Setting aside the occasional dip into old-fashioned B-dialogue, Disney’s rebooting of their 1982 computer-world adventure is a shimmering, supremely exciting piece of ultra-modern high-end Hollywood entertainment. Melding the mythology introduced in Steven Lisberger’s original with an emotionally resonant father/son reunion narrative and visuals that are simply dazzling, debutant director Joseph Kosinski balances and maximises all elements with a bold self-assurance.
Redefining the design of the mainframe universe known as 'The Grid' that was created so memorably nearly 30 years ago, Kosinski and his art direction team (led by Kevin Ishioka, whose eye for scope and detail enriched Avatar) provide a totally immersive experience, so vast is the vision that they create of a world existing along the information superhighway. There will be the naysayers that denounce their accomplishments, claiming that there are too many recognisable design influences from Blade Runner or Star Wars or Rollerball or 2001: A Space Odyssey, though these claimants conveniently ignore the fact that those films also contained reflective interpretations of well-established genre iconography. TRON:Legacy does more than enough to stand alone as a work of groundbreaking vision and imagination. Such claims also fail to give due credit to perhaps the film’s most triumphant element – a strong emotional heartbeat, one that defies the bulk of mainstream cinema’s style-over-substance mantra.
The hero is Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the son left behind in 1989 when father Kevin (Jeff Bridges) disappeared overnight, abandoning not just his young child but also his multi-billion dollar computer electronics company, Encom. Having been bestowed a controlling stock portfolio, Sam essentially owns the operation and is wealthy beyond his needs, but he could care less; he lives an aimless, low-maintenance life of cheap thrills and no responsibility. His one emotional tie to the company is his father’s old friend, Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner), who still believes Encom can change its corporate philosophies and honour the philanthropic vision of its creator.
Sam’s not interested, until Bradley tells him of a message he has received that seems to have emanated from 'Flynn’s,’ the now-shuttered games arcade that his father once owned. His curiosity propels the narrative, which has patiently established character arcs and re-introduced familiar elements up to this point, and Sam is soon thrust into a neon-infused netherworld of warring programs, gladiatorial games and e-lives governed by the evil rogue program, Clu (also Bridges).
Sam survives a Thunderdome-like initiation, in which two of the most memorable scenes from the original film are re-enacted superbly – firstly involving lethal Frisbee-like program discs; then, a showstopper of a sequence atop cyber-bikes. Following Sam’s fleeing of Clu’s world with the aid rebel cyber-hybrid Quorra (a stunning Olivia Wilde), the film catches its breath and strengthens the story-strand that most dominates it’s second half – the re-establishment of the bond between father (Bridges, again, finally playing his age) and son.
The film doesn’t entirely avoid the kitschiness that detractors point to as being the most lasting element of the first film – Clu’s bald, mincey, sycophantic offsider Jarvis (James Frain) proves a disconcertingly silly intrusion; the jury is still out on whether Michael Sheen’s OTT nightclub dandy Zuse provides a perfectly-timed dollop of personality just when the film needs it or is a wicked embarrassment for the actor. (I favour the former, but many won’t.) And the much-ballyhooed CGI restoration of Jeff Bridges’ visage to play the 30-year-old Clu (allowing for a confrontation between the two actors, one young and one old, that is both brilliant and bewildering) is not always that convincing. (Try as Hollywood’s best might, dull eyes and out-of-sync lips still occasionally spoil the Mo-cap illusion.)
Unexpected joys include seeing the charismatic Bruce Boxleitner on the big-screen, channelling Robert Redford as the aged Alan Bradley and, along with Bridges, the only returning cast member from 28 years ago. Forty-somethings who were teenage boys when the original came out will decry the absence of Cindy Morgan, who set young pulses racing back then as love-interest Yori, though they’ll be no complaints from dads who will use their sons as an excuse to check out the new film – PG-rated cyber-sexiness looks just fine in the form of Wilde and Beau Garrett as devious siren Gem.
Any shortcomings prove so minor in TRON:Legacy’s grand entirety that they simply serve to highlight how fine all other elements truly are. Any concern that Bridges’ return to the role of Flynn was motivated by the paycheck (while no doubt partly true) is soon put to rest in the early scenes opposite star-in-the-making Hedlund – they have a warm bond from which both actors draw tremendously empathetic, chemistry-rich performances (the roles that Wilde’s Quorra and the 'evil-son’ Clu play in this dynamic can’t be undervalued, either); the climax speaks directly to the pain of re-experiencing terrible loss and is very moving.
The long-in-gestation script is credited to Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, though many scribes have reportedly taken a stab; usually a liability, here 'many hands’ seem to have worked a treat. Driving action and emotion with precise beats and ambient tones is a landmark score by dance-music duo Daft Punk, who also appear in the film as, strangely enough, dance-music programs; it is inspired casting in a film overflowing with creative inspiration.
