Striking visual and thrilling music with a rather weak plot and lack of engaging characters. Tron Legacy is a quest of "discovering long-lost father" and "getting back to reality" with a very shaky progression from beginning to the end.

The main question of the plot - the desire to perfection and admittance of imperfection - is never clearly explained. What constitute a "perfection" in a system or program? Why was The Grid "perfect"? Why was the ISOs imperfect - especially when they were thought to reshape our physical world? We get the characters shouting each other about perfection/imperfection but never get to know what it's like. This also brings us to the question of ISOs: who are they exactly, why and how can they bring changes to our physical world? The quest of bringing ISOs to the physical world is made like it's a big plot point, only to be never explained [spoiler]and just became a romance subplot for Sam, the main character[/spoiler].

The characters are not engaging. The plot revolves around tech wiz Flynn (Jeff Bridges) and Sam (Garrett Hedlund), a missing father and his son searching for him, but we don't get to see them interact enough to form a bond. There are a couple of scenes and dialogues trying to joint the relationship, but it hangs on there without a proper intertwining. And not let's speak of Quorra (Olivia Wilde), who seems to be there just for the sake of being a female character (barely see other females here) as Sam's romantic interest [spoiler]who, in a predictable move, turns out to be a monumental plot device - the ISO[/spoiler]. They have a couple of dialogues, but it all feels a little too janky, especially with Sam never questioning why and how Quorra gets along with his father.

The tech simulation, neon lights city of The Grid is aesthetically very pleasing to see, and the film does very well in this. However, I'm a bit puzzled for quite some time to how its citizen would behave. If The Grid was just a program, why do they all behave so humanely? Intruders are not easily detected (unlike computer program), people get so easily emotional, with secret motives and can be deceived. Took a while for me to make sense of it - that this isn't really a program, but a simulated human city (which is pretty advanced considering the setting the movie takes place).

If you're just in for the visual and music, it's not bad at all - almost pleasing. But there isn't much to be experienced other than that.

[7.7/10] The original *Tron* is a film with a generic story, bolstered by a unique premise and impressive imagery. If you strip away the things that made the 1982 film distinct upon its release but dated today -- its “inside a computer” setting and its graphical wizardry -- you’re left with a pretty stale and standard fantasy tale with flat characters.

I was ready to count *Tron: Legacy* as a success on the same terms. At first blush, the basic plot here is nothing to write home about. Sam Flynn is the seemingly orphaned son of the original protagonist, rife with the usual set of daddy issues, teasing the modern version of ENCOM that’s being run as a mercenary corporation, which old hand Alan Bradley grouses about as a departure from Kevin Flynn’s ideals. The ensuing “find your father” quest and return to “The Grid” feels inevitable and bog standard.

But even if that’s all *Tron: Legacy* had to offer before diving into its new digital world, it would have been enough, thanks to the exquisite texture of the film. I’ll confess that while I can intellectually appreciate how the graphic of the previous *Tron* would wow people in 1982, it didn’t do much for me in the modern day, when CGI effects are a dime a dozen and kids who’ve grown up since then have become inured to them.

And yet, that’s what makes *Tron: Legacy* so impressive. It’s not as though it’s on the cutting edge of visual effects like its predecessor was, nor can it coast on the novelty of leaping inside a computer (something its very existence as a sequel prevents on its own). Despite that, it’s stunning to watch as an aesthetic achievement, taking the look and feel of its 1982 forbear and translating it to the modern age with such creativity and awe.

Let me speak plainly: everything in *Tron: Legacy* looks and sounds really, *really* cool. There may be no greater synergy between musician and film than Daft Punk providing the soundtrack for a Tron movie. What’s more, director Joseph Kosinki and his team take the “neon lights on monochrome backgrounds” vibe and take it to the next level.

There’s something unspeakably stylish about the ships and outfits and blacklight aesthetic packed into every frame and design. The good guys and bad guys (and their vehicles and tech) are color-coded for your convenience, but there’s a sleekness and greater scope to everything that makes this feel like an extension and advancement of the original film rather than just a retread.

