Tron Legacy, 3-D effects gone wild

 

Nostalgia

We all grow up remembering the movies that stuck with us. Movies like Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Godfather, and so on. Well, for me, one of those movies was Tron. When we finally got our first VHS, I recorded it when it played on HBO. I must have watched Tron 100 times before I finally put it in a box in the attic, were it stayed.

 I would sit in Computer Science class and day dream of a world that existed only in cyberspace, a world of programs communicating with and attacking each other. The idea that programs were alive was always so fascinating to me. Every day after school I would go to the Video Game Arcade and play Tron. I must have put $400 into that game.

Becoming Reality

When the internet came along, it was like that world was becoming real, and we were all becoming “Users”. We used programs to do our bidding. We were connecting Users across a vast grid of networks. Free programs, free information, and free communications were now traveling as fast as the speed of light. It’s amazing how ideas can become a reality. When I heard that there was going to be a new Tron movie made, I started to imagine how they were going to integrate all the new types of programs that exist into the new movie. There were so many possibilities to choose from. I imagined a vast network of cities with millions of programs working on the internet.

Anticipation

Finally the day is here, 12/17/2010, and I go to Fandango to purchase tickets. I wasn’t going to chance it and go to a sold out theater. It was a good thing to, because when we got there, the line was 100 people long. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow was going to stop people from seeing this movie, because it was raining cats and dogs. We got our 3-D glasses and were finally let into the theater. I was so excited that I Facebooked a friend that I was finally there. When the movie started, everyone clapped and cheered. I guess I wasn’t the only one excited. 

Review

Tron Legacy starts off with a CGIed younger version of Kevin Flynn (played by Jeff Bridges), a computer designer, telling his son, Sam, of a mysterious virtual world that he discovered, and how one day he would show it to him. That night he disappears and is never heard from again. Sam Flyn (played by Garrett Hedlund) is raised by his grandparents. Even though he owns 51% of his father’s growing company, he wants nothing to do with it. When Sam investigates a page coming from his father’s old Arcade, he discovers a hidden room where he is transported into his the world his father told him about. The day dreams I had as a kid were coming to life on the screen. The audience cheered again. The world was incredibly well generated, a 21 Century 3-D version of the original Tron movie. The CGI was so very well done expect for one thing, the villain, Clu. Clu was program created by Kevin Flynn to help him create a perfect system, but turns on him and takes over the grid. The problem with Clu is that he is completely CGI, and it just doesn’t quite work. Every time he comes on the screen it is like the movie turns into anime. The other issue I had with Tron Legacy is that there was way too much of the first Tron in it. The only thing different about the grid was that there were better vehicles to drive or fly.

 

Overall

Overall the 3-D special effects made up for the flaws in the movie. You should definitely go see it ASAP.