Call it hypocrisy on my part if you will, but Tron and Tron: Legacy require consideration that excepts their plots. The original Tron succeeds its sequel in this regard, but the two are more about their ideas and the visual and audio presentation thereof than anything else. That film and computer science nerds consider Tron a “classic” has more to do with what it represents than it does the story, because let’s face it, when viewed critically in the frame of film as storytelling it doesn’t hold up especially well. However, in terms of technical wizardry, both ideologically and creatively these films are pinnacles of their era.
Tron
What can be said about Steven Lisberger’s Tron that hasn’t been said about it in the 29 years since its original release? Bruce Boxleitner and Jeff Bridges lead the story as two computer programmers (Bradley & Flynn, respectively) working against ENCOM, a software company, to prove the theft of Flynn’s intellectual property (talk about being years ahead of its time). In the process of hacking into the company’s system from within the building, Flynn gets digitized by a specialized laser in control of the MCP, the fascist computer program running ENCOM’s system. Now, within the company’s mainframe, Flynn pairs up with Tron, a program Bradley created, to liberate the system from MCP’s tyranny (all while proving the company’s senior exec stole his code).
The visuals were innovative at the time, but in context of hi-def it’s almost as painful to watch as a 3D movie that requires the red-blue glasses. And yet, in spite of being an unquestioning product of the 80s, it offers up special effects and ideas that show it had ambitions the technology of its time couldn’t match. The film is incredibly stylized and in such a way that no other film will probably ever match (simply due to the incredible amount of effort poured into each frame), but that style isn’t done any favors by high-def. At best, it looks just as good as it did on DVD, and not too much better. In HD, the atmospheric blue is quite striking but if you’re a true fan you might prefer to preserve your memory of the film in low-res, because the depth higher resolution offers is somewhat detrimental to enjoying Tron (save for the initial scene where Flynn is just entering the Grid - that's downright beautiful).
Tron: Legacy
Incredible and sharp visuals, a soundtrack by Daft Punk, and a somewhat paradoxical continuation of the original film’s train of thought make Tron: Legacy a film everyone should watch at least once. At best you would have seen it in theaters in 3D, because if ever there was a film to see in 3D IMAX this was it. If you missed that chance, or you want to relive it, this pack includes the 3D Blu-ray version – but chances are most of us don’t have a 3D TV. Don’t let that turn you off, because the best part of Tron: Legacy is how it looks in high-definition, not necessarily in 3D.
After Flynn (still Jeff Bridges) disappears without a trace, his son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) grows up entrusted with the future of ENCOM should he ever desire to take it over. He doesn’t, and so the company becomes a greed-driven entity badly in need of the spirit that Bradley (still Bruce Boxleitner) and Flynn gave it when they made it one of the most groundbreaking software companies in the world. Now, Sam is in his 20s and only ever attends ENCOM board meetings to pull pranks. On the night of his latest disturbance, he arrives to find Bradley waiting for him with news that his old pager received a message from Flynn’s Arcade which has been shut down for years. Sam investigates and upon discovering Flynn’s hidden back room is digitized and transported to the grid where he’s reunited with his father and his aide, the mysterious Quorra (Olivia Wilde), in a sleeker, shinier grid where light cycle and gladiator games are the opium of the programs under the harsh rule of Clu (also Bridges), the program Flynn created to cultivate the perfect system. With Sam in the mix, the race is on as all the major players make an attempt to use the gate to escape to the real world.
Normally I berate a film when it spends little time developing its characters and puts all its efforts into making a visual experience equivalent to digital fireworks – except here. Tron: Legacy is one of those rare audio and visual combinations that’s downright glorious and manages to succeed in face of its glaring shortcomings in the script. Unlike the original Tron, Tron: Legacy seems far too concerned with whether or not the audience is keeping up with its sci-fi plot. Consequently, a quarter of the lines in the film could be thrown out as they serve no other purpose beyond exposition for people who might not be able to keep up with the plot – which is already simpler than its predecessor. For this reason, Tron: Legacy has to lean heavily on its presentation, and luckily that’s one hell of a crutch.
Watching Tron: Legacy on a decently sized, high-definition screen in the privacy of your living room with a decent sound system might be one of the most rewarding home theater experiences currently available. While I personally was somewhat underwhelmed by Daft Punk’s score, it is the perfect complementary soundscape to the sharp and visually stunning world the film enters once Sam is digitized. However, even before that, there’s something truly ground about “Son of Flynn” playing as Sam races through a tunnel on his Ducati.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Granted the set is loaded with both a 3D and 2D version of Tron: Legacy on Blu-ray, Tron: Legacy on DVD and as a digital copy, and Tron on Blu-ray (5 discs – this set is packed), but once you get to actual extras you might find yourself underwhelmed.
For Tron: Legacy, the bulk of the extras are found on the 2D Blu-ray disc, including a sneak peek at the upcoming cartoon Tron: Uprising, the follow-up short film “The Next Day: Flynn Lives Revealed” which offers some more closure for the film and hints at the plot of the sequel, the official “Derezzed” music video from Daft Punk (starring Olivia Wilde), footage from Comic-Con where Skywalker Sound recorded crowd cheers using attendees in the audience, and then three production featurettes detailing how the cast was inserted in the digital world, the realization of the story for the sequel, and the effects used to create the visually beautiful world of the Grid to life.
Note, at the time of this review one of the more interesting features “Disney Second Screen” was not yet online. Upon launching, it allows you to link up a computer to your wi-fi/network connected Blu-ray player and explore interactive content that corresponds to a given moment in the film. It seems like the next step beyond what Blu-ray has already done for commentaries.
The Tron Blu-ray disc is where most of the extra features in the set can be found – unfortunately, despite the cover's boast of over "5 hours of extras", the vast majority (all but 25 minutes) of them are ported from previous DVD releases, but with all that on top of the two new featurettes, this disc is massively endowed. The new ten-minute featurette “The Tron Phenomenon” is an interesting retrospective wherein Bridges, Boxleitner, Wilde, Michael Sheen, Tron: Legacy Director Joseph Kosinski, T:L scribes Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz, and others look back fondly on Tron for its conceptual design, the painstaking efforts required on each frame, its foresight into a technical age, and remarking at some of the inherent irony as to how people viewed it then and how it’s viewed now. “Photo Tronology” is a video diary of Steven Lisberger and his son Carl as they take a trip to the Disney archives to take a look at the original Tron art and photo albums that tracked the film’s production. While the retrospective of “The Tron Phenomenon” was interesting, “Photo Tronology” is so much more intimate and meaningful than the basic promotional piece – this might be the best extra in the entire set, it’s a genius extra hearing Steven Lisberger reminisce.
Everything else is a previously released extra.
"Tron: Legacy & Tron 5-Disc Set" is on sale April 5, 2011 and is rated PG. Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, Steven Lisberger. Written by Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, Steven Lisberger. Starring Bruce Boxleitner, Garrett Hedlund, Jeff Bridges, Michael Sheen, Olivia Wilde.
