Tron Legacy

The first Tron was visually impressive with a weak storyline and while I have childhood memories of watching it repeatedly all I remember is the visual part of the film. This film is no different, though I do think it is better than the first film simply due to the technology available. I saw it in 3D and this film is ostensibly the best film in 3D since Avatar. I haven't seen any other movies in 3D other than Avatar so I really couldn't say, it works in 3D but I imagine it would work in 2D as well.

The biggest weakness this film has is the half hour of exposition and blah that it starts out with, there is literally no reason why they need the corporate plot about Encom or any more background about Tron than ~5 minutes of discussion which could take place in the gameworld (and kind of does), this was also a weakness in the first film but much less glaring than it is here. Once the hour or so long race to the finish begins, signified by one kindly gentlemen pulling out his pimp cane and shooting people with it, the movie is completely riveting the entire time.

Since this is a disney movie the plot is 100% predictable, even from the first 30 minutes or so while the reveals aren't given until an hour later. I don't think this is much of an issue but some people might find it to be silly. The movie has done moderately well at the box office (whilst Narnia is still raking overseas so there may yet be another film) with 43 million, but it has to sustain for a few weeks like Avatar did to reach any significant milestone. I think Disney will make a sequel as long as this film gets ~200 million domestic or so, which considering it only has to realistically compete with the god awful Gullivers Travels is not outside the realm of possibility.

To recap: the plot sucks, there's a half hour of pointless exposition, and the film still manages to be better than the first in every way due to incredible special effects and a unique world to view (with Daft Punk handling the soundtrack no less). There are several things which are hinted at it in the process of the movie that are incredibly more interesting than the movie itself, some sort of Tron/Real World crossover for instance would be amazing.

The Pirates movies didn't go off the cliff of shittiness until the third one and while that series had little or nothing to improve upon in the first film I believe this movie has quite a bit, so hopefully the series does get better over time. There's also not an absurd amount of cleavage and innuendo, which is always nice for the kids and not breaking the fourth wall. If nothing else see this movie so the next movies give you a connection to the characters and for the sole purpose of being visually awed. If you like Jeff Bridges/ The Big Lebowski I'm sure you'll like him playing God in this movie as well.

Final Grade: 8.5/10

Bob's review is once again pretty good, just watch the Watchmen review if you don't think he's going to be terrible at some point though.

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