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Tron: Legacy parents guide

Tron: Legacy Parent Guide

For 21st century teens, the action sequences in "tron legacy" may be enough to reignite interest in this franchise..

It has been twenty years since Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) has seen his father (Jeff Bridges). So he is understandably curious when he receives a message that appears to have come from the missing game developer. While investigating, he is pulled into a dangerous digital world that threatens to trap or kill him, just as it did to his Dad.

Release date December 17, 2010

Run Time: 125 minutes

Official Movie Site

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by rod gustafson.

Unlike many sequels, the new Tron: Legacy asks viewers to try to recall plots points from a movie that released 28 years ago. Huh? All I remember about seeing Tron in the summer of ‘82 was that it felt long and tedious, and it was my second date with the woman who is now my wife. It also seems Disney has done it’s best to make that earlier film disappear. A rare, sealed copy sells upward to $100 and more for the 2002 DVD edition on eBay.(On April 5, 2011, Tron was released by DIsney on DVD and Blu-ray.)

While the team of writers on this effort attempt to provide some clues to the back-story, the quantity of information still feels a little stingy. They begin by returning us to 1989 where Kevin Flynn (played by a digitally youth-enized Jeff Bridges) says goodbye to his 7-year-old son Sam (Owen Best) and rides off into a virtual world of his creation where he will become trapped for the next two decades.

Entering the dusty den of electronic entertainment, he throws a few switches and lights up an old Tron videogame. (Fortunately, someone must still be paying the power bill.) Within minutes he discovers a secret passage that takes him to the land of virtual enchantment where he will reunite with his father and discover the conflict that has kept him captive for so long.

The original Tron is noted for its cutting edge use of computerized effects and first time feature director Joseph Kosinski has embraced this mantra completely. Everything in this world of darkness glows with neon-like details. Characters zip around on lightcycles—essentially a motorcycle created with beams of illumination—and humanoids are outlined and accented with phosphorescent piping. It’s an art director and costume designer’s dream.

Unfortunately, as is often the case, the level of special effects in any given film is usually inversely proportional to the quality of the story. This rebooted Tron is still abstract without reason. Audiences today are much more computer savvy, yet there is little attempt to relate the characters within this supposed computer with any of today’s often discussed technical terms. Where are the viruses? The malware? The army of bits controlled by an unseen hacker?

Thankfully, my complaints have more to do with artistic matters than concerns parents may have about letting their kids see this film. Violence is the greatest issue here, with many conflicts leading to aggression. Still, the fighting is never explicit. Spinning disks that look like a hybrid between a Frisbee and Oddjob’s hat are thrown at characters that, if they are hit, disintegrate into tiny particles. Only once do we see a drop of blood—an indication that a true human is inside this digital society. Sexual content is limited to a couple of skintight costumes on females and language includes only a handful of mild profanities.

For 21st Century teens, the action sequences in Tron Legacy may be enough to reignite interest in this franchise. However the original only did modest business at the box office and unless this 2.0 upgrade can come up with better numbers, it may be "game over" for another three decades.

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Rod Gustafson

Tron: legacy rating & content info.

Why is Tron: Legacy rated PG? Tron: Legacy is rated PG by the MPAA for sequences of sci-fi action violence and brief mild language.

Violence: Main characters are in frequent perilous situations, occasionally engage in reckless and illegal behavior, and are often forced to participate in gladiator-like competitions. The movie contains almost continuous depictions of hand-to-hand battles (with and without weapons), racing high-tech vehicles and firing at various opponents which result in implied deaths, injuries (one drop of blood is shown), crashes, destructive explosion and characters disintegrating into digital rubble. Genocide is discussed. A character loses a limb during a fight (no blood is seen).

Sexual Content: Characters wear tight, form-fitting costumes. Female outfits also reveal shoulders. A man is undressed and briefly seen in his underwear. A man sensually touches a woman’s face. A man and woman embrace. Background characters at a nightclub cuddle together.

Language: Infrequent mild profanities are used.

Drugs and Alcohol: Characters drink alcoholic beverages in private homes and in a bar-like setting.

Page last updated July 17, 2017

Tron: Legacy Parents' Guide

Kevin and Sam take very different approaches to the problem of being stuck within the digital world. How do their ages and experiences affect the types of solutions they consider? Why does time often bring wisdom, while youth tends to be synonymous with impetuousness? Is one better that the other, or should there be a balance?

The most recent home video release of Tron: Legacy movie is April 5, 2011. Here are some details…

Tron: Legacy releases to home video on April 5, 2011, in the following packages:

Tron: Legacy (DVD) offers:

-Visualizing TRON

-Installing the Cast

-First Look at TRON: Uprising   the Disney XD animated series

Tron: Legacy (DVD/Blu-ray combo) and Tron Legacy - 3D (3D/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy) include all of the above plus:

-The Next Day: Flynn Lives Revealed

-Disney Second Screen

-Disc Roars

-Launching The Legacy

-Music video: Daft Punk, "Derezzed"

Tron (1982) - 2D / Tron Legacy (2010) - 3D:

- Audio commentary

- Deleted Scenes

- Publicity

- Storyboarding & Galleries

- Visualizing TRON

- Installing the Cast

- First Look at TRON: Uprising   the Disney XD animated series

- The TRON Phenomenon

- The Making of TRON

- Development

- Digital Imagery

Exclusive HD Content:

- Photo Tronology

- The Next Day: Flynn Lives Revealed

- Disney Second Screen

- Launching The Legacy

- Disc Roars

- Music video: Daft Punk, "Derezzed"

Tron (1982) / Tron Legacy (2011) - 3D (Limited Edition Ultimate Tron Experience) (Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy) 5-Disc Set:

-All of the above in "Limited Edition Identity Disc Packaging."

Music video: Daft Punk, "Derezzed"

Related home video titles:

This movie is a sequel to the 1982 movie Tron , which starred Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner as well. A couple of children are also trapped in cyberspace in the movie Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over . An arcade game is the real world for a family of car drivers in Speed Racer .

Related news about Tron: Legacy

A Dozen (Or So) Films to Celebrate Your Geekness

A Dozen (Or So) Films to Celebrate Your Geekness

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family movie review tron

  • DVD & Streaming

TRON: Legacy

  • Action/Adventure , Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

family movie review tron

In Theaters

  • December 17, 2010
  • Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn/Clu; Garrett Hedlund as Sam Flynn; Olivia Wilde as Quorra; Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley/TRON; Beau Garrett as Gem

Home Release Date

  • April 5, 2011
  • Joseph Kosinski

Distributor

  • Walt Disney

Movie Review

In 1989, Sam Flynn was just a kid. A kid who adored and looked up to his dad—video game developer and all around science whiz Kevin Flynn. But then his father mysteriously vanished.

Skip ahead to the present and Sam is feeling just as disillusioned and empty as he felt deserted back then. Only now he’s a rebellious twentysomething who’s more interested in sabotaging his father’s former corporation than working for it. In fact, it’s after playing his latest prank on the company that an old friend shows up with a message. But it’s not the typical complaints from company board members that Sam was expecting. And, oddly, it’s a pager message … from Sam’s dad.

With a little digging, Sam finds the source of the missive—a hidden room filled with computer equipment in the back of his dad’s locked up old arcade. Memories of his father’s kooky tales of an in-computer world called The Grid come flooding back. It was a fantastic place populated by programs that took on human form, his father had said. All nonsense, of course.

But after fiddling around with the stashed equipment, Sam quickly learns that the stories weren’t just fabrications for his young ears. And by quickly I mean that he’s suddenly dematerialized by a laser and transported into the bitstream world.

It is an awesome place of vibrant electronic wonders. A place where almost anything is possible. A place that’s been his father’s prison for over 20 years.

Positive Elements

Kevin (who’s called Flynn) demonstrates that his initial intentions with creating an in-computer world are good. He intends to shape something beneficial for the outside world. And when the system begins creating isomorphic algorithms (independent programs known as isos), Flynn is excited that these new “beings” can do great things for mankind.

On the interpersonal side of things, it’s quite obvious that Sam and his dad love each other deeply. Both would do anything to save the other, and they both put their lives on the line. Flynn’s apprentice program, Quorra, also puts herself in harm’s way to protect Sam and Flynn. She encourages Sam to consider his father’s wisdom.

Spiritual Elements

Flynn’s work with his in-computer grid world, a place he can actually step into and commune with his programmed subjects, is initially designed to be a Garden of Eden-like experiment in which he can shape something that’s perfectly balanced and uncorrupted. He creates a program in his own image, named Clu, and puts it/him in charge to help create this “perfect system.” And since he has been building The Grid from the circuit board up for a very long time, Flynn is recognized by all of its inhabitants as the Creator. They bestow upon him godlike reverence.

Flynn says he believes that his iso programs will change everything from “science to philosophy and religion.” We see him meditating twice, and one time he says that a stressful situation is ruining his “Zen thing.”

Sexual Content

Sam takes off his T-shirt while changing. And when he enters The Grid he is stripped down to his underwear and redressed by a quartet of sirens. They and other female figures wear latex-like curve-hugging one-piece suits.

Violent Content

Inside The Grid, “games” consist of video game-like disk-throwing and vehicle-racing competitions … that always end with one competitor’s death. The vanquished are programs, of course, so in each case their bodies simply “de-rez” into thousands of tiny bits. But Sam is also forced to participate, and during one game, he gets cut: A single drop of blood drips to the floor, proving that he is a human “user” and not a program.

