Sunday, December 19, 2010

Tron: Legacy

Movie name: Tron: Legacy
Year of release: 2010
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Stars: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, James Frain, Beau Garrett, Michael Sheen, Owen Best, Cillian Murphy
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 5

Synopsis:
"Tron: Legacy" is a sequel to the seminal "Tron", directed by Steven Lisberger in 1982, which even though not a major critical and financial success, went on to enjoy a long life as a cult movie, due to the stunning visual work (from the minds of fantastic artists such as Syd Mead and Moebius, to name but a few). "Tron: Legacy" picks up only two characters from the original film, Kevin Flynn and Alan Bradley, respectively played by Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner. Kevin Flynn was, at the end of of the first "Tron", the new CEO of the company Encom. He disappears when "Tron:Legacy" begins and his son Sam grows by himself. Sam, now an adult, makes his presence felt in his own company, through carefully planned boycotts he deploys every year. Upon investigating his father's former game arcade, Sam gets inserted in the game world, where he finds out that his dad's creation, Clu, has been ruling the network of programs and games and his father has been a prisoner for years. It's up to Sam to rescue his father and alter the network.
The film is devoted to it's original counterpart - visually the film picks up a lot of the elements the original one had, but polishes it. All the surfaces are glossy, the costumes are impeccable. The film visually is simply arresting - the cinematography of Claudio Miranda is stunning, the soundtrack from Daft Punk adjusts itself perfectly, however the screenplay simply isn't as equally compelling. The situations are overly simplified, as are the characters. Jeff Bridges performance manages to bring some depth to both Kevin Flynn and Clu, but it's simply not enough. The film is nonetheless, an interesting action/sci-fi film, one where the action flows and the visuals are compelling. Hopefully next sequel will bring more substance.

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