As big of a nerd as I am, I have never seen the original film. However, seeing the sequel has gotten me interested in the original. Tron: Legacy brings the story from the original into the modern world by introducing us to the son of Frank Flynn, Sam.
Sam is played by Garrett Hedlund, an young actor who is just starting his career. However, he portrays the character very well. Sam is a young, naive individual who has control but doesn't want it. He is first shown fighting for a cause against his father's former company, Encom. However, through the course of the film, the character grows and matures, allowing him to finally in the end take control of the company from a power-hungry board of directors.
Jeff Bridges returns in a dual role, playing both Frank Flynn and the antagonist of the movie, CLU. As usual, Jeff is at the top of his game, playing Frank with perfection. Even though he has some funny lines as Frank, his role as CLU is incredibly serious and brings the world of Tron: Legacy to the viewers in a very dark setting of political coups, genocide, and totalitarian control.
The storyline isn't amazingly deep or complex, but used some well known sociological ideas in order to formulate what is going on inside the Grid and how that relates to the human world in Tron. Each world has it's own unique challenges, and in each world, the actors present those challenges and their resolutions with precision.
The world of Tron has a vibrant darkness in it. The graphic designers did an amazing job designing a world that was both visually stunning and yet destructively elegant. The graphics are the most amazing part of the film, not just of the world, but the suits that they wear, and the digitized face of Jeff Bridges that is thrown onto CLU. Because CLU is a program, he can't age. However, Jeff Bridges has aged a good deal since the first Tron movie was released, so they digitized a copy of his younger face in order to play CLU.
The movie is great, especially for someone who hasn't seen the original. The movie doesn't provide the viewer with a lot of backstory to the original film, but it does have a few throwbacks to the story. A cameo played by Cillian Murphy as Edward Dillinger Jr. as a throw back to Dillinger Sr., the human antagonist from the first film, as well as another major protagonist from the first film returning, the film does enough to give fans of the previous film to salivate over as they witness the new story unfold.
In short, this film is a great addition to the franchise, and sets up what appears to be a third film quite well. There are enough players in the film in order to see both protagonists and antagonists for the next film in the series, and has a heart to the film that many pictures did not have last year.
My Review:
4/5 Stars
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