We see several damaged programs that have been partially de-rezed. In one case, a program appears to have a large section of his face missing—leaving rough-edged pixelation running down from his eye. The same thing happens to Quorra when a part of her arm is de-rezed.

After parachuting from a building in the real world, Sam ends up landing on a speeding taxi that brakes and sends him tumbling to the ground. He later pulls off his shirt, revealing bruises on his back.

[ Spoiler Warning ] As Clu, who has gone over to the dark side, and his forces chase Sam, Quorra and Flynn, there are a number of flying or driving chase scenes filled with laser flashes, vehicle crashes, explosions and character de-rezes. In an effort to protect Sam, Flynn touches the ground and an emanating power wave draws Clu back to him. He embraces his creation and the two explode.

Crude or Profane Language

Three or four uses of “h‑‑‑” and one “d‑‑mit.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Sam, Flynn and a number of other characters drink a light blue liquid at dinner and at a club. A derelict program also carries a bottle of the stuff. The implication is that this is an alcoholic substance, but the fluid is very reminiscent of the flowing liquid electricity that characters drink and are energized by in 1982’s TRON . Beer makes a brief appearance in the real world.

The TRON that hit theaters nearly three decades ago was an Alice in Wonderland -like fantasy that threw a guy into a video game world called The Grid. Looking back, the story was kind of goofy. But that was OK back then, because none of us had a clue about computers anyway. They were still mysterious monstrosities filling up huge science labs someplace. Oh, and they had lots of blinking lights and were fronted by reel-to-reel tapes.

So TRON , with all its new “computer graphics,” seemed cool. It had zipping light cycles, electrified outfits, laser luminosity and computerized music. (Well, it sounded computerized, anyway!) It also spawned one of the gnarliest arcade games of the day.

Translating all that to 2010 is a task of Googleistic proportions.

This is the age when everyone is intimately familiar with all things computerized and digital. Today we have video games built into everything from our home theaters to our touch screen phones. Which means that if you even pause for a moment to consider this new TRON’ s massaged storyline and porous logic (or why it’s even called TRON at all) your high-tech mind will probably start to balk and blink and spin.

TRON: Legacy , however, never demands that you work that hard. It simply whisks you into The Grid’s fantasyland and wows you with dazzling visuals, a pulse-pounding soundtrack … and fast-moving light cycles. It also wields an involving good guy/bad guy confrontation that’s as instinctively recognizable as the clickity-click of a terminal keyboard.

The result is a cheerful, colorful and solidly PG popcorn piece that won’t leave you deep in thought. But it’s fun enough that you won’t really care why it’s called TRON .

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After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Tron: Legacy Reviews

family movie review tron

Everything you could dream of from the original is bigger, brighter, and better. Never before have video games, or even science-fiction itself, looked as good or as sharply designed as this.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 4, 2023

family movie review tron

Almost three decades in the making, TRON: Legacy arrives and forces viewers to wonder why it took so long to render such an unremarkable film.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 3, 2023

family movie review tron

Tron: Legacy, and it remains, even more than a decade after its release, one of the most audacious big-budget debuts in recent memory.

Full Review | May 27, 2022

family movie review tron

Even if you've never seen the original, this is still a fun, stylish film that is sure to entertain.

Full Review | Feb 11, 2022

family movie review tron

...however quickly the third movie does comes around, by the time it does, the aforementioned fans might realise they're not quite as keen on Tron as they might have thought they were.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 25, 2021

family movie review tron

...a big, beautiful, expensive train-wreck that really is something of an apex in glossy, vapid movie-making...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 19, 2021

family movie review tron

There's an undeniable appeal at its core - in its sincere approach to ridiculous concepts, in its resistance toward quipping at its own expense.

Full Review | Dec 18, 2020

family movie review tron

Why are the story and actions like watching someone else play a video game?

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Nov 30, 2020

family movie review tron

Only Olivia Wilde manages to impress.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.0/4.0 | Sep 26, 2020

family movie review tron

Gorgeous to look at, but completely empty in every other regard.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jul 14, 2020

Overall, 'TRON: Legacy' is not only a film, but an experience. It was the perfect film to watch in IMAX to really showcase what the technology could do.

Full Review | Apr 16, 2020

family movie review tron

I fell head over heels in love with Tron Legacy in the movie theater. And after a second viewing, I'm still pretty giddy about it.

Full Review | Apr 2, 2020

family movie review tron

The end result of this 3D experience is a mixture of feeling bereft, wishing it had been more, but still loving it fiercely for its visual adrenaline fueled splendor, and wanting to defend it's every good traits.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2019

Tron: Legacyis okay, a good-looking diversion. It has some very cool, Tron-universe-specific effects and Jeff Bridges to recommend it. Just don't go in expecting anything that will make you imagine or feel anything new.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Feb 16, 2019

family movie review tron

After a while, the ever-glowing splash of neon colors against the dark and whitewashed background become monotonous and tire the eyes.

Full Review | Jan 19, 2019

Director Joseph Kosinski has created a sequel that has truly been worth the wait.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 6, 2018

family movie review tron

Error: data not found. This is a program that runs fine, and does what it's supposed to, but it definitely needs a patch to work all the bugs out.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 4, 2018

family movie review tron

All the money in its budget was unable to buy the filmmakers a single original idea.

Full Review | Aug 9, 2018

[Tron Legacy] feels pointless - like a computer in someone's basement that was built for no purpose other than noodling on, twenty years ago.

Full Review | May 22, 2018

family movie review tron

Once disbelief is suspended, it's quite a ride. As with Avatar last year, the reason to see Tron: Legacy is for the experience. Lights flash. Radiating discus hurl through the air in 3D. The music pounds.

Full Review | Apr 4, 2018

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Tron: Legacy Review

family movie review tron

Tron: Legacy is a good movie, but not a great one. It will entertain, but it is not what most people will expect. To summarize it quickly, the visuals are stunning, but the plot is weak. That will likely ring a few bells with people after last December’s big 3D experience, Avatar . Both films even opened on the same weekend. Like Avatar , Tron: Legacy will split people between those that can accept the plot and buy into the total experience of the film, and those that can’t. But even at its best, Tron: Legacy is not the film that Avata r was. There is just something missing.  Perhaps it is the sacrifice of fun in the name of cool, or maybe it is the visually awesome setting, filled with a handful of interesting characters who are surrounded by a stagnant world. If you can get past all that, you will be left with a decent blockbuster movie that is begging to be part of a new franchise.

Tron 2: Tron Harder

Tron: Legacy is the story of Sam Flynn (Garrett Hudlund), the orphaned son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a computer visionary and CEO that disappeared 20 years earlier after claiming to have witnessed a miracle that would change the world. Over the years everyone, including Sam, begins to suspect that his father simply ran away. Carrying that bitterness, Sam continues to dodge his responsibilities as the primary shareholder of the global corporation Encom, and spends his time rebelling against his heritage.

Kevin’s old friend, and Sam’s sometimes surrogate father Alan (Bruce Boxleitner, who played the role of Alan/Tron in the original film) tells Sam that he received a page from Kevin’s old arcade, which featured prominently in the first film, even though the place had been abandoned years earlier. Despite his skepticism, Sam goes to the arcade and discovers a secret room, housing a computer– and unbeknownst to him– a laser capable of turning the flesh digital and transporting him into a new reality.

Sam suddenly finds himself in a computerized world called the Grid, where he is quickly captured and assumed to be a rogue program. As events unfold, Sam is revealed to be a user rather than a program, and is brought before the leader of the Grid who looks like his father (thanks to some CGI trickery that makes Bridges appear 20 years younger). Sam quickly realizes that it is not his dad, but Clu 2, a program designed by Kevin Flynn to help create the perfect system, but who soon warped that idea. Clu has plans of his own, and they involve the death of both Sam and his father as a means to something much bigger and darker.

Sam is rescued by the beautiful and mysterious Quorra (Olivia Wilde), who takes him to see his real father, who explains the history of the world he created. Following the reunion Sam and Kevin discuss escaping, but the threat from Clu turns out to be greater than anyone initially thought, and the fate of the real world hangs in the balance as father and son attempt to escape Clu’s grasp and return home.

The plot is the weakest part of Tron: Legacy by far. If the paper thin story behind Avatar was enough to sour your experience of the film, then Tron: Legacy is not the movie for you. There are not so much plot holes, as moments when the film just doesn’t seem to bother with explanations at all. Without giving too much away, a good deal of the story revolves around Kevin’s discovery inside the Grid of a new life form known as isomorphic algorithms (ISOs), who Kevin continues to say will totally change the world in every field of science and technology. It is just a given that they will, and he gives absolutely no indication of how they might go about it. You can guess and make your own assumptions, but it is odd and steals some of the thunder from the events of the movie.  Instead of being shocked and amazed by the discovery, you might wonder if you missed something.

There are a handful of these moments where the script can best be described as being vague at best, and lazy at worst. There are several times that the movie just seems to expect you to follow along, even though the rules in the essentially alien world are totally different from anything we could possibly guess. But that doesn’t mean they don’t explain things, quite the opposite.

The film is broken up into three distinct scenes that rotate through the film as needed. The first is the buildup to something that is going to inevitably happen. The second are the action scenes which are highlights of the film. The third is exposition–and there is a lot of that. Big chunks of the film are spent as characters explain to Sam what is going on, and what has happened up to that point. Not all of these explanations make total sense, and those that do—while perhaps somewhat necessary—slow the film down. Ironically, for a movie with a fairly shallow plot, there is a lot of time spent explaining it. It is an odd contradiction.