The same approach works for the other parts of *Tron* that have become lodged in the popular consciousness since 1982. There is another game of identity disk jai alai, but it’s done up to eleven with ricocheting discus fire and parkour moves that become the default movement throughout the film. There is the inevitable light-cycle race, only this time, the competitors race along multiple levels with multiple players, heightening the complexity and visual panache of the set piece. Even the homage paid to the iconic poster comes at an appropriate time and an appropriate way, sending our hero back from whence he came while evoking his connection to the past.

The one exception is the efforts to de-age Jeff Bridges, which end up falling squarely into the Uncanny Valley. The good news is that in a computerized world, that totally works! Sure, it’s a little awkward in the few scenes where we see young Kevin Flynn in the real world, but for the most part, the ageless version of Bridges is supposed to be CLU, his villainous digital equivalent, to where the aesthetic eeriness not only makes sense since CLU is a virtual copy, but adds something to his menace as the antagonist. It works in the same way much of the film’s visual choices do -- nothing approaching realism, but in a way that doesn’t matter given the setting and the sheer awe the film evokes with its designs.

It doesn’t hurt that Bridges gives a much better performance here than he did in the original picture, which is doubly impressive since he’s acting for two here. His de-aged take on CLU is menacing and smug in the way a being who feels he’s surpassed his creator ought to be. And the real Kevin Flynn, reimagined as a zen-spouting hippie who regrets his actions, both works as an extension of Bridges’s public persona, but adds some philosophical and emotional weight to the film.

Unfortunately, outside of Bridges, characterization is the weakness that *Tron: Legacy* shares with the film that spawned it. Sadly, Garret Hedlund is a big charisma vacuum at the center of the movie, but it’s hard to know how much of that should be attributed to an unconvincing performance versus the way he’s written as a generic action movie protagonist with daddy issues. He certainly seems more like the rich kid bullying people at his high school than the likable orphan who just wants his dad back, but the script does him no favors.

It’s a pathology that infects the rest of the film, only saved by some performances that elevate the characters beyond the material. Quorra, the secret “ISO” who’s being trained by Kevin Flynn, is the latest in a long line of underwritten female parts, but Oliva Wilde shows some sparks of humanity that make the character more memorable than she ought to be. The evil version of Tron is, much like his predecessor, underbaked by skating by on coolness alone.

The poster child for this “performer over character” is Michael Sheen’s Castor, a wildcard in the battle between CLU’s hegemony and a burgeoning resistance. There’s not much to him on paper, but holy hell is Sheen having an infectious level of fun here, vamping it up the whole time. He’s part David Bowie and part Joel Grey here, holding court with verve and whimsy in a way that makes him instantly stand out.

But despite the thinly-drawn characters and generic “We have to escape to save the world from this oppressive force” plot, there’s some unassuming depth to *Tron: Legacy*. The film is, at heart, a story of people reckoning with their creator. That’s personified by the three offspring, more or less, of Kevin Flynn.

The first, obviously, is Sam, Kevin’s biological son, whose development has been plainly affected by his father’s absence, and whose arc comes when he self-actualizes and reasserts himself in the real world when he learns that his father didn’t abandon him and, in fact, sacrifices himself to save him. It’s not super compelling, given how flat Sam feels as our protagonist, but it’s enough to pass muster, especially when Bridges is carrying their scenes together.

Sam’s counterpart is CLU, another being created in Kevin’s image, but one who resents the man who made him rather than misses him. CLU takes his “create the perfect system” mission to Asimov-like extremes, eventually turning on Kevin and Tron in the process. But the substance comes in conjunction with the vague notion of Users as gods from the 1982 film, with CLU representing a “God is dead” rejection of that notion and desire to overcome the “cage” he feels he and his kind have been placed in by their creation.

Somewhere in between is Quorra, a member of a new digital species that Kevin didn’t create exactly, but which emerged naturally and spontaneously from the conditions he created, there to revolutionize the world. There’s cosmological significance to all of this, adding an undercurrent of commentary on creation and legacy that adds ballast to the film’s dayglo adventures.

