TRON: Perintö

At times the words about the triumph of film design come to mind, but the boredom reliably overwhelms everything. I, as a viewer, have long since sobered up from the 3D fascination and the new Tron has nothing new to offer. Neither story-wise nor narratively; adjectives like "riveting" or at least "interesting" have no place in Kosinski's world. I enjoyed the old Tron infinitely more, even with its simple 8-bit graphics. (10.01.2011)

A more appropriate title would have been Tron 2.0, as this is really just a more advanced version of the original in terms of the story. The task remained the same – get from point A to point B, save those who are good and pulverise those who are bad. Legacy 3D is linked to the original Tron  through the characters, lines and setting. Those who don’t know the original will be deprived of a few laughs. On the technical side of things, however, the new Tron is several decades ahead. It looks…absolutely…perfect! It is a work on which the world’s leading designers collaborated. The virtual world created in the film by a somewhat bland Jeff Bridges (his mockery of the Creator with a halo on his back is as comical as most of the philosophising wisemen in major sci-fi movies) essentially excludes the existence of imperfections. Every object serves its purpose and all of the sounds similarly have their own meaning. Unlike Avatar, Tron subtly draws us into its fictitious world, constantly pointing out its fictitiousness, thus compelling us to admire it from the outside. Of course, it is obviously Daft Punk’s most expensive music video, but the urban symphonies filmed before the emergence of sound (Man with a Movie Camera, Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis) are still captivating today with their music-video nature. Not only my belief that Tron will be subjected to critical analyses even several decades from now, but also my astonishment at the surreal audio-visual (!) experience led me to overlook the film’s many shortcomings, including the poor acting performances, uninteresting introduction and moronic one-liners, and to give it five stars. Appendix: This is the first film that I’ve seen in IMAX that was actually worth the price of admission. 90% (29.01.2011)

Visually amazing, no doubt, I recommend going to the cinema just for that. The soundtrack by Daft Punk is the other great thing. All the rest – the script, the performances – is rather average, and Garret Hedlund is awfully miscast as the protagonist, that guy doesn’t have a pinch of charisma. I don’t mind that the story is simple (you can see some attempts at depth, but they end up harming the film because they don’t work at all), but the way it is put together; there isn’t any gradual reveal of the reality of that cyberspace, like, for instance, it was very well done in Pandora last year. When Sam falls into the light, he doesn’t look particularly surprised, or even tries to find any answers, as a result, you never get to know the limits of that world, which makes it hard to root for the characters, because you get the feeling that if anything goes pear-shaped, the old creator Bridges will only have to push a button to make everything all right again. That sounds a bit too critical for a four-star rating, right? Just to be clear, TRON: Legacy is not a bad film, far from it. The reason I’m being critical is that this film only needs a few tweaks in the script to be a great gem comparable with Matrix. Fortunately, the lukewarm reception by the dear critics lowered my expectations significantly, so in the end I’m satisfied; I’d much rather watch another Tron sequel (and even with Kosinski behind the camera) than most of the upcoming comic-book adaptations (Green Hornet, Green Lantern, Thor, etc.). 80 % (19.12.2010)

Can you imagine what this technological and design gem would be like if it met the usual requirements we have for movies? It would be as great as a film with a well-developed, deep story equaling TRON in imagination, design inventiveness and a futuristic vision. Notice the details (the dashboards of the flying ships, motorcycle designs, the glowing lining of the costumes and the way the characters dissolve into pixels after being hit with a disc), seamless integration of these details into rides, flying and balletic fights, and the synchronization of this elegant visual dance with the majestic electronic music. Just ignore the dumb catchphrases along the lines of “You gotta be kidding me” and enjoy the answer “Fasten your seatbelt!” to the question “What is your name?” Whether you think TRON: Legacy is stupid or not, it is a filmmaking event, the only movie of its kind. (17.12.2010)

Kosinski will (probably) remain a one-film filmmaker. Whoever watches his commercials on YouTube and then Tron Legacy will understand that this director is a design genius with a unique sense of visuals, which is perfectly emphasized by Daft Punk's music, but he is also an absolutely bland storyteller. The attempts to create something epic are very funny, whereas the rest of it is kind of dysfunctional. And yet, unless you might want a serious cinematic adventure, it doesn't let up because the primitive plot actually doesn't hurt the film at all. Regardless, there are two ways in which the film can be seen. Either just "watch" it (perhaps in HD over time), or "experience" it in 3D (and I say that whilst having quite an aversion to this technology as a cheap decoy from clueless filmmakers). (05.01.2011)