DVD Review: Tron: Legacy / Tron: The Original Classic (Five-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy)
My wife and I saw the midnight showing of Tron: Legacy in full 3D XD glory, and we both enjoyed it. Was it better than the original? Definitely not, but visually it was very cool, especially with the 3D in the computer world. So now I just received a review copy of a five-disc Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, and DVD set which contains not just Tron: Legacy but the original TRON as well. There are three Blu-ray disc and two DVDs. The Blu-ray disc are Tron: Legacy in 3D, Tron: Legacy plus bonus features, and the original Tron plus bonus features. The DVDs are Tron: Legacy plus bonus features, and the digital copy of Tron Legacy. Since I have neither Blu-ray 3D nor standard Blu-ray, the only disc out of all those I can watch is the Tron: Legacy DVD. I could also watch the digital copy but I excluded that because it's the same film just meant for portable devices. Okay, now on to the movie!
Jeff Bridges reprises his dual roles from the original film, software engineer Kevin Flynn and a computer program (in human form) named Clu. Since most of this movie takes place over 20 years after the original, and since Clu is a program and thus his physical appearance does not age, computer effects were used to make Clu look like a younger Jeff Bridges. They did a pretty good job with this, but it wasn't perfect and you could definitely tell that CG was used. Because of that, Clu (and the younger form of Kevin Flynn that we see briefly early in the film) just ended up looking creepy. I guess technology just hasn't gotten there yet.
The film starts off with Kevin Flynn telling a bedtime story to his young son, Sam. After, he heads off to work... and that's the last anyone ever hears from him. Flash-forward twenty years, and Sam is now grown and a majority shareholder in his father's company, ENCOM. Despite that, he has no interest in running the company, but he also doesn't like how the board is running it, so he decides to pull a "prank" of breaking into the building, finding the newest operation system that is set to go onsale that evening, and releasing it on the internet for free. This mini-heist sequence comes complete with extreme stunts like base diving and a motorcycle chase.
When that whole event is over, we find Sam at his place just chillin' when another character from the original movie makes an appearance. Alan Bradley, Kevin's friend in the first film and now father figure to Sam, says that he received a page coming from Kevin's old arcade, a number that has been disconnected for years. So Sam goes to check it out, and I thought this was a very well-flimed scene. He shuts on the powerand we hear all the classic arcade music and sound effects from the 80s as he walks between rows of arcade machines covered with plastic that's covered in dust. He of course ends up at the Tron machine that's against the wall apart from the rest, and pops in a quarter, but the quarter falls out which causes Sam to notice a groove in the floor. Sam pushes on the Tron machine and it rotates revealing a secret door, and Sam steps into the blackness of the doorway. I'm sure my writing doesn't do it justice, but it's a very effective scene.
Anyway, long story short, Sam gets zapped into the computer world called the Grid. He's quickly picked up by authorities and then there's an odd scene where four women cut off his clothes and put new form-fitting clothes on him. I think maybe this was supposed to be slightly erotic, but it totally wasn't. It was just weird. And they wore these really tall high heels that looked extremely difficult to walk in. Why would they wear something like that? Anyway, that just kind of felt out-of-place. Then Sam is taken to the games where we get to see duals similar to the original movie, first with those circle things they keep on their back and then later with the light-cycles.
While that all looked really slick and was fast-paced and action oriented, the next part of the movie slows down and tries to go for the emotional element, when Sam meets his father. I'm not sure why, but I wasn't really feeling much of an connection here. Mostly, this part just felt dull and I found myself wishing they would get back to some more action, and it wasn't too long before they did. While the original Tron had a nice mix of visuals, action, story, and character development, this film felt very lopsided toward visuals and action. The characters felt kind of flat and the story seemed very plain. On the first viewing in the theater, I really enjoyed it, but on this subsequent DVD viewing, I just thought that it was okay. It was very nice to look at, but there wasn't enough substance to engross me into the movie now that I already knew what was going to happen.
- Disc 1 - TRON Legacy Blu-ray 3D Feature Film
- Disc 2 - TRON Legacy Blu-ray 2D Feature Film + Bonus
- The Next Day: Flynn Lives Revealed - Be the first to discover what happens after the movie ends
- Disney Second Screen: Tron Legacy - Simultaneously explore excluseive interactive content with your iPad or computer as you watch the movie
- First Look at TRON: Uprising, The Disney XD Animated Series
- Music Video - "Derezzed" written, produced and performed by Daft Punk
- Launching the Legacy - Uncover how the writers and filmmakers created this amazing story
- Disc Roars - See directory Joseph Kosinski rally the fanatical Comic-con crowd
- Visualizing TRON - Watch how the filmmakers brought the astonishing world inside the grid to life
- Installing the Cast - Stars discuss their TRON experience
- Disc 3 - TRON Legacy DVD Feature Film + Bonus
- First Look at TRON: Uprising, The Disney XD Animated Series
- Visualizing TRON - Watch how the filmmakers brought the astonishing world inside the grid to life
- Installing the Cast - Stars discuss their TRON experience
- Disc 4 - TRON Legacy Digital Copy of Feature Film - Watch it anytime, anywhere on your computer and portable device
- Disc 5 - TRONG The Original Classic Blu-ray Feature Film + Bonus
- The Tron Phenomenon - Explore the original film's impact on pop culture
- Plus over 5 hours of bonus!