GRADE: B

After three years of comic-con footage, an endless barrage of posters, banners, clips, trailers, TV spots and a quarter of a billion dollars spent, Disney’s Tron: Legacy finally debuted last week. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite live up to the hype. As I do every week, I had the privilege of seeing an advanced screening of the film, but I should mention that it was in a regular theater, which unfortunately only had the “Real 3D” print of the film. As this film is nearly all about the visuals, boasting “the 3D movie event of the year” quotes from critics, the fact that I didn’t see the film in IMAX had an obvious negative impact on my Tron: Legacy experience, which is unfortunate.

As most of you should know, Tron: Legacy is the sequel to 1982′s Tron starring Jeff Bridges. And as I’m sure many of you raised your eye brows several years ago upon hearing of this sequel, I think it’s one of those “we didn’t have the technology to portray what we wanted to back then, so now we can.” Or they just wanted to milk the 3D prices to make a crapload of money. Either way, Tron: Legacy is a fun ride with occasionally thrilling visuals, but it is not going to propel the 3D revolution like Avatar did last year.

If you haven’t seen the original Tron, don’t worry. The film does a nice job catching the audience up to speed at the beginning, re-capping the events of the first film. Basically, technology titan Kevin Flynn (Bridges) has been missing for 20 years after he developed a way for humans to transform themselves into a virtual world. The reason for Flynn’s absence these long years is because he’s been trapped in said virtual world. His son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) is now all grown up and has a narrow majority control over his father’s company called Encom. Sam is extremely apathetic of taking control of his father’s empire, something that the greedy board of directors don’t mind at all. Kevin Flynn’s long-trusted second-in-command, Alan, gets a page (I know, right?) from Flynn’s long-disconnected pager from the 80s, and encourages Sam to check out his father’s abandoned arcade. Upon some investigating and tampering with his father’s dusty arcade games, Sam accidentally gets transformed into a virtual version of himself, winding smack dab in the middle of the game in which his father has been trapped for 20 years.

There’s a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo involving de-ionization and atom restructuring that I’m not even going to try and explain; good call for the kids, Disney. But the basics of the rest of the story involve Sam attempting to rescue his father from the merciless dictatorship of his virtual clone, Clu, who has seized control of this universe and is trying to escape “the game” and wreak havoc in the real world. Ok, get it now?

Look, the visuals in the film are amazing, no question about it. There are brief, but epic racing battles involving light cycles that are some of the coolest images you’ll see this year.  The grand, unique and exciting world that director Joseph Kosinski has created is very impressive, and at times breathtaking. But the “Real 3D” experience is not how this film is supposed to be seen. From the trailers and commercials, there are vibrant colors exploding from the screen. I unfortunately got to see none of them, as my 3D glasses were basically sun-glasses, and completely darkened the visuals for myself and the audience in attendance. So I say to you now, if you do see this film, see it IMAX. Please?

One extremely negative thing about the visuals and special effects come at the behest of Clu, who is supposed to be an exact clone of a young Jeff Bridges. Obviously makeup cannot achieve the affect of youth, as Bridges is almost 70, and when Clu is motionless, it’s quite impressive. But when he smiles or makes any kind of facial tick, you can tell, and it’s painfully obvious that this person is completely CGI.  One might argue that because the setting is inside a virtual world it makes sense and adds to the film’s themes of artificial reality, but it just didn’t work for me.

The performances in the film are all fine, albeit Bridges pretty much phoned his in. The lovely and beautiful Olivia Wilde appears in the film as a love interest for Sam and the last-surviving “Ion;” a nearly-extinct race that can bridge the gap between the virtual world and the real world. She adds to the wonderful visuals in the film, but doesn’t give a very noteworthy performance.

Overall, Tron: Legacy is a fun movie experience that is worth the price of admission, IF, you see it in IMAX.

What Should You Do? IMAX.

Tron: Legacy is probably the most-anticipated event film left this year, right below Harry Potter ATDHP1, so as it’s December release date nears, we’re going to be given more and more clips and TV spots. Recently, a new music video featuring a song from the film’s official soundtrack by Daft Punk titled “Derezzed” was released online, and it’s pretty sweet. DP is certainly going to give Tron: Legacy an epic soundtrack that’s going to act as a character on it’s own via the electronica bass. The music video also features a few brief snippets of new footage from the film.

Check it out.

The OST for Tron: Legacy is currently available on Amazon for $11.99. Tron: Legacy hits theaters on December 17.

[via Awards Daily]

What Do You Think? Discuss.

It’s been several days since this was unveiled to the world, but I needed some time to gather my thoughts. If you saw Alice in Wonderland this past weekend, you got to see the breathtaking new trailer for Disney’s other upcoming 3-D baby, Tron Legacy. The first footage we saw of Tron Legacy was way back this past summer when Disney premiered those three minutes of footage at Comic-Con. That clip didn’t show much, but was just supposed to get people talking, which it did. But man, this new trailer has got people SCREAMING for December to hurry the hell up already.

The trailer hit the web on Monday and boy does it look amazing! The visuals look absolutely brilliant; crisp, eye-popping imagery. We also get a little more into the story of the film. It’s obviously over 25 years later since the first Tron left off, however it should be noted, in an interview Jeff Bridges did state that you wouldn’t need to have seen the first film in order to grasp the plot of Legacy. That is obviously a good move since most movie-goers aren’t going to Netflix TRON, a movie that came out in 1982, in order to understand it’s sequel that comes out in 2010. Not gonna happen. Before I continue, first watch the awesome official trailer for Tron Legacy.

