Pauline and I went on opening day to see the much hyped by me Tron Legacy. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a line up to get in nor was it sold out. I guess not everyone was as enthusiastic about it as I was.

We saw it in 3D, which in retrospect was a waste. The best 3D parts were the trailers (i.e., Pirates 4) before the movie! Most of TRON: Legacy was in 2D, and the majority of the 3D parts were close ups of the various characters. I wanted to see the action scenes (like light racing) in 3D!

The movie itself, not surprisingly, was mediocre. It stayed within the “family movie” range by being rated PG and being a Disney movie. I think this was a contributing factor to making the movie disengaging as the story seemed dumbed down. I couldn’t connect with the villain at all, he seemed to have a singular mindset that hurtled him forward on his scheme for domination, yet there was no explanation behind his motives except for the statement that he was tasked to create the perfect world. Perhaps his one-dimensional nature is due to that direction, like a line of code is, or an excuse to not waste time on character development.

From watching the movie, I never got the exciting feeling that there could be a mystery world in the grid (unlike one of the characters on the grid who loved Jules Verne’s Journey To The Centre Of The Earth), some feelings that, I am guessing, watching the original in 1982 might have stirred. Instead, there were a lot of throwbacks to the original film, some of the original sets and several of the constructs on the grid (i.e., the Command Line). I don’t think this is a good movie on its own, but a good cash in on TRON nostalgia.

The best part about the movie is the style that TRON portrays. From the music to the world inside the grid. That is fun to watch and experience. The best part of the movie is a club scene where the DJs are Daft Punk. This style elevates the movie from a 2 to a 3 start out of 5 for me.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: disney, moviereview