-hungry and took over the computer landscape, enslaving programs and forcing them into the games. Kevin realizes that there is only a brief period of time for Sam to escape from this world, and he and Quorra devise a plan to challenge Clu and get Sam out.

In my review for Tron, I wrote that the movie could be broken down into its visuals and its story. The same is true for Tron: Legacy. We should start with the positive, so let's begin with the visuals. Tron was years ahead of its time as far as it's ideas about computers and its use of computer animation. Clearly, a lot has changed since that time, and computer generated images have become a staple of movies. Therefore, the world inside of the computer in Tron: Legacy, looks very different from the one seen in Tron. There is actually a landscape here, with cities, plains, and mountains. Whereas the costumes in the first film glowed in an odd way, the ones here are simply lit. The black backgrounds are filled with objects which are either white, ice-blue, or orange, creating a very striking look.

As one would hope, the action scenes in Tron: Legacy are very impressive. The filmmakers took the most famous scenes from the first film and gave them a makeover. The disc battles and the light-cycle races look amazing. (I can only imagine what they were like in 3D on the big-screen.) It's rare that a movie actually gives us what we want, but the light-cycle scene is the perfect length, allowing us to wow at the visuals without getting bored.

So, Tron: Legacy is dazzling to watch...as long as you don't pay any attention to the story. Again, the scenery in Tron was very limited due to technology, but it made sense within the framework of the story -- there was the game grid, holding cells, a command center, and little else. In Tron: Legacy, the world inside the computer has turned into a city complete with a nightclub. Why do computer programs need a nightclub? The city gives way to outskirts complete with mountains? Huh? Kevin Flynn's house looks like something from our world, complete with a fireplace and leather-bound books. OK, we understand that he's trapped there and would want creature comforts, but how were they created? Why did the programs develop unique personalities? What are the rules of this world? We are never told.

One thing which is made clear is that a portal to the outside world is rare, and thus, there's a deadline to get Sam out of the computer. And this leads to my biggest problem with the movie -- the Internet is never mentioned. The Internet didn't really exist in 1982, so it wasn't part of the story, but it's absence in Tron: Legacy is glaring. If Kevin was trapped in this system, why didn't he try to jump to another one? Why are the portals so important when anyone can hop on their laptops or smart-phones and get on-line. This possibility isn't even mentioned in the movie (wi-fi is mentioned as something that Kevin missed while he is gone). The story could have at least brought this up and then told us that Clu had blocked it or something. I typically try not to get too wrapped up in this kind of issue, but this detail nagged me throughout the film.

Again, Tron: Legacy is a mixed-bag, but there may be a good explanation for this. Director Joseph Kosinski formerly worked as an architect. This makes perfect sense as he's been able to build a movie which is beautiful to look at and displays great structure, but does very little in the way of telling a story or delivering detailed characters. Tron: Legacy is a visual feast, but you'll still be hungry afterwards.

Tron: Legacy also never explains why some of the characters are dressed in white on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 25 Mbps. The image is incredibly sharp and clear, showing no grain or defects from the source material. The movie is a study in the contrast of dark and bright and these elements are well-balanced. The colors look very good and the image is never overly dark. The picture has a great amount of depth, and even in 2D, we get good separation of background and foreground. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 5.0 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. Even at low volume, the quality of the sound here is evident. The stereo and surround sound effects are nearly constant, enveloping us in the cyber-world. These effects are nicely detailed and show excellent placement in relation to on-screen action. The subwoofer effects are good as well, but never overpower the other sounds.

The Tron: Legacy Blu-ray Disc contains several extras. "The Next Day: Flynn Lives Revealed" is a short film which fills in the gaps in the story showing the world's reaction to Kevin Flynn's disappearance and how a hacker named "Zach Attack" spread news to keep the public interested. (Features appearances by Bruce Boxleitner and Dan Shor, who played Ram in the first film.) We get a 1-minute preview of the upcoming TV show Tron: Uprising. "Launching the Legacy" (10 minutes) is a series of comments from the filmmakers discussing how the idea to make a sequel came about and how a brief trailer -- which was shown at Comic-Con sealed the deal. (This also includes a brief talk on the scientific realities of the film.) The filmmakers and FX artists talk about the look of the film and how this was achieved in "Visualizing Tron" (12 minutes). We get a look at the sets, allowing us to see some details not visible in the movie. "Installing the Cast" (12 minutes) contains comments from the actors and provides an overview of their characters and how now actors were added to the cast held over from Tron. "Disc Roars" (3 minutes) shows how the audience noises used in the film were recorded at Comic-Con using the Q&A audience. The Disc contains the MUSIC VIDEO for the song "Derezzed" by Daft Punk.

Review by Mike Long.  Copyright 2011.