Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Tirades of Truth: Tron - Legacy


Holy crap! I actually went out and saw a movie. I think the last movie I saw before this was Star Trek. Anyway...

Tron Legacy is a sequel to the original Tron from the 80's. It was somewhat a cult hit and still has legions of followers. I really didn't see the big deal of the original, but I figured I could take my dad to see the new one, since he liked the original so much.
Pros:
The first thing I saw was this logo...How cool is that? Disney always puts the castle in the beginning and they went ahead and imagined it as part of the Grid. Then within the next five minutes you see a bunch of references to Disney's other sci-fi movie The Black Hole (which I hear is up for a remake if Tron does well).

Before Sam (Flynn's son) goes into the Grid, there is a nice little 15-20 minute action/stealth sequence. But the real magic happens when they go into the Grid. By the way, the Grid is a place where programs live. They have little clubs and Gladiator type games between programs.


The action sequences are awesome. There was a great storyline going on, but the action was just fantastic. The light cycle battles were breath-taking. So much of an upgrade from the original battle from the 80's. Speaking of upgrades, in addition to the new light cycles, they also through in a new light plane/jet.

The whole movie was beautifully done. I didn't see it in 3D because I'm not into the hype of 3D, but I think this would have been one heck of a movie to see in 3D. The colors are crisp and the three colors (white, red, orange) really stand out and look great. Not to mention how they were able to digitally alter Jeff Bridges to look like he did in the 80's...great! And to me it looked pretty good, not like CGI.

The cast was awesome. But that goes along with the script. The whole time I am watching this movie I am trying to figure out who is good and who is bad.
The two main girls both had me thinking for awhile they were bad, but only one turned out to be. After seeing some of the previews I thought they would try to sex up the movie, but it really didn't happen. The girl in white had the tightest suit, but it wasn't any different than a guy's suit, it's just that it fit differently on her. With the girl in black...couldn't tell a thing.

The guy that stole some scenes for me was this guy. He played an over the top club owner. When I first saw him I he reminded me of two characters, David Bowie from Labyrinth and The Riddler from Batman Forever (I guess it was the cane and the way he used it). He was great...turned out to be an ass, but still solid performance. I also liked Clu's assistant, he also had a solid performance.

The best thing was that you really didn't need to see the original Tron to understand this one. I'm not sure if I ever saw the original Tron from start to finish, but it didn't matter. This was a great self-contained movie...kind of like the first Star Wars movie. There are rumors that if this movie is a hit then there will be 2 more movies and a cartoon as well. I say bring it on.

This movie isn't going to win any Oscars (except for visuals), but it is a great science fiction/action movie with a great storyline that pretty much anyone can follow.

Cons:
Actually, I really couldn't think of any. It was an enjoyable movie. Don't go in expecting a masterpiece of film, go in expecting a fun action packed sci-fi movie with a solid storyline.

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