You won’t be won’t over by the plot, so you simply need to accept it if you are going to enjoy the film.

The film is blindingly beautiful, but the tone is exceedingly dark

One of the things that caught me off guard was the tone of this film, which is brought to life by the look and themes of the story. You might expect this sort of movie to be heavy on action, with good natured jokes spread out along the way—the first film was that way for the most part, with the concept of wonder and awe around every corner. Tron had its dark moments, but it also had plenty of humor too . But  Tron: Legacy is a dark film in every sense of the word. While the lighting in Tron: Legacy plays a big part in showing off the digital world, it do so by using a bleak and dark backdrop as contrast. Colors play a big part in the plot, but the majority of the world carries a monotone quality that is intentional, but can be somewhat depressing at times.

The world of the Grid is a place of oppression and total control, and that is evident in the look of the one primary city, and adding to that darkness are the themes of the film. There is the story of reunion between father and son, but for the most part the plot is highlighted by tension, fear, and despair. The Grid is a melancholy place, and its creator, Kevin Flynn, is struggling with guilt over his role in it, while Clu is filled with a sense of betrayal from his creator.

Tron: Legacy is not a “fun” film in the traditional sense. That isn’t a judgment on the movie, it is simply an observation of the tone. If anything,   Tron: Legacy is more of a drama that has a few action moments worked into it than anything. This dramatic feeling runs from the first few moments until the very end of the film. If you are expecting a silly and lighthearted time, you are in for a surprise.

Tron is pretty

The Grid is a jaw-droppingly awesome place to behold, and the 3D is well incorporated without ever becoming gimmicky. This film is made to be seen on a big screen in 3D, and people waiting for it to be released on DVD or blu-ray are missing out on a remarkable visual experience.

First time director Joseph Kosinski may be responsible for a few of the issues that plague this movie, but he should also be praised for the look, both in terms of the visuals, and the way the scenes are filmed– especially the action which typically takes place in alien settings, yet remain easy to follow.  While the plot is weak, like Avatar , this film’s primary focus is on the visual aspects, and in that  Tron: Legacy succeeds beautifully. The CGI is amazing, and the look of the city in the Grid is nothing short of stunning. Darkness dominates this film, partly from the tone, and partly because that is the established look of life inside the digital world.  It can be somewhat bleak, but it is also original and beautiful.

When the original Tron came out, it was a first of its kind, both cutting edge in terms of technology and imagination. Tron: Legacy seems to have recognized that and gone out of its way to live up to the challenge of its predecessor, despite a nearly three decade gap. In terms of CGI, especially in a live action setting, nothing even comes close to Tron: Legacy . It is an amazing sight.

There is perhaps one noticeable exception to this that you must accept and overlook. While the CGI effects used to make Bridges look 20 years younger for the role of Clu are extraordinary, they are also a bit difficult to accept, especially when he is talking or smiling. There is just something unnatural in the way his lips move, and in some scenes it looks like it is just very good CGI from an animated Pixar movie. That could be explained away within the plot as just being the nature of the program character coming out, but there are enough flashback scenes with Bridges as Kevin Flynn that make it obvious that the technology, while impressive, is somewhat flawed. Like the plot, this is something that you will just have to overlook.

Daft Punk returns

Perhaps just as anticipated as the movie itself is the soundtrack from the electronic duo Daft Punk, who have not released a full album since 2005. The music in the film is all from Daft Punk, and it works on several levels. Besides being just a good soundtrack and one that fans of Daft Punk will happily, and justifiably go buy as a long awaited new album, it adds to the world and the tone of the film. The electronic score is dark, but alway fitting, and it feels like nothing else out there.

Seldom does the music achieve a level where it almost become a character itself in a movie, but it does so in Tron: Legacy . Daft Punk themselves also make a quick cameo, and provide one of the funnier moments of the movie.

Behind the makeup

The buzz behind the two lead actors who star alongside Jeff Bridges has been getting louder, and both Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde are destined for stardom. Both turn in satisfying and solid performances, and each have the charisma to help carry the franchise on if Disney decides to make another Tron film. Hedlund has two major films coming after Tron: Legacy , including Country Strong with Gwyneth Paltrow, and a role that will no doubt receive intense scrutiny, that of Dean Moriarty in the adaptation of Jack Keouac’s On the Road –which could just as easily alienate people as it could endear them to the actor. Hedlund is being positioned as the star of what Disney hopes will be the Tron franchise, and if that happens, he is more than capable of taking on the pressure of the role. In Tron: Legacy he manages to remain interesting and compelling, even though his character is more a slave to the events than a catalyst for them, and the CGI is the true star of the film. But he turns in a likeable and interesting performance with what he is given.

The beautiful Olivia Wilde also dominates the screen as Quorra, a program that sees Kevin Flynn as a father figure. But rather than approach the character as a tough-as-nails warrior as has become something of the norm these days, Quorra retains an innocence and naivety that makes her endearing. That is down to Wilde, who is also a rising star in Hollywood and is booked for the next two years solid.

Together Hedlund and Wilde seem to have an easy chemistry together that is quickly established and believable. There is also a romantic and flirtatious vibe between them that you accept, but when you start to think about the fact that one is a human and the other is a program, the mind boggles at the weirdness of it. The movie seems to want to skip over this aspect, so it is easy to ignore, and it might be something that is destined to be explored in a potential sequel.

Bridges also turns in a solid performance as both Clu and Kevin Flynn. Of the two, despite the facial limitations of the CGI, Bridges’ Clu is arguably the stronger performances of the two. The plot is a little thin around Clu’s villainous plans, but Bridges manages to convey the program’s sense of betrayal stemming from his and Kevin’s earlier falling out. Clu is still a fairly stereotypical villain, but he is an interesting one. The role of Kevin Flynn is also handled adeptly, but Bridges and the script attempt to continually remind us that Kevin has been out of touch with the world since 1989, so some of his vernacular is from the 80s. That wouldn’t be a huge issue, but when he wears an outfit that is marital arts inspired (in other words mostly robes and a gi), plus he has a bushy beard, it is hard not to see him as the “Dude” from The Big Lebowski– especially when he says things like “radical”, and “hey dude”.

Michael Sheen ( The Special Relationship , Frost/Nixon ) also appears as the program Castor, proprietor of the “End of the Line Club”. Castor is energetic to the point of insane, and yet Sheen manages to stop just short of being annoying. The role is brief, but critical, and Sheen makes him memorable. Unfortunately that highlights one of the bigger problems of the film. The world of the Grid is dark and oppressive, but it is filled with programs– thousands of them. But by the end of the movie it will be remarkable if you can remember what more than a handful of them looked like. Part of that is due to the plot, but there is a sense of isolation inherent in the movie. The Grid is supposed to be teaming with life, but in the end it feels bleak and desolate. The audience is expected to have some investment in the surroundings, but the characters are already programs– which devalues them automatically because they are by nature, not supposed to be too much like humans.  With a little more personality from the city and the few random characters that pop up, that could be forgotten, and the audience would be willing to at least fake an emotional investment with the digital reality, but it is so empty and bleak that you forget all about the fact that it is supposed to be an entire world.  The story is specifically about Sam, Quorra, Kevin and Clu, so you can overlook it on paper, but it makes the movie feel a bit lifeless at times.

If you can identify with Sam and Kevin–the only two humans in the Grid– then the rest is incidental, but sometimes the movie feels like a crystal egg– beautiful, but hollow.

Tron: Legacy is a film that has grown on me after leaving the screening. It is not what you might expect, and it really is its own movie despite being a sequel. Having seen the original helps, especially with one big surprise that comes towards the end (but is easy to guess) regarding a loose end from the first film.  The plot is weak and sometimes feels like it just forgets to explain what appears to be vital information. It also seems to either raise several questions accidentally that it never intends to answer, or is setting itself up for a sequel which will be dependent on the box office results of the first. The ending of the film resolves the main storyline, but it also leaves itself open for a continuation. Another indicator of this is the brief, blink-and-you’ll-miss-him inclusion of Cillian Murphy ( Batman Begins , Inception ) in an uncredited role as Edward Dillinger Jr., son of the main antagonists from the first film, Ed Dillinger/Sark/the voice of the Master Control Program  (David Warner). Murphy is too big of a star, and the role is too interesting to not have any plans to take it further.

Tron: Legacy is going to be savagely ripped by many who feel that the plot is just something to string together the visuals, just as many criticized the story of Avatar . It is a fair criticism, and for those that focus on plot, Tron: Legacy will feel hollow and lifeless. If you can overlook it, and if you can shake the preconceived notions that may have formed after 28 years of waiting for a sequel, then the movie is an entertaining and visual stunning, albeit not spectacular film.

Tron: Legacy is the next stage in the future of visual effects that began with Avatar , and is easily one of the best looking movies ever made. Solid performances by the principles. Daft Punk kills it.

A thin plot that has gaping holes. The CGI to make Bridges look younger is weird. The world around the characters feels empty.

Ryan Fleming

The fringe benefits of subscribing to Amazon Prime are many, but one of the best is Amazon Prime Video, which gives you access to a whole library of great movies and TV shows. Finding something to watch on Prime Video can range from pretty easy to remarkably difficult. Because streaming interfaces don't always surface the stuff you're looking for, it can be a slog to actually figure out what you want to watch.

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Based on 5 parent reviews

Feels like the future

Report this review, tron movie review by logan strohl.

