Hello Irrelvant’s, I’ve decided to publicly express my dismay with the film ‘Tron: Legacy’, instead of keeping it bottled up and having a break-down due to my bitter disappointment.
I’ll start with a story, back when I was about 10 years old I was on summer holiday and had just finished playing on the N64 with my Father, dinner had just finished cooking to which I was told to turn off the console and come get my grub on. I proceeded to sit in the dining room with my Brother and watch T.V. My father returned to the room and told me to change the channel over to reveal a film that has forever fascinated me with the inner workings of computers ever since, growing up I honestly thought I had Tron and Clu living within my mother-board. To say the Tron franchise was something that meant at lot to me would be an understatement so you can understand my enjoyment when I heard there was going to be a “sequel”.
My anticipation and excitement only further grew after reading an article on the Guardians website announcing that Daft Punk where going to be writing the score for the film, this promptly followed with a link to hear the sound track… I listened and loved it!
Come Tuesday 4th January I got to see ‘Tron: Legacy’ I avoided reading reviews as I didn’t want to distract from the visceral experience that is Tron. I was apprehensive at first, The original film was considered such a revolution in cinematic history some what similar to Star Wars (original saga) pushing visual effects to as far as they could possibly go (at the time). I had prepared myself that it wasn’t going to be as mind-blowing as the first time I saw Tron and knowing how the effects were constructed would some what counter-act the innocence I had whilst watching the original but all this aside I was hoping for something incredible.
I was wrong… Now by no account is the film terrible, it’s not the worse film I’ve ever seen and it’s an enjoyable experience but it’s not Tron. Tron didn’t take it’s self seriously, it had a certain air of humour even in it’s most serious of scenes but this is what made the character’s in Tron so likeable and great. This is the largest fault with Tron: Legacy you don’t care about the characters. The original character of Kevin Flynn lacked the wisdom and had an enjoyable cocky tone to all his actions, the same with Allen; however, in Tron: Legacy I found the character of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) was lost between playing ‘The Dude’ (from the Big Lebowki) and a monk. For me this didn’t work, it didn’t feel like Tron any more it felt like I was laughing not because of how advantageous and over-coming Flynn’s action were but just because his character resembled ‘The Dude’ so heavily. I expected the character of Kevin Flynn to not be so easily defeated in every scene it felt like Flynn wouldn’t even want to try for resistance, I blame the writers for this. There is a cocky presence in Tron: Legacy and “Boy, is he cocky?”.
Max Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) the son of Kevin Flynn, is a typical arrogant, overly cliche, pretty boy, who happens to lack direction until the final act. The only thing he has going for himself is how great he is on a motor bike, for me this was the largest problem with the film Tron: Legacy, I hated Sam Flynn and constantly found myself in a situation where I’m rooting for the bad-guy to win. Max Flynn is the new-age Hollywood hero (far too perfect) someone whose lost his father, inherited the largest company in the world but still carries a chip on his shoulder because he’s not seen as a rockstar, in my eyes I will only let Robert Downey JR and Chris Pine get away with this as their act have some level of some humility.
Again not the fault of the actor but the problem is the writing, the original Tron was so amazing because it was geeks against what they loved. In Tron: Legacy it just seemed to try and be the sequel to Star Trek (J.J Abram’s remake) the character of Max Flynn resembled the character of James Kirk (Chris Pine) far too much, as well at times the shot construction for Tron: Legacy was practically the same as Star Trek.
Olivia Wilde’s character was fine, she acted robotic and served as eye-candy… That’s essentially all her part required. (Trinity) For me the best character by far was Michael Sheen’s ‘Castor’, the way he styled himself and acted was like a body-double for David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust era) which made for a very crazy, charismatic and lovable character.
This for me really solidified how diverse he is as an actor.
I felt this film had a lot of wasted potential, the story of the grid growing to become a powerful force (dictatorship) was actually a very captivating and interesting plot but was only briefly expanded upon but it’s just another remake of ‘The Lawnmower Man’. Visually the film is stunning although a little character-less, it’s no different from watching Avatar or any other greened screen laundered film. Musically the film stands out, I feel the soundtrack in this film is easily the strongest part. A lot like ‘The Social Network’.
The action scene’s in this are few and fair between they have that “Star Wars: Episode 1 -3 vibe”. In which you don’t seem very impressed knowing that it’s all CGI.
In summary the film fell short, it’s very enjoyable but if you’re a fan of the original it won’t suffice. It lacks the charm of the 1980′s version, doesn’t deliver on story but will please anyone looking for another boring ooze that Hollywood has to offer which would be fine if only it didn’t take it’s self so seriously.
