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The Dictator

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The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Tron: Legacy (Film)

by Jack Sargeant | December 08, 2010 18:08 | Edited December 08, 2010 18:10

Despite the impressive special effects, the action and dialogue lack substance and it’s further let down by the self serious tone.

There's a strange nostalgia for Tron, the sci-fi movie from 1982 that was possibly never as good as people now appear to think. You want early ‘80s' alternate reality? Try David Cronenberg's Videodrome. Existential questions about non-human existence? See Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. Sure, Tron was a kids' film but so was Terry Gilliam's glorious Time Bandits and David Warner was far better as the Evil Genius in this fantasy movie than as Sark in Tron.

 

The idea of a Tron sequel seems rooted in some vague idea that the first film was better than it actually was. No doubt the title may find an audience amongst thirty-somethings and their ten-year-old kids (the same audience who will no doubt wax nostalgic about the 1979 sci-fi movie The Black Hole, currently on the cards for a remake and obliquely referenced in Tron: Legacy via a poster in the background).

 

Tron: Legacy sees Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) the son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) entering the computerised world of the Grid in search of his long-missing father. Here he has to undergo gladiatorial ordeals familiar from the first movie (the light bikes and deadly frisbees), before having to battle the forces of evil and return home. The film looks good, the 3D (which only kicks in once the action enters the Grid) is effective and the architecture of the virtual world is undoubtedly impressive. Likewise, the sheer noise of the various machines is enjoyably visceral, the bass shaking the cinema every time the villains' hovering craft come into view. 

 

However, the storyline manages to be both over complex and utterly simplistic. The big metaphysical questions are introduced, and it's clear something deep is going on because there are old books on the shelf in Kevin Flynn's virtual living room, including ‘Nietzsche' (or is it ‘Minsky'? It was hard to tell but both names would be appropriate). Likewise, Kevin Flynn makes pseudo-Zen statements but these could be as much words uttered by The Dude as a digital-mystic trapped in a computer universe. There's certainly an argument for camp pleasure in the first film, but, bar one nightclub scene, Tron: Legacy film takes itself far too seriously.

 

So, we are left with the action, but there's no real velocity here beyond the impressively staged set pieces. Things happen, events unfurl, and then other things happen, but the pace never hots-up; in fact, nearer the end it even slows down.

 

Like the first Tron movie there's a sense of cutting edge special effect techniques on display, but, once it has established its premise, Tron: Legacy, like its predecessor, doesn't really know where to go and takes a long time getting there.