Tron: Legacy (Two-Disc BD Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

In today’s cinematic universe, showing the insides of a computer or game program is mere child’s play. Even the most complex graphics and the most fanciful flights of the imagination can be brought to the screen if one has enough patience, creativity, and money. The two Tron films produced almost three decades apart represent the birth of computer graphics as a creative medium and a mature CGI world where anything is possible. No matter their lapses as narratives, the two films are fascinating examples of what the movies are capable of when thoughts can be processed by artists and rendered in images heretofore unseen and unimagined.

In 1989, software developer and CEO of Encom Corporation Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) went missing leaving behind a seven year old son. Twenty years later, his business partner Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) receives a page from Kevin to come to his old arcade office, but Alan sends Kevin’s rebellious son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) who, once there, finds himself sucked into the Grid vortex in much the same way his father had been decades before. Inside the Grid, he learns that his father’s program Clu (a computer generated younger version of  Jeff Bridges) has taken over control of this universal domain and is mounting an army to reenter the real world and take it over. With Sam reunited with his imprisoned father and his father’s sidekick, an isomorphic algorithm named Quorra (Olivia Wilde), working together, their combined computer knowledge and expertise with computer gaming are all mankind has to prevent the programs of the Grid from escaping and consequently taking over the world.

Though the special effects are far more massive and the world of the Grid is eons more advanced than what was offered in the 1982 original film, Tron Legacy really has very little new to offer from a story point of view (despite four writers credited with story and screenplay including Lost's Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz). We still have humans fighting against game programs for control of the Grid universe. We still have the impressively generated disc contest (akin to racquetball with lit and lethal Frisbees) and the light cycle competition (on multiple planes and with much more impressive CGI), and they’ve added a dogfight in computer generated fighter planes, not very original but a kick to see nevertheless. But the film is a half hour too long especially since there is little time given over to the father-son dynamic that had it been developed beyond a rudimentary scene or two could have given the movie some real heart to go with its massive technology, and the story of Tron himself is sketchily drawn and tremendously unsatisfying especially since Tron was such an important hero figure in the first film.

Jeff Bridges does double duty in the movie playing his present-day character of Flynn and also the computer program Clu (Bridges circa 1989). The digital technology that allows Bridges to play his younger self is pretty smoothly pulled off (only a couple of shots betray the technology behind the miraculous transformation), and the actor has a field day playing both noble and ignoble personas (he’s especially impressive addressing his thousands of minions as an almost Hitler-like martinet). Garrett Hedlund plays the somewhat embittered son without an audience-distancing cockiness that retains our rooting interests for him. It’s great to see Bruce Boxleitner in a couple of nice scenes playing present-day incarnations of his characters from the original movie. Olivia Wilde has a little more to do in this movie than her predecessor Cindy Morgan had in the first Tron, and she does well enough with a generally underwritten character. Michael Sheen is channeling the spirit of Tim Curry in his campiest over-the-top fashion as Zuse, the program who holds some answers for the heroes. James Frain is almost unrecognizable as Clu’s right hand-program Jarvis but also gets the job done with ease.

Video Quality

Tron Legacy – 5/5

The film has been framed at 2.35:1 with select sequences inside the grid framed at 1.78:1. (The switching back and forth between aspect ratios is handled quite subtly and more smoothly than was accomplished in The Dark Knight.) For the most part, color has been desaturated throughout with only key colors on the uniforms of the programs or the colors generated by the light cycles pumped up to near-blooming proportions. Sharpness is superb both in real world moments and inside the Grid, and black levels are everything one would wish for in both areas. The film has been divided into 20 chapters.

Audio Quality

Tron Legacy – 5/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 sound mix is reference quality in every respect, and it’s to the filmmakers’ credit that they didn’t just make the Grid world aurally immersive but the real world, too, has plenty of examples of pans across and through the soundstage. The depth of the bass in the LFE channel makes for window-shaking impressiveness, and Daft Punk’s unusually effective music score gets the full treatment throughout the soundfield. Dialogue comes through clearly in the center channel.

Special Features

Tron Legacy – 3/5

All of the bonus featurettes on the 2D Blu-ray disc are presented in 1080p.

“The Next Day: Flynn Lives Revealed” is a 10 minute featurette offering both backstory on the Kevin Flynn saga but also covers the years from 1989-2009 offering a taste of the story after the final credits roll.

Disney Second Screen allows a user to synch his iPad or computer up to the Blu-ray presentation where interactive models and other bonus material is introduced at various times during the movie.

“Launching the Legacy” is a 10 ¼-minute background piece featuring interviews with original director Steven Lisberger and current director Joseph Kosinski discussing their interests in the project and the five minute speculation reel Kosinski made and presented at Comic Con to see if there was any interest in a Tron sequel.

“Visualizing Tron Legacy” features interviews with the film’s two costume designers and its production designer discussing the look of the new film as paying homage to the original but with its own unique look and feel. It runs 11 ¾ minutes.

“Installing the Cast” discusses the return of the two stars of the original film and the casting process for this film’s new characters and features brief interviews with Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, and Michael Sheen. It runs 12 minutes.

“Disc Roars” details how the seven thousand member audience at Comic Con was recruited to provide some soundtrack cheers and chants which were used in the film. This runs 3 minutes.

“First Look at Tron: Uprising” is a very brief (1 ¼-minute) peep at the graphics for the upcoming Disney animated series.

The music video “Derezzed” is performed by Daft Punk in this 3-minute vignette.

The disc contains promo trailers for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Prom, Tron: Uprising, Tron: Evolution, Cars 2, and African Cats.

The next disc in the set is the DVD version of Tron Legacy.

In Conclusion

3.5/5 (not an average)

Tron Legacy is not great narrative adventure. The good versus evil scenario seems undernourished by today’s dramatic standards but just right if one is looking for an undemanding special effects-laden joyride. The high definition rendering is an impressive capture of the theatrical experience which fans will no doubt welcome.

Matt Hough

Charlotte, NC