TRON: Legacy (2010)
Directed by Joseph Kosinski
Sam Flynn, the tech-savvy and daring son of Kevin Flynn, investigates his father's disappearance and is pulled into The Grid. With the help of a mysterious program named Quorra, Sam quests to stop evil dictator Clu from crossing into the real world.
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20 films that influenced TRON: Legacy
What critics say influenced TRON: Legacy
Though he wears his influences on his sleeve ( The Matrix , Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey are all obvious visual inspirations), he fuses them into a consistent creative vision.
We’ve seen that imbalance many times before with films like the new “Star Wars” movies where money was so heavily plunked into technology that its humanity and acting suffer dramatically.
This sequel is also goofy, also eye-popping - see it in IMAX 3D if you really want to fry your optic nerve - and also weakly scripted, borrowing from various Star Wars films plus The Elephant Man ("I'm not a program!").
Screenwriters Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz (TV's 'Felicity,' 'Lost') toss a bit of Frankenstein, every Super Hero who ever kept is hand in corporate, "Star Wars," "The Matrix" (which itself borrowed from the original "Tron") and yes, even "The Wizard of Oz" to come up with a story that exists mostly to prop up the special effects.
The narrative may be stronger than that of the 1982 production but, except for a few half-hearted allusions to Frankenstein (which are less obvious than the nods to Star Wars ), there's not much interesting going on here.
What isn’t lifted from “The Matrix,” “Star Wars” films, “Rollerball” “A Clockwork Orange” or “Triumph of the Will” is a Ducati commercial.
Though he wears his influences on his sleeve ( The Matrix , Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey are all obvious visual inspirations), he fuses them into a consistent creative vision.
The grid, of course, has significant parallels to “The Matrix”.
What isn’t lifted from “The Matrix,” “Star Wars” films, “Rollerball” “A Clockwork Orange” or “Triumph of the Will” is a Ducati commercial.
Those illogicalities don’t wholly weigh down the proceedings, nor do the myriad moments that recall other sci-fi classics, from the Star Wars prequels (Sam in a black hooded robe; a synthetic militia) and Speed Racer (the video game-inspired vehicular madness) to Blade Runner (the Grid’s metropolitan architecture) and The Matrix (Michael Sheen, garishly preening as a nightclub owner-cum-underworld power player).
Screenwriters Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz (TV's 'Felicity,' 'Lost') toss a bit of Frankenstein, every Super Hero who ever kept is hand in corporate, "Star Wars," "The Matrix" (which itself borrowed from the original "Tron") and yes, even "The Wizard of Oz" to come up with a story that exists mostly to prop up the special effects.
Did Clu see The Matrix and start programming accordingly?
Kevin has since been kept under house arrest in the company of beauteous warrior Quorra (Olivia Wilde) in an abode that, in its immaculate whiteness, looks more than a bit inspired by Keir Dullea's elegant final home in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Though he wears his influences on his sleeve ( The Matrix , Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey are all obvious visual inspirations), he fuses them into a consistent creative vision.
All you notice in TRON: Legacy is the impeccable art design – the way Kevin’s hideout has been patterned after Dave Bowman’s Jupiter bedroom in 2001: A Space Odyssey, or the tiny, perfectly shaped cubes of ice in a drink, or the cool curves and colors of the light-jets that engage in a long dogfight at the film’s climax.
The few laughs, probably not intentionally, in this mirthless “Blade Runner” wannabe (even the music sounds lifted from the Ridley Scott classic) are at the expense of Flynn’s character when he says to his son “Sam, you’re messing with my zen thing,” and you feel, maybe, Bridges will rift into his character from “The Big Lebowski” but, alas, The Dude is nowhere to be found.
Those illogicalities don’t wholly weigh down the proceedings, nor do the myriad moments that recall other sci-fi classics, from the Star Wars prequels (Sam in a black hooded robe; a synthetic militia) and Speed Racer (the video game-inspired vehicular madness) to Blade Runner (the Grid’s metropolitan architecture) and The Matrix (Michael Sheen, garishly preening as a nightclub owner-cum-underworld power player).
As long as it's engaged in light-hurling bouts of force, or motorcycle chases through a landscape so ominously enveloping it looks like Blade Runner after gentrification, TRON: Legacy is a catchy popcorn pleasure.
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What isn’t lifted from “The Matrix,” “Star Wars” films, “Rollerball” “A Clockwork Orange” or “Triumph of the Will” is a Ducati commercial.
He's like an effeminate version of Malcolm McDowell's Alex in "A Clockwork Orange."
It’ll be embraced by the video/digital game generation and probably make a ton of moolah as Disney mulls dusting off its 1979 turkey “The Black Hole.”
Screenwriters Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz (TV's 'Felicity,' 'Lost') toss a bit of Frankenstein, every Super Hero who ever kept is hand in corporate, "Star Wars," "The Matrix" (which itself borrowed from the original "Tron") and yes, even "The Wizard of Oz" to come up with a story that exists mostly to prop up the special effects.
Using 3D the way "The Wizard of Oz" did color, the film hits its pulse-racing heights early as Sam tries to intuit the rules of this virtual world while being stripped down, suited up and thrust into a series of dazzling life-and-death games involving neon-lit discs and DayGlo Light Cycles, while leaving the story nowhere to go but home, Dorothy.
What isn’t lifted from “The Matrix,” “Star Wars” films, “Rollerball” “A Clockwork Orange” or “Triumph of the Will” is a Ducati commercial.
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Those illogicalities don’t wholly weigh down the proceedings, nor do the myriad moments that recall other sci-fi classics, from the Star Wars prequels (Sam in a black hooded robe; a synthetic militia) and Speed Racer (the video game-inspired vehicular madness) to Blade Runner (the Grid’s metropolitan architecture) and The Matrix (Michael Sheen, garishly preening as a nightclub owner-cum-underworld power player).
While 1982’s “Tron” was especially a landmark achievement with its technological innovations, these days we’ve seen this kind of tech feat before with films like 2008’s “Speed Racer” from the Wachowski brothers along with similar elements in their “The Matrix” films.
This sequel is also goofy, also eye-popping - see it in IMAX 3D if you really want to fry your optic nerve - and also weakly scripted, borrowing from various Star Wars films plus The Elephant Man ("I'm not a program!").