From this trailer we see Kevin Flynn’s (Bridges) 27 year-old son Sam (Garrett Hedlund), returning to his father’s arcade where he spent his cyber-racing days. At the end of the trailer with the “Dad it’s been a long time”/”You have no idea” dialogue exchange, I think it would be safe to assume that Kevin Flynn has been stuck in this cyber-world for 27 years and his son is going to suit up, grab his cyber-bike and try to save his father; thus carrying on his “LEGACY.” Just guessing of course. Oh, and the smokin’ hot Olivia Wilde makes a nice little cameo in the trailer, sprawled out on a neon glow couch. She plays a veteran cyber-racer (for the bad guys) who is given the task of getting close to Sam to get to turn him/kill him, but in the process she falls in love and then has to decide whether to follow her heart or follow orders. Again, just guessing.

A few more things I find intriguing about Tron Legacy:

1) This is director Joseph Kosinski’s directorial debut. You heard me right, this is his first time directing a movie. EVER! And somehow he’s come out of the furthest part of left field and put together a seemingly ground-breaking, visually stunning, 3-D blockbuster. It’s just really impressive and also very unusual. Which is also why those recent rumors of Chris Nolan’s co-writer/brother Jonah Nolan making his directorial debut with a Superman reboot for Warner Bros., not so far-fetched. Shit! Stay focused Barrett.

2) I mentioned this when I posted the Comic-Con footage in July, but when was this film completed and why is Disney taking so long to release it? They showed over three minutes of footage that looked amazing in July of 2009, and now they have a full-length trailer, which also looks amazing, in March of 2010. But Tron Legacy isn’t coming out until December 17, 2010? Man the technology involved must be extremely difficult to edit in post-production. Perhaps Tron Legacy is Disney’s Avatar, technologically speaking, and they want to make sure all the wrinkles are ironed out before unleashing it upon the world? That seems about right.

3) Boy Disney is getting darker and more serious aren’t they? I mean, Tim Burton doing Alice in Wonderland isn’t going raise comparisons to Seven, but it’s certainly a very creepy/gothic take on a classic children’s tale. And did you see that trailer for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice a few months back with Nic Cage? That seemed like it had a lot of dark, dangerous, deadly, supernatural elements to it. Although, IT IS set to go toe-to-toe with Inception on July 16th, so maybe Disney is trying to up their street cred and appeal to the badass junkies. And then we have Tron Legacy, which is a film, by all accounts, about cyber-racing TO THE DEATH. Man they’ve come a long way since Bambi.

Ah well. All I know is that I’m going to be at the Minnesota Zoo IMAX theater on Thursday, December 16 at 8 p.m. to get in line for the midnight showing of Tron Legacy.

What Do You Think? Discuss.

Along with Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, these two films are the biggest live-action Disney movies coming out in the next couple years. First we have Alice In Wonderland, directed by Tim Burton. I posted some of the first released pics last month featuring some of the film’s original concept art revealing Burton’s vision for this magical world. It also featured some promotional banners for Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen and Anne Hathaway as the White Queen. Disney released the first official trailer for Alice In Wonderland yesterday and well…let the insanity ensue.

The world that Burton as seemingly created contains some trademark Burton elements: grand-scale/disproportionate architecture, gloomy tones of grey that dilute bright colors signifying his “darker intent,” etc. It looks like it will be a feast for the eyes and no doubt a fun ride, although it also seems like he went a little too heavy with the CGI. The Tweedles, Cheshire Cat and The White Rabbit are all CG, as well most, if not all of the scenary. And I’m also a little fatigued by the fact that they’re making Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter the central character of this film. I mean, we all know about the 20-year love-fest that’s been happening between Depp and Burton, but do we really need him to be the face of this film? Becuase the Mad Hatter is not. Why didn’t they just mention all the cast, including the girl playing Alice? Then it wouldn’t seem like a Depp gimmick (cough Willy Wonka). Either way it’s gonna be box-office gold and I’m excited. Check out the first official teaser trailer for Alice In Wonderland, which opens March of 2010.

Next up we have sequel 27 years in the making. Tron came out in 1982 starring Jeff Bridges, about A hacker who is literally abducted into the world of a computer and forced to participate in gladiatorial games where his only chance of escape is with the help of a heroic security program. It’s the first film to use CGI extensively in during its production. Many of you have probably seen it parodied in pop-culture in some form, more specifically the lightbike scene. As Hollywood can’t seem to come up with any new, original ideas, they’re making a sequel…27 years later.

Disney revealed the first sneak peek of the new sequel, Tron Legacy, in a near three-minute teaser trailer today at Comic-Con in San Diego. It seems odd that they are revealing this trailer now, considering the movie isn’t set to release until 2011. Do they really need a year of promotion? The trailer looks sick as technology has come along way since 82′, allowing for a viturally created virtural world appear real. This sci-fi world is cold, precise and unforgivng, containing much darker elements than Disney usually puts forth. This is not you’re average Pirates adventure folks. Anyway, it looks very interesting. Check out the first official trailer for Tron Legacy.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I know people are wary of the “3D” label, becasue they think it is gimmicky and/or a rip-off. I, however, am a proponent of 3D, so long as the film is either fantasy, Sci-Fi, animation, or horror. G-Force in 3D? I’ll pass. In this case of films like Coraline, My Bloddy Valentine and of course Alice In Wonderland and Tron Legacy, I think it’s great. These two movies transport you into another world. One being fantasty and the other science fiction, each of which are filled with genuine visual cinematic elements that can only be enhanced by the inclusion of 3D. I for one, can’t wait to see how my eyes  will pop out of my head watching these worlds come to life. For now, props Disney.

What Do You Think? Discuss.