28 years have passed since Tron broke some grounds in computer effects. The cultural impact is discernibly present today, though cordoned off to a certain subculture. They were people who fantasized being embedded in computers, which in 1982 was not enough of a household staple for it to become a shared dream. Funny—we are now closer than ever to the digitized self that Tron imagined, yet only the few retro-lovers appreciate the film.
Tron: Legacy is an attempt to connect this premise with a modern audience, but it doesn't forget its core target audience of computer nerds. Perhaps trying to jump on the zeitgeist of that subculture, the film's whole quest is a metaphor for the argument for open source.
It's technically a sequel, but for all intents and purposes, this movie is a reboot, since it hardly calls back to the previous storyline. There's nary a mention of Sark or the MCP or that adventure Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) went through the first time he went into the computer world known as The Grid. Even the villainous Clu (CGI Jeff Bridges) that's in this movie is not the same Clu. He's Clu 2.0, created by Flynn after the events of Tron (we witness the creation in a flashback).
Since we've last seen it, The Grid has evolved from a series of glowing platforms to a Daft Punk theme park. It's a futuristic metropolis with nightclubs and alleys for wino programs to drink in. Flynn has been trapped here since 1989, leaving behind his son Sam (Garrett Hedlund), who grew up a rich and bitter daredevil. He's your typical Hollywood nerd: super-smart with computers without the effort (he dropped out of Caltech—'cause he's a GENIUS!) and very athletic to boot. Sam discovers the lab under his dad's old arcade, which takes him to The Grid, where he attempts to get his dad out and protect him from Clu, who's been after Flynn's identity disc for years.
Like Coraline, this fantasy world is enhanced with 3D, while the real world is in boring 2D. Back there, Sam is the corporate heir of a computer empire. Since Kevin Flynn's disappearance two decades prior, Encom has profited immensely from a popular—and securely closed—operating system. Sam is a major shareholder, but doesn't want anything to do with a company that he feels has strayed from his dad's wishes. In his introduction, he breaks into Encom and releases the latest OS onto the net. "You can't steal something that was designed to be free," he preaches.
Drawing a parallel between the two worlds, is the film trying to say that a software company not being open source is comparable to a dictator brainwashing the masses (Clu rewriting programs in The Grid to do his bidding)? In which case, it would be abominably hypocritical of Disney, them being the most litigious protector of copyright in the western hemisphere and all. And it's inconsistent with the first Tron, where the whole goal was Kevin Flynn proving that the program he wrote was his, which led to his fame and fortune.
Taking that inconsistency into consideration, though, gives the relationship between Flynn and Clu depth beyond the fact that Clu is a CG reverse-aged Jeff Bridges. While Flynn is old and Clu is youthful, they represent the opposite. Clu is a copy of Flynn when he was younger. He wants to "change the world," as he and Flynn agreed many years before, and his approach is to fully control everyone into perfection. Through Clu's actions, Flynn realizes that he was wrong to think this way, and that it's better to trust the contribution of others and not chase perfection, because amazing advances will evolve naturally from having those imperfections.
If Clu had been wearing turtleneck and jeans, this whole movie would look like an elaborate attack on the iPhone app store.
Regrettably, most of the narrative involve dull exposition—various people sitting Sam down and explaining some backstory to him, over and over. The script is not so much bad as it is unfocused and lazy, taking on the format of a low-end Saturday Morning Cartoon adventure. The thing that people forget is that Tron: Legacy aims to be a goofy kids movie, not some erudite science-fiction epic. It's about people getting sucked into a computer and the programs inside look like humans. Its contemporaries are supposed to be movies like Journey to the Center of the Earth and Race to Witch Mountain, both of which Tron: Legacy blows out of the water in looks and presentation.
The main draw, it has to be said, is the Daft Punk soundtrack. But if you think that means it's enough to just listen to the soundtrack, you're way off. What the score does perfectly here is blending with the images, enhancing each other. Even in the midst of frustration over how semi-cooked the story is, there's a great primal thrill to watching the sexy Olivia Wilde and the sage-cool Jeff Bridges go all Matrix on Clu's henchmen in a neon-lit nightclub, set to the booming track "Derezzed," intercut with Daft Punk themselves spinning in the club's DJ booth and Michael Sheen as a Ziggy Stardust lookalike dancing along to the fight. You can't dismiss that kind of sheer audio-visual magic.
"Tron: Legacy" opens December 17, 2010 and is rated PG. Thriller. Directed by Joseph Kosinski. Written by Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis. Starring Bruce Boxleitner, Garrett Hedlund, Jeff Bridges, Michael Sheen, Olivia Wilde.