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Dated, But Still Worth The Watch

A movie that makes little sense but is such a good ride, great movie.

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Tron: Legacy

Tron: Legacy

  • The son of a virtual world designer goes looking for his father and ends up inside the digital world that his father designed. He meets his father's corrupted creation and a unique ally who was born inside the digital world.
  • Sam Flynn, the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn, looks into his father's disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of fierce programs and gladiatorial games where his father has been living for 20 years. Along with Kevin's loyal confidant Quorra, father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous. Meanwhile, the malevolent program CLU, who dominates the digital world, plans to invade the real world and will stop at nothing to prevent their escape. — ZootCatchy
  • Sam Flynn (Hedlund), a rebellious 27-year-old, is haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his father Kevin Flynn (Bridges), a man once known as the world's leading video-game developer. When Sam investigates a strange signal sent from the old Flynn's Arcade -- a signal that could only come from his father-- he finds himself pulled into a digital world where Kevin has been trapped for 20 years. With the help of the fearless warrior Quorra (Wilde), father and son embark on a life-or-death journey across a cyber universe -- a universe created by Kevin himself that has become far more advanced with vehicles, weapons, landscapes and a ruthless villain who will stop at nothing to prevent their escape. — Walt Disney Pictures
  • In 1989, computer genius Kevin Flynn tells his young son about his adventures in the cyber world of Tron. He talks about the friends he made and his emissary CLU which is a program he made in his likeness. He promises that one day he will take him to the Grid, but Flynn disappears and Sam is devastated. 20 years later, his father's company ENCOM is being operated by the Board who take the company in a different direction as oppose to Flynn's. Sam spends his time moping over his father's disappearance and pulling a prank on the board. One day, Alan Bradley, his father's best friend tells Sam that he got a page from the phone at his father's office at his arcade. Sam wonders why is that so important, Alan tells him because the number's been disconnected for 20 years. Alan still clings to the hope that Flynn is out there and that he didn't walk away from his work and Sam, he gives Sam the keys to the arcade. Sam goes there and finds his father's work station and after entering a few codes finds himself in the Grid. After being mistaken for a program, he finds himself subjected to all sorts of contests but when they discover he is not a program but a user. He is brought to the head man whom Sam thinks is his father but later discovers that it's CLU and he makes Sam take part in a light cycle battle. Sam is saved by a program named Quorra who takes him to his father. That's where he tells Sam that CLU turned on him and was planning to enter their world to "fix" it's imperfections, so to stop him he closed the portal trapping himself there which is why he never came back. Sam wants to go back but Flynn doesn't want to give CLU the chance to carry out his plan, so he chooses not to but Sam defies him. — [email protected]
  • The Master Control Program is booted back up in this revamped Tron continuation that sees the return of original star Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, the brilliant computer programmer whose disappearance leads his son, Sam (Garrett Hedlund), to search for him in and out of the computer world.
  • 1989: Kevin Flynn ( Jeff Bridges ), now CEO of ENCOM, tells his seven year-old son, Sam ( Owen Best ), about his adventures in the Grid, a completely digital world within the Tron computer system that Flynn created. Flynn explains to Sam that, with his counterpart Clu ( Jeff Bridges , body performance; John Reardon ) - the second of a Codified Likeness Utility modeled after Flynn - and the security program Tron ( Bruce Boxleitner ), he discovered something amazing within the Grid; a miracle. Sam asks what it is but Flynn holds the story for next time before putting Sam to bed and going to work. A series of newspaper articles and television reports follow announcing the mysterious disappearance of Kevin Flynn after that night. Since the passing of Sam's mother ( Amy Esterle ) several years prior, Flynn's absence leaves him effectively orphaned and puts ENCOM's future in a state of jeopardy. Sam is left to stay with his paternal grandparents ( Donnelly Rhodes and Belinda Montgomery ), questioning the nature of his father's disappearance. 20 years later, Sam ( Garrett Hedlund ) rides his motorcycle through the night streets towards ENCOM tower. He hacks into the building and evades security cameras as he makes his way upstairs. Meanwhile, a board meeting is being held where Richard Mackey ( Jeffrey Nordling ) presents the new OS-12, a secure operating system. When Alan Bradley ( Bruce Boxleitner ) inquires about improvements to the system, given the high prices already charged, young Edward Dillinger II ( Cillian Murphy : uncredited) says that the idea of sharing software for free disappeared with Kevin Flynn. Sam breaks into the control room and swaps out the OS-12 master file so that when Mackey attempts to run it, all he sees is a repetitive video of Sam's dog Marv (a Boston terrier). Sam smirks as he passes the boardroom, followed closely by a security guard ( Dan Joffre ). When Mackey angrily asks where the master file is, Bradley announces that it's on the web. The security guard, Ernie, chases Sam onto the rooftops where Sam reveals his true identity as the largest shareholder of the company before he leaps off the edge of the building. He parachutes safely to the ground but gets snagged on a traffic light and is soon arrested by police. Sam makes bail and returns home; a shipping container refitted as an apartment and overlooking the city skyline across the river, including ENCOM tower. Bradley visits Sam, commending him on his latest prank, apparently an annual event that Sam performs on the day of his father's disappearance. Bradley tells Sam that he recently received a page from Flynn's office above his arcade, a number that hasn't been in use for 20 years. Sam reluctantly follows the tip and heads to the arcade. There he finds a secret doorway behind his father's Tron arcade game which leads him down a passage and into a confined control room. Sam sits at the computer to find that it still works and searches through it for information. However, he unknowingly activates a large laser behind him which emits a digitizing ray, sending him straight into the Grid. Shocked at the sudden change in environment, Sam stumbles outside the arcade where he is quickly picked up by a Recognizer. The programs on board restrain him and the Recognizer takes off again. Sam comes face to face with other captive programs, including one that nervously chatters ( Christopher Logan ) and one missing half his face ( Yurij Kis ). They are all taken to the edge of the Gaming Grid where they are assigned either for derezzing or games. Sam watches as the nervous program is assigned to the games but, once free, plunges himself into an in-ground fan, derezzing himself. Sent to the armory, Sam's clothes are removed by Sirens ( Serinda Swan , Yaya DaCosta , and Lizzy Mathis ) and is fitted with armor and an Identity Disc. The last Siren, Gem ( Beau Garrett ), instructs Sam to survive before he is led out onto the gaming grid for Disc Wars. He is pitted against an opponent ( Allen Jo : uncredited) whom he manages to defeat before trying to escape the arena. Sam comes out on the final round to face Rinzler ( Anis Cheurfa ) who quickly subdues him. When he sees blood on Sam's armor, Rinzler recognizes him as a user and faces him towards a viewing box above the arena where the watching authority figure asks Sam to identify himself. The figure then summons Sam to see him where he reveals himself as a youthful Kevin Flynn. Amazed to see his father, Sam asks if they can go home, but his request is denied. His 'father' then reveals himself as Clu and, after seeing nothing of note on Sam's Disc, sends him to the Lightcycle arena. Clu's right-hand man, Jarvis ( James Frain ), entices the crowd before Sam is put on a team of programs while Clu battles them with his own team. One by one, the racing programs are eliminated while a mysterious figure watches overhead. Before Sam and Clu can face off, the figure intervenes with a Light Runner and blasts a hole out of the arena, escaping off-Grid into the Outlands where other programs' vehicles cannot follow. The figure introduces herself as Quorra ( Olivia Wilde ) and takes Sam out to a secluded home situated on a craggy hilltop. Inside, Sam is tearfully reunited with his real father who had been meditating upon Sam's arrival. Quorra shows Sam that Flynn has been teaching her about the real world before they all sit down to dinner. Sam and his father catch up before Flynn answers Sam's biggest question: why he never came home. Flynn reveals that, as Sam now knows, when he went to work he was really entering the Grid, working with Tron and Clu on creating the 'perfect system'. The 'miracle' that Flynn spoke of before disappearing was the birth of the ISO's; isomorphic algorithms that spontaneously evolved from the Grid without user intervention and with properties that Flynn had never seen before. Their makeup included bio-digital genetics that Flynn was convinced would change the world. However, Clu saw them as imperfections. Tasked by Flynn to create the perfect system, Clu performed a coup, ambushing Flynn and Tron and taking over the system. Tron was presumably derezzed and Flynn was forced to flee into the Outlands while the ISO's were destroyed, an event known as the Purge. The portal - the only way out of the Grid - saw the end of its millicycle window (8 hours in the Grid; just 30 seconds in the real world - which means Flynn's absence of 20 years equated to nearly 20,000 years) and closed on Flynn, leaving him trapped. With Sam's arrival, the portal is open again and Sam argues that they have time to escape, but Flynn refuses. He explains that it's a move that Clu anticipates in hopes of retrieving Flynn's identity disc to use to manipulate the portal. Flynn is also certain that it was Clu who sent the page to Alan. Understanding Sam's frustration, Quorra goes to him in his room and tells him about a program in the city named Zuse who used to help the ISO's during the Purge and may be of some help. Sam takes Flynn's vintage Lightcycle into the city where he trades it for a cloak. However, he's recognized by the Siren Gem who takes him to Zuse's End of Line Club where a large party is being entertained. There, he meets the eccentric Castor ( Michael Sheen ) who promises to take Sam to Zuse. After finding Sam gone, Flynn resolves to head into the city though Quorra assures him that she sent Sam to someone they could trust. Regardless, they head out as Clu's guards locate Flynn's Lightcycle and trace it to the point of origin. Clu prepares a group and flies out to Flynn's home to find it empty. As he looks around, Clu recalls when he was first created and how Flynn promised that they would change the world together. The thought makes him furious. Sam, meanwhile, is taken by Castor to a private room above the party while the masked DJ's ( Daft Punk ) spin a tune. Castor reveals to Sam that he *is* Zuse but admits that his services have turned with the tide. At that moment, the club is infiltrated by Clu's guards and Sam steps out to fight them. Quorra arrives and fights along Sam but is overpowered and her left arm is derezzed. Flynn then appears and derezzes the rest of the guards before escorting Sam, carrying Quorra who has gone into a state of shock, to the elevator to escape. Zuse propels an extension cord to capture Flynn's Disc as the elevator doors shut and sabotages the lowering mechanism. Flynn manages to slow the elevator before they crash and scolds Sam for 'messing with his Zen thing, man'. They decide to then board a Solar Sailer which should take them directly to the portal. Clu arrives at the club where Zuse presumes a silent agreement: Flynn's Disc for control of the city. But, as he and Gem watch, Clu orders his guards to rig the place with bombs and, as Clu leaves in his ship, the tower explodes. As they ride the Solar Sailer, Flynn takes Quorra's Identity Disc and rearranges the corrupted material that will enable her arm to regenerate. He also shows Sam that Quorra is an ISO; the very last one. Her digital readout shows that she has triple-stranded DNA. "Bio-digital jazz, man." Flynn then leaves Quorra with Sam to reboot so that he can 'knock on the sky and listen to the sound'. Quorra wakes up moments later and tells Sam that Flynn saved her during the Purge. They bond further and Quorra asks more about the real world. Sam tries to describe to her what the sun looks like as Flynn looks on, smiling. Suddenly, the Solar Sailer intersects the Rectifier, a large carrier ship. Flynn, Quorra, and Sam hide among the cargo units of the Sailer and discover that programs are encased within, en route to be reprogrammed into an army for Clu. Rinzler then appears and begins to investigate the Sailer. Flynn suddenly recognizes Rinzler as his old friend, Tron; reconfigured as Clu's henchman. Quorra gives Sam her disc and runs into Rinzler's line of sight where she is immediately captured and taken away. Flynn and Sam use Quorra's distraction to move out. They find Clu giving an announcement to his army. With Flynn's disc in his possession, he intends to use it to allow passage into the real world where they may 'perfect' it. Flynn and Sam agree to a plan and split up. Clu goes to his tower where Flynn's disc is stored. There, Quorra is brought to him and, when he sees that she is an ISO, claims that he has something special in mind for her. Flynn makes his way to the Light Jet hangar where he reprograms a guard, allowing him to access one of the vehicles. Meanwhile, Sam makes his way to Clu's docking tower to rescue Quorra and retrieve Flynn's Disc. He fights off the guards there and intimidates Jarvis, allowing him to retrieve Flynn's Disc. Rinzler confronts him, holding Quorra as a hostage, but Sam fights him off and defeats him by knocking him off the edge of the tower. Sam takes Quorra and leaps off the tower, using a wing-like parachute to glide to the ground. They meet up with Flynn in his Light Jet and Quorra takes the pilot's seat. Clu storms into the tower to find Rinzler, having climbed back from the ledge, and Jarvis looking sullen. As he watches Flynn's Light Jet leave the carrier, he strikes down Jarvis with his Disc and leaps out of the tower, creating his own Light Jet. Rinzler and a few guards follow. As they fly over the Sea of Simulation, Sam is sent to the Light Jet's turret to fire on their pursuers. Rinzler flies over the Light Jet and he and Flynn make eye contact for the first time. Flynn speaks out to him and the connection allows Rinzler to regain his memories of being Tron. He turns against Clu, crying out "I fight for the users!" However, Clu wins out on the battle, sending Tron sinking into the Sea of Simulation, his armor circuitry changing from red to blue. Flynn asks Quorra to do something for him just before they arrive at the portal. As they walk up the pathway, they find Clu standing before them. Clu confronts Flynn and insists that all he was trying to do was what Flynn instructed him to. Flynn apologizes to Clu and says that perfection is impossible because it's unknowable; but Clu would not know that because Flynn didn't when he created him. This revelation incites Clu to attack Flynn who yells at Sam and Quorra to continue to the portal. Though determined not to lose his father again, Sam is pushed forward by Quorra. Clu takes Flynn's Disc and reads it to see that it's actually Quorra's; Flynn had swapped his with her before arrival. Infuriated, Clu jumps the gap between the gate and the portal but Flynn performs reintegration; a destructive method of rejoining Clu to him. Flynn watches tearfully and with pride as Sam holds his Disc into the portal. He says, "Goodbye, kiddo" before Clu is merged with him. Sam and Quorra escape the Grid just before the union which results in a massive explosion that destroys it. Back in his father's office, Sam saves the Tron system onto a microchip that he laces around his neck. He pages Alan to the shop and tells him that he was right about everything. Sam says that he will take back ENCOM and would like Alan as chairman. Leaving the arcade, Sam greets Quorra who asks what they will do now. Sam tells her that he has something to show her and takes her for a ride on his motorcycle. As they ride out into the real world, Quorra sees the sun rise for the first time.

