Name of the FIlm: Tron Legacy.
Date seen: 3rd January.
Format: 3D, Cinema.
So Disney announced that they were making a Tron sequel years ago making this one of the films I have looked forward to for a long time but then I read the reviews...
Oh dear, oh no, really?
Crap, why does everything have to suck!
But then Artemis360 said he enjoyed it. Now he’s a clever guy so I thought why not? Lets give it a go. And boy am I glad I did.
Tron Legacy is at first glance a big vacuous effects movie. Dumb fun and a reasonably cool way to spend a couple of hours. But take some time and delve into it a little more and it will reward you with a fairly intelligent film.
The characters are all believable and grounded in the reality of the film. The visuals are stunning and the action engaging... Oh and the soundtrack, oh my god the sound track, pure aural pleasure and I’m into aural pleasure especially of the Gallic, Daft Punk variety. The actors are all great, focussing as the first Tron did on a small group of characters that are all true to themselves.
So why all the bad reviews? Well I think it is an example of film critic snobbery, if I’m honest. You see the trailers, you know that the first film had a very formulaic linear story so the knee jerk reaction is that this will be an effects fest with no depth.
Now I can’t help but feel that the amazing effects dazzled the audience and that is what left the lasting impression. But hang on, there is more on display here, but more on that as we go through.
So Kevin Flynn disappears and 20 (ish) years later his son (Sam) is the primary stock holder in Encom (his fathers company) but is not interested in taking control and instead likes to break in to his own company and steal their brand new software and to release it onto the internet. Sure the board members on the whole are mustachio twirling, shallow, capitalist, villainous stereotypes but that just helps us focus on Sam’s character more. This also helps make the point that information should be free because those trying to limit that freedom just want to exploit it for commercial gain. Sure it’s a little ham fisted but it is effective because of what happens later in the film.
Garrett Hedland (playing Sam) is charismatic enough to hold the film. We like him and although his character is in an extreme situation he is believable because at this point he acts like a rebellious teenager defying his parent, in this situation the only parent he has left is the representation of his father, Encom. This symbolism is taken further by having a member of the board come to ‘have a talk’ to Sam. Now to Tron fans this is important because this board member is Alan Bradley (played by Bruce Boxleitner) who created the Tron program in the first film. Even if you aren’t a fan of the first film then the script is strong enough to show us a believable yet slightly awkward relationship between the two.
So Alan is essentially a cameo / McGuffin to get Sam to go to his fathers old arcade, find the laser and get beamed into ‘the Grid’.
This is really well done for two reasons. Number one we have spent enough time with Sam to understand his character and find him like able, hence when he enters the grid immediately we share his sense of uncertainty and nervousness. Secondly the 3D kicks in at this point (I guess the director watched The Wizard of Oz once or twice). Ultimately irrespective of wether the idea is original or not it works and just like the addition of colour when Dorothy isn’t in Kansas anymore, the 3D helps build upon the sense of cautious wonder.
So from this point on we have light cycle fights, super hot pvc clad girls and cool disk fights. It’s all very pretty and a genuine sense of threat is built until eventually Clu is revealed.
Clu is, from the outset, a very clear bad guy. However he isn’t unsympathetic. As a computer program designed to create the perfect world he could have been as shallow as the ‘we aren’t Microsoft honest’ evil money grabbing Encom board members from the beginning of the film. Now where it doesn’t matter that they are shallow because really they are there to help us bond with Sam, if Clu had been similarly shallow it would have undermined everything because the story would have been as bland as it has been accused of being, a villain is the mirror image of the stories hero and so if the villain is one note then it lessens the credibility of the threat by making the character less believable and therefore less interesting.
But Clu (played by Jeff Bridges) has hopes, goals, disappointments just like everyone else. In short he is a well rounded character. We see so clearly the hurt he feels that Kevin Flynn’s (also played by Jeff Bridges) objectives and goals have changed. In this way Clu mirrors Sam again, because in the same way that Sam in many ways is defined by his fathers literal absence, Clu is defined by his creators (father’s) change of focus and so his perceived absence (in that Clu feels sidelined and rejected).
So in the same way that Sam’s journey is about rediscovering his father, Clu’s story is about the same thing with Kevin Flynn’s disk representing the need for Clu to understand his creator.
Of course what makes them the hero and the bad guy is the way they go about trying to resolve their issues. Where as Sam defends the naive Quorra and his father whenever possible, Clu responds in the way he was programmed, everything works how it should or is deleted. For Clu there is nothing wrong in that but his single minded determination to achieve his goals results in the genocide of a new kind of digital ‘life’ and the destruction of all who get in his way.
As we have seen the characters are well developed and have motivations and act accordingly and believably. This is mainly because the script is deceptively good. Let’s look at the dialogue. Kevin Flynn has been stuck in the grid for a long time and so uses terminology not heard since the 80’s. Things are rad or heavy, it makes him sound a bit odd but then it is true to his character. Quorra (played by Olivia Wilde) has lived with Kevin Flynn whilst he has been stuck. As such she is kinda naive and wide eyed but is very curious about Sam and the real world. Because of this it is believable that she would help Sam out of youthful exuberance when clearly their plan is a big risk. Finally Clu’s dialogue is clipped and efficient, exactly how I would expect a computer program to speak.
All of this helps flesh out a story that is very similar to the first Tron film. It is a very straight forward chase movie of sorts but that doesn’t matter because the story is told well and there are a lot of different layers going on.
Now the Flynns flee from Clu and their attempts to stop him getting the information on Kevin Flynn’s disk show us the counterpoint to the arguments made about freedom of information at the beginning of the film. Like I said, at the beginning of the film the message is not subtle in saying that information should be free. The counter point argument that some information can be dangerous and so should be controlled is a little more subtle (but not much).
Tron Legacy is a more mature film than Tron was, it is older and its views have grown with the times. It doesn’t try to firmly answer the questions that it raises but it does present us with the debate about freedom of information and it does give the two most obvious and opposing arguments. I like this because it leaves me room to think if I want to. And that in a nut shell is what I want from an action film. I can chuck it in my blu-ray, switch off my brain and enjoy the story at face value with the awesome visuals and set pieces or I can get my friends round, have a couple of beers and debate the pro’s and con’s of freedom of information.
Did I enjoy the film? Yes, very much so!
Would I recommend it to my friends? Yes, very much so!!
Will I buy it on DVD/Blu Ray? Yes, very much so!!!
If it was a mate would I let it date my Sister? Looks good and has some hidden depth... Yeah sure why not (although it would probably drive a Porsche 911 and so is probably a dick).
No comments:
Post a Comment