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Tron: The Legacy more current releases » one-minute movie reviews about us BY ROGER EBERT / December 15, 2010 To the sad story of a father still playing About the site » who was trapped inside a cast & credits Site FAQs » snowman for the winter All Good Things ("Jack Frost"), we must Black Swan Contact us » now add "Tron: Legacy," Kevin / Clu Jeff Bridges Blue Valentine where the father has been Sam Garrett Hedlund Burlesque Email the Movie trapped inside a software Quorra Olivia Wilde Carlos Answer Man » program for 20 years. Yes, Alan / Tron Bruce Boxleitner Casino Jack Chicago Heights young Sam Flynn has Jarvis James Frain grown up an orphan The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Castor / Zuse Michael Sheen Conviction because his dad was on sale now Country Strong seduced and abducted by a Walt Disney Studios presents a Due Date video game. Now a call film directed by Joseph Kosinski. Essential Killing comes for the young hero Written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Fair Game to join his old dad in Faster Horowitz. Running time: 125 throwing virtual Frisbees at The Fighter the evil programs minutes. Rated PG-13 (for For Colored Girls threatening that digital sequences of sci-fi action violence Four Lions world. and brief mild language). The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest Gulliver's Travels This is a movie well beyond Printer-friendly » Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 Buy now » the possibility of logical E-mail this to a friend » Hereafter explanation. Since the Tron Hideaway universe exists entirely How Do You Know? within chips, don't bother I Love You Phillip Morris Inside Job yourself about where the The King's Speech physical body of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) has been for the last two Last Train Home decades; it must surely have been somewhere, because we can see Leaving that it has aged. The solution I suppose is that this is a virtual world Love and Other Drugs and it can do anything it feels like, but how exactly does a flesh-and- Made in Dagenham Buy now » blood 20-year-old get inside it? And what does he eat? Megamind Modus Operandi Joseph Kosinski's "Tron: Legacy" steps nimbly over such obstacles Monsters and hits the ground running, in a 3-D sound-and light show that Morning Glory plays to the eyes and ears more than the mind. Among its real-world My Dog Tulip technology is a performance by Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn at two The Next Three Days different ages — now, and 20 years ago. The original "Tron" was Night Catches Us made 28 years ago, but that would have made young Sam Flynn, his Nowhere Boy The Nutcracker in 3D son, nearly 30, which is too old for the hero in a story of this sort. 127 Hours The ideal age would be around 12. Buy now » Outside the Law Paranormal Activity 2 In a flashback, we see Kevin, lord of a mighty software corporation, Rabbit Hole taking leave of his son as a child. At first, you think Jeff Bridges Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale looks younger in this scene because of makeup or Botox or RED something, and then you realize this is Bridges' body and voice but Season of the Witch his face has been rendered younger by special effects. They're Seven Days in Slow Motion uncanny. The use of profiles and backlighting makes the illusion Somewhere adequate for this purpose. The real Bridges turns up later inside the Stone program, whiskery and weathered, but the CGI version of younger Tamara Drewe The Tempest Buy now » Jeff sticks around to play Clu, a digital doppelganger he created, who now desires (you know this is coming) to control the world. Tiny Furniture Today's Special The Tourist Kevin and Sam reconcile and bond. They join other cyberspace Tron: The Legacy allies, notably including the beguiling Quorra (Olivia Wilde), who True Grit cyber-Kevin has apparently been fathering instead of poor orphaned Unstoppable Sam. Does this symbolize the ways video games can destroy real- Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen life relationships? Just asking. I'm thinking of Quorra and Sam as a Welcome to the Rileys possible romantic couple, but there's the pesky problem that she is White Material virtual, and he bleeds when he's cut — I think, although maybe not Winnebago Man Buy now » inside the program. This brings us back to a central question about more current releases » "Avatar": What or who, precisely, was