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Movie review: ‘Tron: Legacy’

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“Tron: Legacy” is as much legacy as Tron. You can feel the deep imprint left by the 1982 cult classic with every flip of a light disc, every zoom of a Lightcycle, every wrinkle-resistant smile on Jeff Bridges’ computer-sanitized face. With a homage around every corner, heavy hangs the crown.

As it was in the beginning, “Tron: Legacy” takes us into a glow-stick world inside computers where the games are lethal and the mind can get lost, albeit with new players, a new story line, a new director and nearly three decades of improved technology including all the whiz-bang-wow the latest 3-D has to offer. Unfortunately, there’s not nearly enough new life.

Bridges is back playing an entire galaxy of roles — OK, three variations of the Kevin Flynn video game-making genius who started the whole thing. There is his current-day self — a sort of older, wiser, Zen Flynn; his 20-years-younger self, which should make anyone considering plastic surgery queasy; and his Clu-less self. (For any non-Tronites, Clu is the “program” created in Flynn’s image that lives in the computer grid. If you’re a computer “user,” you’ve probably got a “program” in there too, just FYI.)

There’s a blank space between the end of “Tron” and the beginning of “Legacy,” during which Kevin built a video-game empire and had a son, Sam, who is 7 by the time we first see dad tucking him into bed. Meanwhile, his off-hours are spent teleporting back to the grid. Risky business as it happens, because Kevin, the real one, we learn, has been trapped in the grid for the last 20 years, keeping himself occupied by expanding it into a trillion-watt world radiant against a perpetual dark night. So “Legacy” is definitely tripping the light fantastic more than ever, though tripping (and I don’t mean in a substance-enhancing way) more than you’d wish.

As most of us, including Zen Flynn — flowing white robes, beatific smile, yoga trances and all — know, too much reverence for the past can hold you back. At some point, the kids need to fly solo and create their own future. Instead, Joseph Kosinski, an edgy commercial director making his filmmaking debut, is so concerned with getting it right that he doesn’t quite get “Legacy” where it needs to be, which is to unimaginable heights of invention.

As the story opens, Kevin’s son, Sam (an appealing Garrett Hedlund) is now a 27-year-old rebel with abandonment issues, a souped-up motorcycle and a very cool bachelor pad, paid for by the mega-conglomerate of a family business he’s washed his hands of. Kevin’s old partner Alan (a.k.a. Tron in grid-world and reprised by Bruce Boxleitner) has been watching over the kid since Dad disappeared.

One night, Sam is paged back to the old Flynn video arcade. The ancient equipment that first teleported Kevin is still there and in a flash the son is following in his father’s footsteps after all — into the grid where the beautiful warrior princess Quorra (Olivia Wilde) will serve as his guide. Sam’s searching for his dad and sorting through those abandonment issues are what screenwriters Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz spend most of their time plotting, leaving the sci-fi thrill factor in need of attention.

But “Tron” the first was as much about the look as the story, and in that “Legacy” doesn’t disappoint. With the help of director of photography Claudio Miranda and no doubt a warehouse full of computers, “Legacy” is beautifully constructed. The ribbons of light that trail the Lightcycles as they race across the grid are mesmerizing, with the overall 3-D effect something of an ethereal stunner (and I mean that in a good way). In addition to his commercial work Kosinski studied architecture, and you can feel that background infusing virtually every frame, lending a modernist beauty to the morphing shapes of “Legacy.” He takes great care in building the architecture of the grid, down to the way in which light plays across space.

Following the blueprint of the original, action comes with the battles. Like all warriors on the side of good in the grid, Sam has to be tested. Turns out he’s a chip off the old watt — fast with a disc, flooring it on the Lightcycles, and there’s a lot of racing around going on. In a nod to modern-day gender politics, Wilde’s Quorra isn’t just a tall drink of water but as much an action hero as Sam as they fight to clean up an operating system run amok.

The filmmakers do try to throw in a little fun in the form of a disco run by a questionable impresario named Castor, ( Michael Sheen in Al Sharpton hair and a shiny white onesie that sometimes has the added glitter of a top hat and tails), who may have clues about what’s happened to Clu. It’s a fabulous, pulsing pleasure palace (thanks to an equally fabulous electronic score by Daft Punk) whose every surface, including its patrons, is illuminated.