Hell, *Tron: Legacy* even presages *Star Wars: The Last Jedi* in its framing of Kevin as something of a chastened Jedi Master here, still capable of great feats but more apt to remove himself from the situation than try to rectify the fascism that’s overtaken the world. He apologizes to the villain and creates the opportunity for his erstwhile students to escape and surpass him in the process, a surprisingly touching moment given the light characterization and clichés that preceded it.

It’s ironic, because much of *Tron: Legacy* feels indebted to *Star Wars* from the turret-blasting dogfights, to the duels between glowing weapon-wielding masters, to the omnipresent daddy issues that suffuse everything. It also returns the favor and borrows a great deal from *The Matrix*, not just in terms of style, but in the sense of a dystopian digital ecosystem replete with oppressive forces and half-magic/half-philosophical counterparts and scenery-chewing wildcards in the mix.

That’s the stunning thing about this film. It synthesizes its various influences, including the original movie, into something that fits a modern approach and advances from where its predecessors left off. There’s still plenty of clichés and empty calorie moments of spectacle, but those moments wow, and Kosinksi adds just enough weight to the proceedings for these events to feel meaningful on their own terms. Late sequels are a tricky business, but with its brilliant texture, tasteful homage, and contemplative take on creation, *Tron: Legacy* is the upgrade we’ve been waiting for.

A massive upgrade on the first film, at least for someone like me who certainly doesn't enjoy the 1982 production.

'TRON: Legacy' is much more vibrant, developed and tangible. I actually formed a connection with the characters in this one, which is the complete opposite to the original. The special effects (bar the de-aging) are a vast improvement, which is to be expected in fairness; I love the look of this.

It's nice to get a proper view into the 'outside' lives of the protagonists, rather than receiving a tiny backstory before shoving them into the new universe; I appreciated the build-up to the eventual entry. The score is also terrific, even if it's strange hearing Daft Punk's "Outlands" due to my familiarity of it coming from Sky Sports UK's Formula 1 opening credits.

Garrett Hedlund is great in the role Sam, I enjoyed his performance from the get-go. Jeff Bridges is excellent too, I feel all the actors in general were given much more to work with in this one; I barely took notice of Bridges (& Co.) in the predecessor, but he stands out big here. Olivia Wilde and Michael Sheen are good, also. Cillian Murphy even makes a minute appearance.

It does, at least to me, feel like a very different film when compared to 'Tron', which may disappoint lovers of the latter but will be relief to opposing folk; e.g. me.

Wasn't sure what to expect from this, but thankfully it produces an entertaining time.

A massive upgrade on the first film, at least for someone like me who certainly doesn't enjoy the 1982 production.

'TRON: Legacy' is much more vibrant, developed and tangible. I actually formed a connection with the characters in this one, which is the complete opposite to the original. The special effects (bar the de-aging) are a vast improvement, which is to be expected in fairness; I love the look of this.

It's nice to get a proper view into the 'outside' lives of the protagonists, rather than receiving a tiny backstory before shoving them into the new universe; I appreciated the build-up to the eventual entry. The score is also terrific, even if it's strange hearing Daft Punk's "Outlands" due to my familiarity of it coming from Sky Sports UK's Formula 1 opening credits.

Garrett Hedlund is great in the role Sam, I enjoyed his performance from the get-go. Jeff Bridges is excellent too, I feel all the actors in general were given much more to work with in this one; I barely took notice of Bridges (& Co.) in the predecessor, but he stands out big here. Olivia Wilde and Michael Sheen are good, also. Cillian Murphy even makes a minute appearance.

It does, at least to me, feel like a very different film when compared to 'Tron', which may disappoint lovers of the latter but will be relief to opposing folk; e.g. me.

Wasn't sure what to expect from this, but thankfully it produces an entertaining time.

Where do you start with Tron: Legacy? It’s a sequel to a minor cult hit that arrived in theaters 28 years ago, a film more renown for its (at the time) state-of-the-art design than its coherent story or classic characters, rekindled now not as a reboot or remake, but as a direct sequel to that long-ago work.

