And then one day…
Sam: “You got in?”
Kevin: “I got in!”
Flynn did get in, and created something quite spectacular. The same can be said for the entire cast and crew of TRON: Legacy. It was an amazing audio/visual masterpiece. Obviously it helped that I attended an official Dolby Labs 7.1 screening with extra speakers set up by Dolby themselves. That, and official Dolby 3D glasses made with actual glass lenses.
Yes, it’s true, TRON looks and sounds amazing. Quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen really. Ever since the first teaser video I’ve felt like this film was personally designed for me and me alone. The visual style screams at me, and anyone who knows me can tell you I’ve been obsessing over it for a long, long time. The 3D is subtle, not unlike Avatar, and never really gets in your face. It adds an awesome depth, but there are times where I wondered if it even needed the 3D treatment. But when the 3D looked good, it looked great. It was worth the extra ticket price.
I don’t need to go into detail about the brilliant art & set design, or the masters at Digital Domain & Skywalker Sound. Their reputation precedes them and it’s no different here. I fully expect this film to get Oscar nods for outstanding visual effects & editing. Audio noms as well.
That brings me to the soundtrack. Daft Punk did a great job with their score, it really fit the tone of the film. Listening to the soundtrack on an endless loop paid off as I matched the tracks to their visual cues. It was pretty entertaining. The soundtrack didn’t rub me the right way at all times, though. The tone for the entire score is a pretty slow & tame electronic mood with orchestral backing, and for the most part it fits. However, there are some key moments when the score falls short and action scenes suffer because of it.
In the lightcycle and lightjet scenes, the action is so intense and fast paced, vehicles are whizzing by, things are blowing up, people are exploding. It’s fantastic! However, Daft Punk’s droning soundtrack doesn’t seem to pick up near enough to match the action. This makes the sequences feel significantly slower than they should be. I’m not sure if this is Daft Punk’s error or Disney’s.
Story-wise, I think it was just fine. People going into a TRON sequel expecting a Tolkien-esque experience are going to be disappointed. There’s a very clear plot and it’s pretty damn coherent from beginning to end. There are some quibbles I have about certain aspects, some things I feel could’ve been better explained and fleshed out. If you read the prequel comics or played the game, there are a lot of cool nods and things you’ll pick up on that you would’ve otherwise missed.
There are definitely a few things that annoyed me, and if you care about spoilers you might want to skip these paragraphs…
Spoilers!
The inclusion of Tron as a villain was pretty cool, but was also pretty damn obvious if you noticed the “T” on Riznler’s suit. I felt that Tron’s transformation into Riznler should’ve been explained. It was fairly obvious that CLU took what remained of Tron and retrofitted him to be his minion, but some sort of flashback or explanation would’ve really been welcome. Tron is too important of a character to be relegated to the antagonist’s lapdog without closure. Sure, we see his suit go blue for a split second before the end of the film, but I feel the character of Tron is too important for the disservice the film did to him. The protagonist of The Grid, its protector, was completely overlooked story wise and that really bothered me.
My only other real annoyance with the story was Flynn’s martyrdom. I felt it was completely unnecessary. Since Sam and Quorra were going through the portal anyway, they could’ve easily removed CLU from the equation and returned to The Grid to help rebuild it with Kevin. Even moreseo, Kevin could’ve left and lived the rest of his life with Sam and Quorra doing research with Bradley. Granted, CLU was nearing the portal himself, but given Kevin’s display of power, he could’ve easily achieved the same result without dying. I felt his death was untimely and that their relationship should’ve continued. However, this is TRON Legacy, as in the “Flynn Legacy”, so I understand why it ended the way it did.
Sam and Quorra riding away at the end felt like a cool Blade Runner nod to me…which is good in my book.
Spoilers Over!
Jeff Bridges was hilarious, Michael Sheen stole the show as Castor and Quorra was absolutely adorable and insanely hot at the same time. There was great comedy, great action, and the experience was second to none.
CLU: “Kevin Flynn! Am I still to create the perfect system!?”
Kevin: “…Yeah?”
Funniest line in the movie.
See it!
TRON Legacy Deluxe Figures - COOL AS HECK
Part of the allure of TRON is the focus on the future and technology more advanced than we know it. Lightcycles, Identity Discs, Recognizers; it’s all part of a video game world that’s way more futuristic than ours.
So naturally, Disney wanted to do something similar with the TRON toy line. Much like Avatar’s “augmented reality” toy cards, the TRON figures pack an impressive feature called “Impulse Projection”, and it’s probably the coolest thing I’ve seen in a toy so far.
Sure, from my terrible iPhone photos it just looks like it’s a light up face, but the face actually moves and speaks lines of dialogue from the film. The faces animate and their lips move, it’s really a sight to see (you can watch an annoying toy review with video here). To my eye, it looks like some sort of rear-projection, since the actual “face” is a curved, smooth white plastic base. There’s no space in the front, and it’s obviously not an LCD in there, so I’m guessing it has to be rear projected, which is really amazing to see in a $10-$15 figure.
I hope we see more of these unique kind of features in figures and toys in the future! I’ll take some better photos once all my equipment is accessible after the move.
TRON Legacy Wallpaper Collection
It’s no secret that I’m a huge TRON fan, and that I’m eagerly awaiting TRON LEGACY this December. Due to my obsessions, I’ve been enjoying the various teaser images (most very difficult to find in high resolution) and putting them to use. I’ve made several TRON LEGACY wallpapers for iPhone 4 (or other portable devices) and I’m offering them here for download. I’ve put a significant amount of work into these, including removing tons of text from these images.
I hope you enjoy the work I’ve put into these, and I hope even more that you enjoy them on your devices. They look great on the retina display!
Feel free to download the entire collection in a zip file here, or click each individual wallpaper to download the full resolution version.
Enjoy! And tips welcome ;)
