You know you’re in trouble when a film’s greatest asset is its score. The trouble seems even more insurmountable when said film has an astronomical budget dedicated to lavish effects that are only worthwhile half the time. Enter in Tron Legacy, a film that Disney haphazardly resurrected from the 80’s. Even though I’ve never seen the original Tron sans a few clips from Youtube, it’s endearing to see a major studio try and update a franchise that otherwise would only be brought up in dedicated film circles. With that being said, it’s a misjudged attempt to bring a cult classic to the contemporary masses.
Without a doubt, Tron Legacy has the package to woo just about anybody. Featuring vibrant colors against an oppressively dark backdrop, Tron Legacy in the very least attempts to make your jaw drop. Disney expects your jaw to drop further if you see the film in Imax 3D. After seeing it in Imax 3D, I was taken back by the visual wizardry put on screen. Despite the gorgeous visuals, things started to fall apart for me when the film’s special effects began to become a liability in the action sequences. With the glowing visuals merging with the dark, indistinct setting, most of the action sequences become a jumbled mess. More often than not, this left me with no real idea as to what was going on. It’s akin to Michael Bay’s typical hack job where the camera moves at a dizzying pace amongst an indistinguishable slew of special effects. But, I must declare that the special effects are extremely well done. That is until we get into the plot where a major character is ridiculously under worked.
The story of Tron Legacy revolves around Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) disappearing within his videogame world in 1989. Through movie magic we flash forward to 2010 where we meet Sam, Kevin’s son. Sam, now all grown up and without his daddy, inadvertently enters his father’s digital creation named Tron. Upon his arrival, Sam enters a world divided between Kevin Flynn and his digital clone named CLU (Jeff Bridges). CLU is a program Kevin created back in the 80’s as a means to fill his faux world with life. Having been in his digital playground for twenty years, Kevin has aged along with time while CLU hasn’t even developed a wrinkle. Within Tron (aka The Grid), CLU attempts to destroy Sam and Kevin in the hope that he’ll be able to take his newly created army into the real world without resistance. Coming along with this plot is a parable to Hitler and a half assed love story between Kevin’s protégé Quorra (Olivia Wilde) and Sam. This is all fine and dandy, but CLU, which is supposed to be Jeff Bridges aged back 20 years, is devoid of any realistic touch. More specifically, Bridges' motion capture performance is reduced down to a face that looks more like rubber than it does flesh. It’s a shame that the film isn’t able to produce worthy special effects for a character that’s highly invested in the story. What’s more depressing is that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a film that revolutionized age manipulation, did it better and it was released two years ago.
With special effects aside, the film’s stilted plot and pacing don’t do it any favors. The former lacks any emotional resonance despite its desperate attempts to grab us. Instead of moments ripe with emotion, the screenplay delivers an assortment of small sequences that rarely encapsulate the number of lost years that exist between Sam and Kevin. Such longing moments are passed over in favor of philosophical exposition that stalls whatever pace the film tries to establish. This is most notable in the film’s inability to switch gears from action to dialogue driven scenes. Despite the film’s pacing and predictability, the actor’s do their best to try and ground the material. Jeff Bridges is always worth the price of admission, but the best performance comes from the one actor with the least amount of screen time: Michael Sheen. Sheen is magnificent as the sly gangster known as Castor. The depressing fact about Sheen’s performance is that he’s the only actor in the film who realizes that he’s in an extravagant sci-fi film. Thus, he’s the only one who truly seems to be enjoying himself while the rest of the cast and crew are too dedicated to the film's digital muck. It’s disappointing to see the film play it straight for its entirety, but that’s a minor glitch in a film filled with a plethora of failures. None of which touch Daft Punk’s pulsating score, but that alone can’t carry a film. Perhaps Disney should’ve left the film back in the 80’s if they weren’t going to provide it with a better stage.
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