‘TRON: LEGACY’ Movie Review

BEST MOVIES EVER MOVIE REVIEW: TRON LEGACY

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‘TRON: LEGACY’ Movie Review

Best Movies Ever TRON: LEGACY Official Trailer # 3

‘TRON: LEGACY’ Movie Review
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‘Tron Legacy‘ looks mind stunning beautiful and sounds amazing but fails to meet the very high expectations and marketing budget that Disney has thrust upon us.

Disney has set expectations sky high for their $170 million plus ‘Tron Legacy‘ which doesn’t help the film at all since their’s just no way any film could meet those no matter how brilliant, and sadly ‘Tron Legacy’ isn’t that brilliant. I saw the original ‘Tron’ when I was in elementary school and remember losing many hours of my pre-teen life to playing the Tron video game. The movie might have been a bomb, but it captivated me to know that technology could someday be like that so it was one of those films I kept showing people who were big film geeks like myself. Obviously, I wasn’t the only one since ‘Tron’ wound up getting a huge cult following prompting Disney to make this sequel.

‘Tron Legacy’ looks and sounds amazing thanks in part to the killer Daft Punk soundtrack, but sadly, its about a half hour too long. I know what it’s like to want to put in every amazing effect you have to dazzle the audience, but there comes a time with every film that you have to start making the cuts that hurt. At least the ones that the filmmaker is married to and doesn’t realize that the audience won’t feel the same love for a specific scene that you do. I’ve been there myself, and as any good director knows (that’s part of the crucial editing process), you’ve got to be able to step outside of yourself and watch the film as an audience member seeing it for the first time. Director Joseph Kosinski stumbles mightily when it comes to this along with realizing that he’s got a very fine set of actors to work with, but yet seems more compelled to wow us with visuals hoping that it will cover the very weak storyline. When the bulk of the press is talking about how incredible it is that Jeff Bridges is able to play a younger version of himself that looks even younger than he does now, that doesn’t bode well for a movie that’s already anticipating such a high box office, they’ve got the next script being worked on.

Where the original ‘Tron’ movie captured all of us that looked beyond the clunky set and special effects was that it was about looking forward to where technology could take us, ‘Tron Legacy’ is more about saving dad and chasing people, while never looking forward or back. I was more surprised that there wasn’t more action in this film, and how many times can we have the usual story of a guy chasing after a magical (ring, stone, hoop, fill in the blank) with bad guys right on their tail? This is where director Joseph Kosinski feels he needs to focus. We’ve already heard that Disney hasn’t re-upped him for the next Tron movie, and after seeing the film, Best Movies Ever can understand why. Hopefully, they’ll keep him on for FX since he made an amazingly beautiful gorgeous looking film. No one can deny him that, but again, beauty will only take you so far in a movie.

Here’s what Tron Legacy is about. Garrett Hedlund (‘Friday Night Lights’) plays Sam Flynn, the headstrong but aimless son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a computer programmer and corporate CEO who disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the late 1980s. Now 27, Sam lives alone in a reconfigured garage and only visits his father’s company long enough to stage elaborate pranks that undercut its bottom-line profiteering. But after former ENCOM figurehead Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) tells Sam that he received an unlikely page from Kevin’s long-abandoned arcade, the younger Flynn decides to investigate further.

It’s this part of the story (all in 2D) that should have been trimmed down considerably since it weighs the film down, and you just wish Sam would get into the computer so the action can get started. I’ve always been a big fan of Garrett Hedlund’s since seeing him in ‘Friday Night Lights’ and have had a nice chat with his very charming mom, but ‘Tron Legacy’ was not the film for him to carry. He’s the weakest player in this film that he is the star of, and this is another of the director’s failing in not bringing out the best performances from his cast and focusing more on the FX instead. Olivia Wilde is the strongest character, but even hers doesn’t match up to being a ‘warrior’ as she’s supposed to be. Jeff Bridges is a joy to watch as alway, and since I had seen ‘True Grit’ before Tron Legacy, I kept thinking back to how much better that film was for him.

Once Sam finally gets inside the computer, the film really shines visually and turns 3D (even though we have to wear the glasses through the first interminable 2D part) that Tron Legacy will blow you away visually. Especially, if you’ve seen the original Tron, it’s cool to see how far they’ve come, but after while, you find yourself feeling like you’re watching a movie and not part of it. That’s ironic since the Tron films are about becoming one with the action and what you’re watching. The biggest gripe I had with Tron Legacy is that one returning character just doesn’t get the screen time they should have had, but it’s obvious Disney was pinning everything on Garrett Hedlund which was a very big mistake. He’s so much better in smaller films where he can really focus on acting without having a enormous budget film franchise resting on him.

So if you’re going into Tron Legacy with expectations heightened by the Disney massive marketing machine, please lower them quickly or you will be as disappointed as I was with the film. I was a little trepiditious to begin with since it felt like Disney was forcing Tron Legacy onto us and giving so much marketing images and clips that it made us wonder if the film had some problems, and Best Movies Ever hates being right in these type of situations. The script feels like it was an afterthought, and if Disney feels compelled to make anther Tron movie, they should kick those guys butts to make a more compelling story rather than thinking audiences will get suckered in again with just beautiful images. Tron Legacy could work great play on screens at a bar in the background when people aren’t talking to each other and just looking at them instead.

Best Movies Ever Tron Legacy Rating: C

Tron Legacy is gorgeous to watch and the Daft Punk soundtrack carries it beautifully, but the plot seems to have been a complete afterthought and with a cast like this, director Joseph Kosinski fails miserably. Newbies to the Tron world are doubtful to want to see more and those of us who were fans of the original Tron will feel like Disney is trying to just rape a franchise with pretty pictures and not much else.

Tron Legacy Latest Movie Trailer Best Movies Ever

So enjoy Tron Legacy with Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, Garrett Hedlund and Best Movies Ever.
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