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We get a double dose of Jeff Bridges in the new, visually assaulting adventure from Walt Disney Pictures; TRON:Legacy. You almost have to be a fan of 80’s video games or the 1982 original film to have this on your radar. Still, those who simply love the art of filmmaking and become giddy over new forms of CGI and 3D enhancement might short circuit at the onslaught of graphics in this one. It is impossible to deny how incredible this film looks and sounds. But sadly the story is weak and full of gaping wounds. The characters, though recognizable to gamers, have little depth and nothing the average viewer can get behind or care about. Plus TRON only makes a cameo appearance. Fail. 

Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) has been missing for 20 years. He kissed his son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) goodbye, headed to a late night work session, and was never heard from again. When a mysterious call comes from a disconnected phone line at Kevin’s old office Sam starts sniffing around to see if he can find any clue into his fathers disappearance. What he discovers is a portal into a cyber gaming world that his father created and has been trapped in all of these years. Together they must now try and battle their way back out. 

If you are going to see this film at all you have to see it on the big screen. Thin story and skeletal characters aside; this movie is explosive with site and sound. If that is what you want then this is your flick. The cyber “grid” in which the characters find themselves is the best use of color and light I have seen in a non animated film ever. The light-cycles that the gamers ride on are seamless in design. This attention to detail will make all the true fans happy. Also, CLU is a cyber programmer inside the virtual grid. To pull this character off Jeff Bridges' was subjected to the same technology used on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. So in the movie you get both Bridges at age 61 and as CLU he looks like he's in his 30s. This too was done to perfection. 

But for many film goers the ordeal of sitting in a theater for over two hours while wearing 3D glasses needs to reap more than just a pretty picture. There needs to be characters you can sympathize with and a story line that at least mixes levels of plot. This has none of that. You get brief glimpses into a background and one or two lines of dialogue about a character but that is all. So while you understand the basic idea of the action you are left in the dark about the rest. There were seemingly really creative and interesting characters in the film but they never are developed or given a chance to dance. Plus Bridges is his typical self. I expected any minute for him to utter the line, “Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not ‘Tron’. You're ‘Tron’. I'm the Dude.”

TRON:Legacy is rated PG for sequences of sci-fi action violence and brief mild language. This film is safe for all ages and even the sci-fi action is not overly violent. Still it comes down to what your expectations are for the film. If you expect cutting edge graphics and a visual masterpiece then you will walk away overly satisfied. If you are willing to forego the normal elements that make a movie great then you will be fine. Just know that going in. Do not expect anything close to par in the way of writing and acting. That is why I give it only 3 out of 5 Frisbees. In the 68 weeks it took to create the graphics someone could have written a decent story. 

-Matt Mungle

Review copyright 2010 Mungleshow Productions. Used by Permission.

Jeff Bridges, playing a dual role and switching ages from about 30 to 60-plus, is Kevin Flynn, who devised a world of life inside computers and ended up trapped there himself. Kevin left behind a son, Sam (Garrett Hedlund), who is now in his twenties, owns his father’s company, but lives a daredevil life on a motorcycle. Through a quirk and a childhood friend, Alan, (Bruce Boxleitner), Sam discovers his father’s secret laboratory and ends up in a cyber-world that resembles the gladiators of old. Sam is physically fit, so stays alive and finds friends in Quorra (Olivia Wilde), and other people who live away from this flashy world and try to survive. Kevin Flynn is a legend, but of course, Sam can track him down and finds an old Kevin living almost in fear from his creation-gone-wrong, a younger Clu (Bridges, too). The chase begins with Clu after Kevin and Sam with planes (dogfights), motorcycles (chases) and this begins to resemble  a WWII film, when Clu raises an army and holds a huge rally. There is a detour to a club hosted by Michael Sheen in his interpretation of the Joel Gray character in “Cabaret.“ The character of Tron (also played by Bruce Boxleitner) is in there somewhere, but close your eyes and you will miss him. Everyone is racing to the portal, an entry to the real world. If Clu makes it first, he can infect world computers, but if Kevin and Sam make it, they can shut down Clu. This is the longest trek to a portal in film history. One second to get into cyber-space and at least ten minutes to get out. I saw the film in IMAX 3 D and felt I was dodging lightning bolts throughout.

Special effects are amazing and that is what Tron: Legacy is about. As for a story, world domination is always a good theme for a movie, plus a few chase scenes, a beautiful woman and that’s about it. The cyber-babble about electronics is over the head of many in the audience, but the script tries. Acting is average, with Hedlund being stoic, Bridges (in both roles) being stoic, Wilde using her large eyes to register surprise, and Sheen being annoying. When all is said and done, after twenty-some years, special effects have improved, and that’s all, folks.

Copyright 2010 Marie Asner