Tron's esteem may have grown in the intervening years (much the same fate as another maligned-at-the-time science fiction film, Blade Runner), but time has been mostly unkind to it; Disney attempted to stage a run of pre-LEGACY screenings of the original film, but modern audiences greeted its dated appeal as unintentionally hilarious. Frightened by the impact this might have had on their $170 million spectacle, they pulled plans for a theatrical release, and whisked the recent 25th anniversary DVD off of store shelves. And so, bereft of a childhood that contained Tron, I went into the sequel with naught but a Wikipedia plot breakdown (which was, to be honest, frustratingly informative) to fill in what turned out to be largely irrelevant narrative gaps. I say that to say that I am reviewing Legacy solely for Legacy's sake, untainted by nostalgia or high expectations.

More than two decades after the events of the first film (which, for the uninitiated, involve a computer programmer [Jeff Bridges, reprising his role] being zapped from the physical world into the computer world he created and fighting an oppressive digital tyrant within), we’re introduced to that computer programmer’s twenty-something kid, heir to his father’s tech empire and not terribly happy about it. It seems he’s still hung up on his father’s mysterious disappearance long ago, and a mysterious message leads to him discovering Dear Old Dad’s secret underground lab, where he’s accidentally zapped into the digital world as well. I’m afraid I’m not spoiling anything to go ahead and say that within he finds his trapped father, and they must fight their way back out. To give more plot details would be unfair and pointless. Suffice to say that once within the digital realm, it becomes action beat after action beat wherein our young hero rescues dad and his requisite romantic interest until the film ends.

Oh sure, there are good guys, and there are bad guys, and there’s a token stab at depth, but what does it matter? That digital world looks really cool, right? And that’s why we go. The sad truth of the matter, however, is that what looks awesome in a two-minute trailer begins to wear on the eyes when presented long-form. “The Grid” exists in three colors: neon blue, neon orange, and black. Well, two colors and an absence of color, I suppose. As nifty as this may seem, two-plus hours of this (particularly at the reduced light offered by 3D projection) robs it of interest, and the whole thing becomes a dull slog. 3D works by enhancing depth, but little to no depth is present when the film is lit and shot in such a stylized manner. To boot, only the bad guys are orange. And as our audience proxy characters are good, we’re robbed even of the contrasting orange to break up the monotony.

There are some neat sequences, of course: the initial lightcycle battle, a digital dogfight later on, etc. Garret Hedlund and Oliva Wilde are perfectly fine in their frankly bland roles, and Jeff Bridges squeezes what depth he can into his dual characters (actual Kevin Flynn and his twenty-years-younger digital duplicate, thanks to some unnerving but nifty visual trickery). The film is far from the unwatchable dreck of, say, The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It’s just...not very interesting. Techno group Daft Punk’s score was easily the best part of the film, and something I’d actually recommend picking up with no hesitations. At its best, the Daft Punk score and stylized imagery (early in the film, before it wears you down) do provide a unique and imaginative experience. It’s just one fit for the length of a music video, not a feature film.

But let’s not kid ourselves: Tron: Legacy is a flashy, ridiculous spectacle that exists solely to put pretty pictures onscreen for two hours and drive a $4+ 3D surcharge. And I say that with no judgment. Some films simply are what they are, and you’ve no more right to expect a dog to meow than to glean from them deep meditations on the human condition. The history of cinema is full of this kind of shallow but aloofly entertaining distraction. But is it wrong to want more of these kinds of films? Take Star Wars, for instance: its strength lies mainly in its revolutionary aesthetic and special effects, but it’s the characters that we remember from the film, not just how cool some set-piece looked. And Lucas isn’t even a terribly good writer; the strength of his characters came from that universal pull all great archetypes have, that ability for audience identification and empathy. Will the name Sam Flynn have the same kind of longevity? What about...uh, Oliva Wilde’s character? Apparently not, at least for me. (Note: IMDb says it’s “Quorra.”) If nostalgia for the first film is strong for you, or you’ve no qualms about paying $14+ for a mildly-distracting if uninvolving experience, go for it. Everyone else may as well save themselves the money. Maybe catch it on Blu-ray.

I should note, though, that I can honestly say 3D added nothing to the experience, so if you want to be able to actually see in The Grid, save yourself the money and hop into a 2D seat.