I was 12 years old when the original Tron hit theaters in the summer of 1982. Like most my age at the time, I was pretty captivated by the tale of programmer-turned-hacker Kevin Flynn who gets transported inside a computer and must compete in gladiator-type video games to survive. What wasn't there to like - the cool neon-infused suits, the jazzy Wendy Carlos electronic score, the then-cutting-edge CGI effects, the action figures that resembled four-inch-tall Jell-O molds and that ubiquitous arcade game that robbed me of so many quarters the next two years of my life.
The film made more money than it cost and ushered in the age of computer-generated effects, but it never really achieved a status beyond cult film of the excess-heavy '80s, usually mentioned in the same breath as other less-than-appreciated spectacles of the decade like Flash Gordon, Krull and Buckaroo Banzai. (Don't remember those flicks? Thanks for making my point.) If people remembered Tron, it would usually elicit the same response as the punchline of a joke.
For me, however, it will always hold a special place in my heart, a reminder of the waning days of childhood, when movies weren't followed online but in the pages of magazines like Starlog and Cinefantastique. I own the soundtrack and the out-of-print DVD, which I still take out for a spin every couple of years. So, needless to say, I was pretty jacked to hear Disney was releasing a sequel to this influential but misunderstood gem of celluloid 28 years after its initial release.
Tron Legacy picks up nine years after the first film left off. Kevin Flynn (a younger,CGI-enchanced Jeff Bridges), is tucking in his young son Sam and regaling him with tales of The Grid, the virtual world he was transported to so many years ago. It seems those stories have turned into big business for ENCOM, the multi-national computer company Flynn now runs. From action figures to video games, Tron, the security program that assisted Flynn on the inside, is now a brand to rival Coke and Pepsi.
As the lights are turned off and the door to Sam's room is slowly closed, neither father nor son are aware this will be the last time they will see each other, as Flynn will mysteriously disappear that night for the next 20 years.
Flash forward to present day and an adult Sam (Garrett Hedlund) is a brilliant-yet-unambitious loner who's about to play his annual prank on his father's former company. This year it's making ENCOM's new operating system available free to the masses online. Shortly thereafter, Sam is visited by Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner), Flynn's former partner and Tron alter ego, who claims to have received a page from his father's long-since-abandoned arcade. Investigating, Sam comes across Flynn's hidden office and the device that makes traversing The Grid possible. A quick boot-up of the system and we're off and running as Sam is transported to the world that obsessed his father a lifetime ago.
Upon arriving, Sam is brought before C.L.U. (again, a younger, CGI-enhanced Jeff Bridges), a nefarious lead program who eerily resembles his father. C.L.U isn't interested in chit chat and places Sam on the gaming grid where the younger Flynn proves to be a natural until C.L.U. joins the competition. As the proceedings turn dire for Sam, he is whisked away to safety by a mysterious program called Quorra (Olivia Wilde). She transports Sam to the Outlands where a mutual friend awaits.
Now it should come as no surprise that the mutual friend is the elder Flynn (Jeff Bridges, this time looking his age in a flowing white robe and graying beard). Once the father-son reunion is complete, Flynn tells Sam he's been living off-Grid, stuck on the inside since the night they last saw each other. Apparently C.L.U., who Flynn engineered in his likeness to assist in further developing the digital utopia, was the one that sent the page so the gateway would be reopened, thus luring Flynn back on The Grid so C.L.U could steal Flynn's knowledge and cross over to the user world. Well, Sam's all for getting back to the gateway and taking his father with him. When Flynn refuses to leave, Sam goes anyway, forcing his father to go after him and face C.L.U. one last time.
Tron Legacy is neither a letdown nor a revelation. Once Sam crosses over, the storyline basically mirrors the original film. Bridges and Hedlund have a nice rapport as father and son and Michael Sheen provides amusing support as The Grid's resident horse trader Castor. And even in his limited role, it's great to see Bruce Boxleitner doing anything.
The visuals are the real draw of course and they don't disappoint, expanding on the original's concepts with all the muscle and verve today's technology can provide. I caught the film in 3D and the effects were completely immersive, never distracting.
After 28 years of waiting, it's nice to see Tron make a worthy comeback and dazzle a whole new generation of movie-goers. Now, where's that Buckaroo Banzai sequel?