But with everything awash in all that lovely light, it’s hard to feel that Sam, or anyone else for that matter, is in real jeopardy. And you wonder if the actors were blinded a bit too. They move through their paces with an OS X efficiency, but not nearly enough heart.

In a way, “Tron: Legacy” seems an artifact from the past it’s out to pay tribute to. The film arrives in an age populated by a generation or more who have spent great portions of their days obsessing over increasingly sophisticated video games built around labyrinthine challenges. They are masters of this universe, one in which “Tron: Legacy” turns out to be just an average player.

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Former Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey is an award-winning entertainment journalist and bestselling author. She left the newsroom in 2015. In addition to her critical essays and reviews of about 200 films a year for The Times, Sharkey’s weekly movie reviews appeared in newspapers nationally and internationally. Her books include collaborations with Oscar-winning actresses Faye Dunaway on “Looking for Gatsby” and Marlee Matlin on “I’ll Scream Later.” Sharkey holds a degree in journalism and a master’s in communications theory from Texas Christian University.

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family movie review tron

TRON (1982)

"philosophical science fiction adventure".

family movie review tron

What You Need To Know:

Miscellaneous Immorality: Some suggestive statements.

More Detail:

Disney’s Tron is a philosophical science fiction masterpiece, which this year celebrates its 40th anniversary. Kevin Flynn is the brightest computer programmer and hacker at ENCOM, a major technology and virtuality developer. However, his creative efforts in the form of numerous programs and games are frustrated when a man named Dillinger pirates his ideas and designs, takes credit for Flynn’s work, uses it to rise in the company ranks and later fires Flynn when he finds him digging into the intellectual theft. Flynn’s friend, Alan, who is still with the company, has a security program called Tron which he has put into the company’s virtual game world. Alan’s girlfriend, Lora, who also still works at ENCOM, has helped to build a “digitizer” – a machine which can transport biological things and beings from the real world to the game world. The game world is administered by the Master Control Program (MCP), which learns and grows at an alarming rate, has become self-aware, and is now controlling the leadership of ENCOM. When Flynn reenters ENCOM with the help of Alan and Lora, he challenges the MCP to a virtual game in order to break into the system and find evidence of Dillinger’s theft. The MCP uses the digitizer to put Flynn “on the game grid” of the virtual world where he must participate in gladiatorial challenges to stay alive and find what he’s looking for. Can Flynn connect with Alan’s Tron program to expose ENCOM’s intellectual property theft and, more importantly, defeat the dystopian evil of the MCP?

Tron is a powerful science fiction epic. Despite its dated graphics, its story and themes remain as relevant as they were 40 years ago in 1982. It is a lovingly crafted work of sci-fi storytelling with engaging characters and strongly biblical imagery. The game world is very creatively depicted as a place of great promise and challenge which has been taken over by a malevolent force. Real life characters, to whom viewers have become connected, have in-game avatars that are exact images of themselves so that empathy is not lost and even mere “programs” are humanized in ways that make them meaningful and keep the viewer invested in their plight. The nature of the in-game world is such that it offers a journey of challenging action adventure in pursuit of a good and honorable goal. The movie is of a very high quality, characterized by thoughtful and creative storytelling, excellent writing, and overall good production values. Repeated viewings of Tron are helpful in detecting its several complex and nuanced layers.

One unique and notable way in which the movie stands out is in its biblical worldview and very clear Christ imagery. The imagery of the two worlds – the real world and the game world – is used brilliantly to point to the biblical cosmological understanding of the two levels of reality – the uncreated and created. The movie presents a thought-provoking parallel to the relationship of the higher reality of the uncreated Creator and the lower created reality of his creatures (men and women) with the relationship of programmers, like Flynn and Alan, and their programs, like Tron. This primary philosophical element of the story is seen in that Tron and the Tower Guardian maintain a firm belief in the higher reality of their “creators” (whom they refer to as “users”) while the MCP and his minion programs are trying to convince everyone that the virtual world is all there is and that the users do not exist. A Command Program who is the right hand of the MCP makes this abundantly clear in a speech he gives to Flynn: “Those of you who continue to profess a belief in the users will receive the standard sub-standard training which will result in your eventual elimination. Those of you who renounce this superstitious and hysterical belief will be eligible for joining the warrior elite of the MCP.” This is a clear parallel to Satan’s attempt to convince humans that the Creator doesn’t exist. The view of the two levels of reality is a metaphysical message of immense importance and is a key point of conflict between the biblical worldview (which believes that there is a Creator and his creatures) and all other worldviews (which believes that this world is all there is).

There is one point at which the writers are inconsistent with this strongly biblical imagery, when Tron assumes that, as a user, Flynn has a plan to defeat the MCP, and restore order; Flynn’s response is that humans are limited in knowledge and power like the programs they make. While this is simply to admit the finite nature of human “sub-creators” (J. R. R. Tolkien, “On Fairy-stories”, p. 23), it does weaken the imagery a bit since our Creator certainly does have a plan. Yet, this is minor in light of the movie’s climactic final battle. At Central Control, a red, unambiguously satanic MCP broods over his victims as he seeks to devour more and more programs, to assimilate them into himself and to ultimately come to dominate all life. In order to overcome the evil, Flynn must be self-sacrificial and dive into the heart of darkness to conquer chaos, which is demonstrably reflective of how Christ was willing to selflessly suffer hell for his people and overthrow the Enemy.

Finally, the movie is also largely exemplary in the realm of problematic content. There is brief foul language, the violence is not gory in any way, although some programs look like their users, and their injuries or deaths could thus be disturbing to younger viewers, adolescents, or sensitive adults. There are also a few scary images, such as the appearance of the MCP. There are a couple scenes of kissing and an implied love triangle. One male character is briefly shirtless. However, as a whole, the movie may be enjoyed by nerds and non-nerds, older children (with some caution) and adults alike.

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family movie review tron

TRON: LEGACY Review

Matt's review of TRON: Legacy. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, TRON: Legacy stars Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, and Jeff Bridges.

TRON: Legacy is an odd sequel as it attempts to capitalize on the technologically groundbreaking but commercially unsuccessfully 1982 film TRON .  The original film has built up a cult following over the years and even managed to occasionally find its way into pop culture with South Park 's depiction of Moses resembling the Master Control Program and the YouTube celebrity "TRON Guy".  The sequel attempts to reinvent the series as sleek and cool, but the result is a simplistic visual style that attempts to mask a poorly-paced story filled with bland characters.  TRON: Legacy comes alive with an amazing score and some eye-catching set pieces, but the sequel makes this franchise look like it should be shutdown rather than rebooted.

It's been over twenty years since Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), the hero of the original TRON , disappeared.  His son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) believes his dad to be "either chilling on a beach in Costa Rica or dead or both."  It turns out that Papa Flynn hasn't been relaxing on the Bernard Lomax Beach for Deceptive Corpses, but is actually stuck inside "The Grid", a virtual world he created with the help of Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) and an avatar, Clu (a digitally de-aged Bridges).  Unfortunately for Kevin, Clu took control of the world and the portal that would have allowed Kevin to return home.  Sam, responding to a page from his father's office, ends up getting sucked into the Grid and only has eight hours to make it out before the portal closes again.  It turns out Clu was behind the page and wants to use Kevin's identity disc to get out into the real world.  In its broad strokes, TRON: Legacy follows the exact same plot of TRON : Guy gets sucked into virtual world and in order to get home must battle an authoritarian ruler who has designs on the real world.

The sequel also suffers from the same problems as the original and then some.  What little character development is available feels forced and stilted.  Sam still feels hurt over why his father never came home twenty years ago, but it's nothing a little heart-to-heart while on a traveling on a Solar Sailer can't heal.  Sam's character arc is hampered by Hedlund's weak performance.  He never seems to take much joy or experience any wonder in his adventure.  It's the kind of stiff, detached performance that can cripple a straightforward adventure like this one.  Bridges doesn't fare much better although he at least injects some silly life into Kevin Flynn.  It seems that Kevin has become a hippie during his time in the Grid and while it makes sense that his slang wouldn't have evolved since 1982, it feels more like The Big Lebowski 's Dude has become stuck in the Grid rather than the freewheeling character TRON .

While the Flynns suffer from poorly executed character development, the supporting cast doesn't even get chances to change and grow.  Olivia Wilde has some fun as Quorra, an ally of Flynn's, and looks like she could be a cool and engaging character...until the film quickly shuts her down and tries to pull focus onto light-vehicles chasing each other.  Michael Sheen plays a scenery-chewing nightclub owner and his zany character is a relief in the cold, sterile environs of the Grid.  But he barely has any time to breathe before the film realizes someone is having a good time and moves to rectify that grave error.  Any time "joy" seems to enter the picture, it's as if an alarm sounds and TRON: Legacy screams angrily, "Who's having fun in here?!" and then pulls away to either dull conversations or the hi-tech failure of Clu's face.

If the technology were as advanced as it needed to be, Clu could be a marvel and we would be dazzled by a young Jeff Bridges giving a performance as if he hadn't aged a day.  Instead, Clu is a grotesque distraction who sets up residence in the Uncanny Valley and never leaves.  Some will argue the problem is in the dead eyes, but my issue with Clu is that he looks like he doesn't have enough muscles in his face.  Rather than being invested in Clu's motives for wanting to escape from the Grid, I was left wondering what he would want to do in our world other than scare small children and be a spokesman for Botox abuse.

