Tron Legacy

On a whim tonight I stopped by the Crest, and the movie that just so happened to be playing soonest was Tron. So I figured what the hell, if I'm going to see a movie on the big screen it might as well be that. Like many, I believe, I've never seen the original, but like the style of the visuals and the idea of a computerized reality. So I went in with a blank slate, not expecting much of anything. And what did I get in return? A surprisingly enjoyable movie. Not necessarily good, but enjoyable nonetheless.

The premise of Tron Legacy is essentially that an electronics genius named Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) created an electronic world in the 1980s and created two programs to help him make it perfect. One, a mirror image of himself named Clu, and the other a badass named Tron. One day, he promises his son Sam that he's going to show him the Grid, the world he's created, but the morning after Kevin has disappeared, leading to speculation that he's either dead or has retired from running his massive corporation Encom. 20 years later and Sam is the major shareholder of Encom but only invests enough interest in it to play a prank on the evil corporate board members every year. Then, the one man loyal to Kevin's vision for the company meets with Sam, informs him he got a mysterious page from Kevin's old office at the arcade, and hands him the keys. Sam investigates, only to stumble upon his dad's office hidden behind an old Tron arcade stand, and accidentally ends up digitizing himself into the Grid. Trouble ensues, he finds his dad, and there's a race against time to reach a portal in the middle of enemy territory back to the real world. It's not exactly predictable, but it's certainly close to it.

Here's the thing. The story is not exactly easy to follow, and there's a great deal of feeling like "This part would be awesome in the video game". Nonetheless, there's something that kept me watching. I was always interested to see what happened next despite the fact that nothing interesting really happened, or if it did it was very predictable. Yet somehow, for some reason, I enjoyed it. It may have been just the really pretty to look at style, the fancy fights, or the fact that it simply didn't take too much to sit back and enjoy the ride. There were always some distractions, like integrating Daft Punk unnecessarily or Jeff Bridges constantly channeling his inner Dude from the Big Lebowski, but for the most part the movie just kind of goes down easy, offers no big complaints, and easily sets up for a sequel.

It's a popcorn movie in every sense of the word, and doesn't try to be anything more than that. And if you're willing to just let all the flashy stuff fly by your eyes and take everything with a grain of salt, Tron Legacy can actually be a pretty enjoyable experience.

Tron Legacy gets a 7/10.