Tron: Legacy

The second review from this weekend is a first for this blog, an opening weekend box office flick Tron: Legacy.  Showing up 28 years after the original Tron was made, this film does so along side very few others.  I was glad that I did a refresher viewing of Tron before going, it helped to remember some of the details and inner workings of the original.  Wow!  The second installment is 100 times better than the original.  Even if you didn't enjoy the first, this is a necessity to see.  Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleinter are back from the original giving exponentially better performances.  They are joined by Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde filling out the remainder of the main characters.  Only the second film to do so in my blog, Tron: Legacy receives a 5 star review.  I will rate on acting and casting, filming, script and enjoyability.

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Acting was absolutely phenomenal.  Jeff Bridges has improved so much in his career as an actor it is mind boggling.  Compare this to the original Tron and you wonder how it is even the same man.  His face in this movie had some of the best emotions I have ever seen in any movie.  His addition of his "stoner" Jeff Bridges character even fit the film perfect.  His dialog was appropriately different for being away from all humans for such a long time, and that is where he touches on his "hey maaan!"'s and his famous "dude"'s reminicent of The Big Lebowski.  Garrett Hedlund, who was amazing in Four Brothers and Troy, was a fresh, vivacious choice for a young actor to play Jeff's son Sam.  He is sucked into the grid accidentally and battles along side his father to escape the now violently turned computer world.  Bruce comes back from the original as Alan in the real world, and Tron in the computer world.  His acting also is a complete turn around.  As I mentioned in my original Tron review, part of the bad acting in the first was due to the script and dialog.  Olivia Wilde rounds out perfect cast.  She has not been in many huge movies as of yet, but I do believe this will help her career immensely.

Filming is insane.  The special effect, dare I say, rival the hugely popular Avatar.  Although the concepts are vastly different, I do believe they are equally as impressive of films.  Tron: Legacy, along with Avatar, are two films that are completely unsurpassed in the area of special effects and pure imagination created on screen.  Flynn's self created masterpiece has to be the best rendition of a computer world I have ever seen.  The grid is based upon the real city housing Flynn's Encom empire, but it is vastly different when you look closer.  Everything is darker, more evil and a great deal more complex.  Many things are brought back from the original, such as the light cycles and patrol bots, however they are greatly improved graphic and function wise.  Light cycles now have free roaming, instead of snapped to the grid.  Patrol bots are now jet propulsion instead of just unexplained hovering.  All in all, filming and conceptually this movie is off the charts.

The script for this movie is another area that is 100 times improved upon the original.  Tron: Legacy rivals that of an edge of your seat thriller.  You are just aching to know what is going to happen next.  Character interactions and dialog are absolutely perfect.  The only thing I though was not explained as well as it should have been were Tron's actions.  We saw that he was trying to save Flynn in the beginning of the world when Clu turned bad.  Tron was turned by clu (which is Clu's power) and then at the end of the film he helps Flynn again.  Where did the sudden "change of heart" to be cliche come from?  If his code was altered by Clu, how the heck did he go back to being good again?  The ending of the film, albeit a bit predictable, was one of the most powerful endings I have seen in years.  It has you teared up, while trying to catch your breath and the whole time thinking to yourself "holy...shit".

Enjoyability, as you probably have guessed, was superb.  At just over 2 hours long, Tron: Legacy kept you going the entire time without letting you get a rest.  Fabulous acting, paired with insane computer animation and a perfectly script dialog leave you wanting to sneak into the next showing to do it all again.  Tron: Legacy truly is my favorite film of 2010.  As always, leave comments, follow my blog above, and share to your favorite social networking site below.  Ciao for now, and see you for the next review!