Most of the other special effects fare better, but they exist in a hollow, poorly-defined world.  It's awesome seeing light cycles and light jets fight each other, but it eventually all comes down to a black-and-neon blur.  The Grid is a place of nifty architecture and design, but it feels lifeless.  The original TRON at least had the creativity of ascribing personalities to programs.  Programs were made in the image of their user so, for example, an accounting program is an overweight nerd who is probably going to get his ass handed to him in disc wars.  With the exception of a hapless program we see when Sam first enters the Grid, the world appears to be inhabited by supermodels.  Presumably, Kevin and Clu wanted "perfection" and these "programs" are a physical manifestation of that desired perfection.

But these programs, and indeed the whole world of the Grid, are all form and no function.  There's no culture or reason to the world.  One of the programs, Gem (Beau Garrett), is seen carrying a parasol even though there's no sunlight and no rain in the grid.  It's there because it makes her look cool and that, in a neon-laced nutshell, is the rhyme and reason behind the majority of TRON: Legacy : "Because it looks cool."

And yet that "cool" look eventually wears out its welcome because there's not much to it.  I remember watching the special features on The Fellowship of the Ring DVD and director Peter Jackson talking about how they put orcish inscriptions on the inside of the gauntlets.  No audience member would ever see it, but it helped add character and detail to the world.  The only details of TRON: Legacy are "needs more neon".  That visual style is impressive when we see wide shots of chase scenes, but the close-ups are just a muddle of black and neon and it becomes difficult to follow the action.

What's actually cool and always welcome in TRON: Legacy is the score.  Composed by French electronic music duo Daft Punk, the music pulses with deep bass and skillfully utilizes tempos that range from the solemn ("Adagio for TRON") to the triumphant ("Flynn Lives") to the pulse-pounding ("Derezzed").  It's a score that works well on its own and is far better than the movie that inspired it.

In his debut feature, director Joseph Kosinski shows he has a strong eye for style and choreographing wide vistas of action, but his TRON seems afraid of its own shadow (if it could see a shadow).  The film either stays away from lighthearted enjoyment and then swings wildly into maudlin, awkward conversations as if inserting emotional beats and character development were as easy as inserting another digital explosion.

TRON: Legacy is a frustrating and at times downright boring affair that has visual style to spare, but lacks any depth beneath its skintight black-and-neon exterior.  Characters are poorly developed (if at all), jargon is embarrassingly shoehorned into the dialogue without any consideration given to what arguments about open-source and piracy actually mean, and for all the attention given to the design of the special effects and the vehicles, the actual world and life of the Grid seems to have been either ignored or forgotten.  And while the amount spent on marketing for TRON: Legacy has ensured it won't be ignored, the film itself is likely to be forgotten.

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TRON LEGACY

Tron: Legacy – review

B ack in 1982, Disney's ground-breaking hi-tech SF movie Tron opened in the same week as the epoch-making decision at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University to order its students to abandon pen and paper and work entirely on computers. In that film the 43-year-old Jeff Bridges played Kevin Flynn, a brilliant designer of computer games. Crossing a vital boundary, he actually entered a video game, moving from being a "user" to becoming a "programme", his aim being to frustrate an arch rival. Now, 28 years and several quantum leaps in technology later, there is a sequel, Tron: Legacy – not quite a record as Return to Oz came 46 years after The Wizard of Oz .

It's 2010, the 61-year-old Jeff Bridges is again Flynn. He's been missing for over 20 years, during which time his son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) has grown up inheriting his father's gifts and multibillion-dollar business. It transpires that the grizzled Flynn had gone back into the video game and there created a doppelganger, the menacingly fanatical perfectionist Clu (played by a CGI version of the young Bridges). So the intrepid Sam, like his father before him, enters the game, though remaining a "user", charging into the Silicon Valley to root out evil and save Dad.

Set in a murky, near-monochrome world throbbing to the music of the French duo Daft Punk, the film is a political allegory about totalitarianism with talk of genocide. A sub-plot involves a dithering Blair-like figure (an epicene dandy inevitably played by Michael Sheen) who yammers on about his crucial importance to the alliance before being blown away. Four years in production and costing $200m, the movie is indubitably on the cutting edge technically. But dramatically it's a solemn mishmash of The Wizard of Oz , 2001 , Star Wars and Blade Runner .

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Movie Review: TRON: Legacy (2010)

  • Mariusz Zubrowski
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  • --> December 18, 2010

Tron: Legacy is a film that has been hinted at since the 1990s, however, excitement sky-rocketed in 2008 after a teaser trailer, helmed by Joseph Kosinski, was screened at the San Diego comic con. Of course, reception was spectacular, thus allowing Disney to green-light a sequel to one of their most subtly darkest (and in my opinion, greatest) films, TRON , which was released in 1982 by director Steven Lisberger. Now the reason why TRON was so successful was because it was shockingly modern for the time — attracting attention to the budding mass media empire of the 90s. But in the case of Tron: Legacy , a sequel that arrives 28 years later, relevancy is not an issue, as we’ve become so familiarized with television, video games, the internet, etc. Perhaps this is why Kosinski’s revisiting to “The Grid” feels so stale, or maybe it’s just the fact that Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz’s screenplay is just about as robotic as Daft Punk’s signature soundtrack. Honestly, it’s a bit of both, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the film.

Set in the present, Tron: Legacy chronicles the story of Sam Flynn, the renegade son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), who you may remember became the CEO of ENCOM at the end of the original movie. Regardless, he’s missing, leaving a history of “lunacy,” selfishness, and complexity. “What becomes of Flynn’s legacy and the future of ENCOM all depend on his now orphaned little boy,” reporters gloated at the eve of his disappearance. Under new management, the company has successfully created a plethora of technological advances, of which includes a new Operating System, which is to be sold and not released for free to the public — a decision that Kevin would simply not endorse. Regardless, this is where Sam comes into play — he steals the program and leaks it (then pulling off a high-octane escape plan that includes jumping off a building using a parachute). But life is about to become a lot more serious for Sam (Garrett Hedlund), a freeloader who lives in a garage under the city’s bridge, as he receives word on his father’s whereabouts (via a pager no less!), thus leading him to the ‘ol Flynn arcade, where he is pulled into “The Grid,” where his father has been living for 20 years.

The place is in a dire state of chaos as Clu (Jeff Bridges), a program created by Kevin that was meant to ensure the creation of “a perfect world,” but who malfunctioned, resulting in a tyrannical ruler, continues to rid the world of what he believes to be error. Rounding out the cast is a gorgeous Olivia Wilde, who plays Quorra, a program who has remained loyal to Kevin through his years of hiding out. She has retained a childlike innocence that is perfect for her adventures with the father and son as they try to save this digital frontier. Also lurking about is a suitably androgynous Michael Sheen, who plays Caster, a mysterious figure who claims that he can get “anyone anywhere.”

Once you get past the beautiful yet modest landscapes which mold together black and neon colors for a wonderful effect, and of course, Wilde’s natural beauty, there is little to distinguish Tron: Legacy from the rest of the action/adventure schlock that is continuously being dumped on us. This is due to subpar performances from the entire cast, gimmicky 3D effects, which are pretty much nonexistent, and the awkward pairing of an age regressed computer generated face of Jeff Bridges and his voice for Clu’s character. However, you somewhat become more acquainted with the stylistic choice as the film progresses, in fact, it becomes somewhat tolerable during the film’s second act.

There are a couple of things that I really enjoyed about Tron: Legacy , namely, its sociopolitical messages which led to some really excellent scenes. “The film is a celebration of what it means to be human,” Wilde has said during an interview about the film, and I do happen to agree with her. The entire basis of the film’s plot is an in-depth allegory of the idea of a “utopia.” This is most explicitly exemplified in Clu’s character, who is an extension of Kevin. This means that Clu has inherited some of Kevin’s flaws, already making his task of sculpturing a “perfect world” absolutely futile. Understanding this leads to one of my favorite scenes in the film, where Clu speaks to an entire battalion of his cybernetic troops, drawing inspiration from Adolf Hitler, a clear parallel to his character in that both had sick aspirations for building this “perfect world.” This particular sequence is incredibly haunting. In this, Kitsis and Horowitz, ingeniously purport that what makes us human is our imperfections — amen! Now if only the duo could have worked just as hard on their dialogue, which is atrocious in places.

But something that I’m still undecided about is the action sequences. They were entertaining; don’t get me wrong, although the constant slow-motion effect has been overdone to the point where I just wanted to slap the person who was sitting right next to me (I’m obviously a violent person when it comes to movies). Regardless, I still enjoyed the light-cycle races and the disc . . . uhm, fighting.

Tron: Legacy is very reminiscent of my experiences at the arcade. After leaving Kosinski’s ambitious sequel, I felt satisfied like I did after beating the high score on my favorite game. However, I couldn’t help but to want more — in the case of game play, I was out of quarters; in the case of Tron: Legacy , I’m just outta’ luck

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Eventually I'll put something nifty here. Until then, know that I'm watching you. Closely.

Movie Review: Justice League (2017) Movie Review: My Scientology Movie (2015) Movie Review: The Magnificent Seven (2016) Movie Review: Creed (2015) Movie Review: The Green Inferno (2013) Movie Review: Sicario (2015) Movie Review: Terminator Genisys (2015)

'Movie Review: TRON: Legacy (2010)' have 4 comments

The Critical Movie Critics

December 18, 2010 @ 9:47 am Linkaufbau

Tron seems to be the movie of the month. I wonder if it will win some Oscars. All the shitty movies have their own Oscars.

