27 February 2011

Tron: Legacy


'Tron: Legacy' is of course the sequel of 'Tron' (1982) and in the first film we could see Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn or Flu (in the digital world), a hacker being more or less 'abducted' by the digital 'underworld' ('overworld?) when trying to penetrate a computer system, creating a virtual society.
Inside this world/society he is forced to participate in a gladiator game where his only chance to survive is to find a "heroic security program".
As his colleague Allan Bradley or Tron we saw Bruce Boxleitner. Tron is - besides Flu - the main character in the first film and they both try to find a way out.

In this film we meet the son of Kevin Flynn - Sam (Garrett Hedlund) - who is searching for his father and in doing so he ends up inside the digital world that his father designed.
There he meets his father's creation - Flu - turned bad but also his father, who tries to escape by not participating in the games, a strategy he thinks will diminish the power of his clone.
Kevin Flynn has a companion, a woman/an ally born inside the digital domain of 'The Grid'.
She saves Sam when he's on the verge of being killed in the gladiator games and of course they fall in love etc etc.
I (Gunnar) haven't seen the first 'Tron' but the story in itself is a combination between different futuristic stories, of which we've seen some on film and read some in books.
The idea was probably born when computers started to develop into a tool for others than the military or the companies but in 1982 when the first 'Tron' was made, the World Wide Web, as we know it, wasn't yet born and I don't know how deep an insight into these matters the director Steven Lisberger had.
Today 'Tron: Legacy' is more understandable and one can also - as a viewer - in one's own mind, 'inject' personal ideas about how this world might function.

The story we get to follow inside The Grid is not unique though, which is a pitty.
One have worked a lot with the technical side of the film, leaving the plot to the more ordinary scheme of bad vs good, the genius who created a monster, the potential threat towards mankind, hate, love, friendship, betrayal and so forth.
Some described this as not being a film but Daft Punk's longest music video - and why not?

However we both found the aesthetic very appealing and the story in itself wasn't at all bad even if we didn't find anything that surprised us.
Director (chosen by Steven Lisberger): Joseph Kosinski.
'Tron: Uprising' is scheduled 2012 as a TV-series but I wouldn't be surprised if a sequel on film follows.

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