Neytiri falling in love with? I'm giving this more attention than the movie does, which is just as on dvd well. Isaac Asimov would have attempted some kind of scientific speculation on how this might all be possible, but "Tron" is more new on dvd action-oriented. (Personal to sci-fi fans: If "2001" is Analog, "Tron: Legacy" is Thrilling Wonder Stories.) Dinner for Schmucks (1/4) Catfish (1/4) Buy now » The first "Tron" (1982) felt revolutionary at the time. I'd never seen The American (12/28) anything like it. We showed it again at Ebertfest a few years ago. It Soul Kitchen (12/21) was the first movie to create a digital world and embed human Salt (12/21) actors; always earlier that had been done with special effects, matte Easy A (12/21) shots, optical printers, blue screen and so on. "Tron" found a The Town (12/17) freedom of movement within its virtual world that was exhilarating. Trouble in Mind (12/14) The plot was impenetrable, but so what? Mugabe and the White African (12/14) Mother and Child (12/14) "Tron: Legacy," a sequel made 28 years after the original but with more new on dvd » the same actor, is true to the first film: It also can't be understood, but Buy now» looks great. Both films, made so many years apart, can fairly lay coming on dvd claim to being state of the art. This time that includes the use of 3-D. Since so much of the action involves quick movement forward and Dogtooth (1/26) backward in shots, the 3-D effect is useful, and not just a promiscuous use of the ping-pong effect. It is also well-iterated. (A more coming on dvd » note at the start informs us that parts of the movie were deliberately filmed in 2-D, so of course I removed my glasses to note how much great movies on dvd brighter it was. Dimness is the problem 3-D hasn't licked.) Blade Runner: The Final Cut (9/14) Buy now» A long time ago in 1984, Jeff Bridges appeared as an alien inhabiting The Circus (10/20) a human body in John Carpenter's "Starman." An article in the New Superman (11/4) York Times magazine called him the perfect movie actor. He wasn't Metropolis [2010 Restoration] (11/16) flashy; he was steadily, consistently good. Now that he has won an Red Beard (11/18) Oscar for "Crazy Heart" and is opening soon in "True Grit," that is more great movies on dvd » still true. Here is an actor expected to (1) play himself as a much younger man, (2) play himself now, and (3) play a computer program (or avatar?), and he does all three in a straightforward manner that is effective and convincing (given the preposterous nature of the material). Buy now» Sam (Garrett Hedlund), circa 20, is well-suited to his role, somewhat resembling Bridges. Olivia Wilde makes a fragrant Quorra. In some inexplicable way, these actors and Bruce Boxleitner (Tron) and Michael Sheen (Zuse) plausibly project human emotions in an environment devoid of organic life, including their own. The artificial world is wonderfully well-rendered, building on the earlier film's ability to bring visual excitement to what must in reality, after all, be slim pickings: invisible ones and zeroes. I soon topped off on the thrill of watching Frisbees of light being hurled, but some of the chases and architectural details are effective simply because they use sites and spaces never seen. And the soundtrack by Daft Punk has such urgent electronic force that the visuals sometimes almost play as its accompaniment. It might not be safe to play this soundtrack in the car. The plot is another matter. It's a catastrophe, short-changing the characters and befuddling the audience. No doubt an online guru will produce a synopsis of everything that happens, but this isn't like an opera, where you can peek at the program notes. I expect "Tron: Legacy" to be a phenomenon at the box office for a week or so. It may not have legs, because its appeal is too one- dimensional for an audience much beyond immediate responders. When "2001" was in theaters, there were fans who got stoned and sneaked in during the intermission for the sound-and-light trip. I hesitate to suggest that for "Tron: Legacy," but the plot won't suffer. DISH® - Official Site Get HD Free For Life & 120+ Top Channels www.DISHNetwork.com Real Estate IRAs Use Your IRA / 401(k) rollover to www.pottsfinancial.com Visit the TiVo Superstore TiVo DVRs with Expanded Hours and all http://www.weaknees.com/ Canada's Timeshare Resale Sell Vacation Ownerships, Clubs, www.howtoselltimeshare.ca Ads by Yahoo! © copyright 2011, rogerebert.com Privacy Policy Terms of Use Submission Guidelines.