It's been about 30 years since the film Tron was in theaters. It received mixed reviews from most of the critics, some saying the story was lacking but it had had outstanding visuals that were considered groundbreaking backing for that time, which they were. For being released in 1982, having computer animation in a film is amazing. The film left an impact on such filmmakers like John Lasseter, head of Pixar and Disney's animation group, by helping him see the potential of full motion computer generated images in film and stating, "without Tron there would be no Toy Story." Now, in 2010, the sequel is finally here and we can see how far computer animation in film has come along and we get to see how the Computer World has evolved.
The story first takes place right after where the first film ends. Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges, is the head of Encom, the company that created the villain from the last movie, the Master Control Program, or MCP. We see him with his seven year-old son Sam. He talks about his adventures in computer world, Tron, and what he hopes to accomplish here in the real world with what he learned from the net. Flynn then leaves Sam to continue his work to make the world a better place, but suddenly, Flynn goes missing, *gasp!*. We then jump to the present. Sam Flynn, played by Garrett Hedlund, is all grown up, the community shareholder of Encom, and is pretty much a "bad boy" because we see him steal the newest software from the company, putting it up on the net for free, and make a daring escape that could make Ethan Hunt say, "Wow." Later, Sam receives a page from his father and it appears to have come from the old arcade Flynn use to own from the first movie. He goes there and he discovers a secret work room and upon discovering it, he gets pulled into the The Grid, a computerized world, similar to the one from the first movie, but instead of the MCP controlling it, it is actually a program named Clu, who happens to exactly like Flynn, *gasp!*. So now, its up to Sam to find his father and defeat the evil program that has taken over The Grid, bring peace, and leave it before the portal to the real world closes and it's too late.
If you do happen to go see this, just so you know, the story does fall flat. It's not that it wasn't a bad story, it just seemed uninteresting. Also, I didn't really care for the character Quorra. I know she plays an important role in the film, but I just didn't feel any emotion towards her, I just didn't care.
However, I was able to overlook all that because of two individuals; DAFT. PUNK. The techno duo did the score for this movie it was AMAZING to listen to. Their style of techo rhythm was like have a rave in the auditorium. It's definitely a movie soundtrack you should pick up if you like this sort of style of music. The next best thing about this movie, (that almost made the number 1 thing that made this movie awesome), were the visuals. They really showed how far computer graphics have come along. Comparing the graphics of the first Tron to this one, also shows how computers themselves have evolved. Computers back in the day were once the size of an entire room. Now, they could fit in your pocket...YOUR POCKET! That's just too cool. Also the way they showed the younger version of Flynn was amazing as well. They digitally created Jeff Bridges face to make it look younger and was able to make it almost life like. There are some instances where you can tell it's a computer rendering, but that's only when he gets close to the camera, but far away you can barely tell. Finally, the action itself. There are a lot of moments in the movie that put a big smile and dropped my jaw. One in particular is when Sam is forced to compete in the games and he has to fight his way out. Very cool fight choreography was used in some of the sequences and I enjoyed watching the people do it all.
Despite having a lackluster story, the music and visuals are joy to listen and see, and it will definitely entertain you for about 2 hours. Sci-fi fans and computer geeks everywhere will enjoy this and it may even surprise those who aren't those types.
MY RATING: 8/10
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