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The Critical Movie Critics

December 18, 2010 @ 11:37 am remi

actually i heard of tron from a website commercial, and to be honest i don’t thing it will be a hit..

The Critical Movie Critics

December 23, 2010 @ 2:59 am SOHO

The computer imaged face of a young Jeff Bridges for Clu was down right creepy to see. I hope it isn’t a start of a trend.

The Critical Movie Critics

December 28, 2010 @ 8:09 am Design India

Tron is really a great movie fully loaded with latest and technologised graphics and animation. The story may not be so impressive but the casting and direction is done finely at every nook and corner of the move scenes.

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Tron: Legacy

Dove Review

“Tron: Legacy” is visually stunning! This movie has a heart and a wonderful theme even though it is encased in the guise of science fiction. Jeff Bridges returns in this follow up to the 1982 movie “Tron” and in this story which picks up years later, he is missing. His grown son, Sam lives with the burning question of why his father disappeared one night after leaving for work on his motorcycle. This is ultimately a story of sacrifice and a father’s love for his son. Of course before that, there is a lot of science fiction action and razzle dazzle and a few mysteries to be solved.

When father and son find each other, their reunion is bittersweet. Both have to re-learn what their relationship was like, and under the unnatural conditions of an electronic world that is literally closing in on them. Sam Flynn has to learn to forgive his father, Kevin after believing that he had abandoned him, while Kevin has to re-gain his faith in both his created world and in his son, who offers to help rescue him. The virtual reality is made up of “programs” invented by Kevin. Another life-form that was spontaneously generated from some code Kevin has written into the programs is a “virtual ghost” Clu (Kevin’s alter-ego) that shows up when the game appears to have a life of its own. We see “program” after “program” (all in human form, on-screen) hit by a symbolic boomerang of death and shatter into a million pieces. However, there is very little blood in this movie and the characters are inside a world of gaming and fantasy, although it seems very real to the participants.

We list the violent content for those who may be sensitive to this issue. However, since the violence is mostly within the fantasy world of the game itself, we approved “Tron: Legacy” for ages twelve and above. This is one the teens and sci-fi faithful will no doubt enjoy.

Dove Rating Details

The characters in the game appear life-like. They are shattered and destroyed within the game, but there is very little blood; a boomerang is used to injure and kill participants; sticks are used to do combat; a character jumps off a building; a character's crystal-like arm is shattered and then remade.

A female character wears tight clothing but there is nothing sexual on screen.

A drink that looks like a beer is consumed near beginning of film; a blue drink is consumed several times but what it is specifically isn't made clear.

Cleavage; shirtless men; a man is undressed and re-dressed by 4 women in virtual reality, without seeing anything of a graphic nature

A cooked pig is seen on a table; betrayal by a character; Zen is mentioned in the movie.

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Movie review: tron: legacy (pg).

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In “Tron,” viewers were introduced to Bridges’ character, Kevin Flynn, a software engineer who designed video games for the company ENCOM before getting forced out by rival Ed Dillinger, who stole his designs and passed them off as his own. But Flynn, far more talented than Dillinger, is able to break through ENCOM’s artificial intelligence program with his own creation, Tron, even though he had been digitized into being inside the program itself. Recognized as a software genius, Flynn is brought back into the fold at ENCOM – and that’s where “Tron: Legacy,” picks up, with Flynn in control of the company and his son, Sam (Owen Best), revering all his stories about being in the Grid.

But the film allows all that stunning beauty to take over, meaning everything else kind of gets pushed to the background. Bridges is fantastic as Flynn, who has grown to accept his pitiful fate stuck in the Grid, and as Clu, a bad guy duplicate of himself now running the place; to act both opposites is an impressive feat for Bridges, who makes each character’s motives believable. And while Hedlund effectively portrays his own character’s confusion over life in the Grid, his reactions to things – like help from Quorra (Olivia Wilde), Flynn’s only friend, and a visit to Castor (a hilarious Michael Sheen), a club owner program in the Grid – sometimes seem superficial and flat, lacking in complete emotional weight.

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The interior of a computer is a fine and private place, but none, I fear, do there embrace, except in "Tron," a dazzling movie from Walt Disney in which computers have been used to make themselves romantic and glamorous. Here's a technological sound-and-light show that is sensational and brainy, stylish, and fun.

The movie addresses itself without apology to the computer generation, embracing the imagery of those arcade video games that parents fear are rotting the minds of their children. If you've never played Pac-Man or Space Invaders or the Tron game itself, you probably are not quite ready to see this movie, which begins with an evil bureaucrat stealing computer programs to make himself look good, and then enters the very mind of a computer itself to engage the villain, the hero, and several highly programmable bystanders in a war of the wills that is governed by the rules of both video games and computer programs.

The villain is a man named Dillinger ( David Warner ). The hero is a bright kid named Flynn ( Jeff Bridges ) who created the original programs for five great new video games, including the wonderfully named "Space Paranoid." Dillinger stole Flynn's plans and covered his tracks in the computer. Flynn believes that if he can track down the original program, he can prove Dillinger is a thief. To prevent that, Dillinger uses the very latest computer technology to break Flynn down into a matrix of logical points and insert him into the computer, and at that point "Tron" leaves any narrative or visual universe we have ever seen before in a movie and charts its own rather wonderful path.

In an age of amazing special effects, "Tron" is a state-of-the-art movie. It generates not just one imaginary computer universe, but a multitude of them. Using computers as their tools, the Disney filmmakers literally have been able to imagine any fictional landscape, and then have it, through an animated computer program. And they integrate their human actors and the wholly imaginary worlds of Tron so cleverly that I never, ever, got the sensation that I was watching some actor standing in front of, or in the middle of, special effects. The characters inhabit this world.

And what a world it is! Video gamesmen race each other at blinding speed, hurtling up and down computer grids while the movie shakes with the overkill of Dolby stereo (justified, for once). The characters sneak around the computer's logic guardian terminals, clamber up the sides of memory displays, talk their way past the guardians of forbidden programs, hitch a ride on a power beam, and succeed in entering the mind of the very Master Control Program itself, disabling it with an electronic Frisbee. This is all a whole lot of fun. "Tron" has been conceived and written with a knowledge of computers that it mercifully assumes the audience shares. That doesn't mean we do share it, but that we're bright enough to pick it up, and don't have to sit through long, boring explanations of it.

There is one additional observation I have to make about "Tron," and I don't really want it to sound like a criticism: This is an almost wholly technological movie. Although it's populated by actors who are engaging (Bridges, Cindy Morgan) or sinister (Warner), it is not really a movie about human nature. Like "Star Wars" or "The Empire Strikes Back," but much more so, this movie is a machine to dazzle and delight us. It is not a human-interest adventure in any generally accepted way. That's all right, of course. It's brilliant at what it does, and in a technical way maybe it's breaking ground for a generation of movies in which computer-generated universes will be the background for mind-generated stories about emotion-generated personalities. All things are possible.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Tron movie poster

Tron (1982)

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IMAGES

  1. TRON: LEGACY

    family movie review tron

  2. MOVIE REVIEW: Tron Legacy

    family movie review tron

  3. Tron Legacy Review

    family movie review tron

  4. Tron Legacy Movie Review and Ratings by Kids

    family movie review tron

  5. Tron Movie Review for Parents

    family movie review tron

  6. Movie Review: Tron Legacy

    family movie review tron

VIDEO

  1. 3 Ekka

  2. THE FAMILY PLAN

  3. The Family Plan

  4. Tron Legacy Full Movie Explanation in Hindi

  5. A Stunning Early Vision of a Virtual World [Tron

  6. Family Movie Review I Don Palathara I Vinay Forrt, Divya Prabha

COMMENTS

  1. TRON Movie Review

    What you will—and won't—find in this movie. Positive Messages. While the good guys stage an illegal break-in at t. Positive Role Models. Dillinger embodies a longstanding Hollywood stereo. Violence & Scariness. Violence is mainly of the stylized, low-resolution. Sex, Romance & Nudity. Brief dialogue indicates both leading male charact.

  2. TRON: Legacy Movie Review

    Our review: Parents say ( 28 ): Kids say ( 114 ): TRON: LEGACY is a visually stunning film. But while many of the action sequences are truly awesome -- including the memorable light cyle race -- the story is a bit lacking in emotion.

  3. Tron Movie Review for Parents

    In the summer of 1982, Walt Disney Studios released Tron, an animation enhanced movie set within the inner workings of a computer. To the general public at that time, computers were mysterious machines that took up entire buildings. ... Family movie reviews, movie ratings, fun film party ideas and pop culture news — all with parents in mind ...

  4. Tron: Legacy Movie Review for Parents

    This movie is a sequel to the 1982 movie Tron, which starred Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner as well. A couple of children are also trapped in cyberspace in the movie Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over . An arcade game is the real world for a family of car drivers in Speed Racer .

  5. Tron

    Rated 4/5 Stars • Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/09/24 Full Review wade w Tron 1982 is a huge breakthrough and example what Disney should do now. The movie can be confusing but still enjoyable ...

  6. TRON: LEGACY

    The ending is extremely powerful, and a great ending can save almost any movie. TRON: LEGACY also contains wonderful, heartfelt emotions. Jeff Bridges and Garrett Hedlund are terrific. Olivia Wilde is very good but sometimes seems too posed, as the director tries to accentuate her beauty. The music by Daft Punk is great.

  7. Tron: Legacy movie review & film summary (2010)

    Joseph Kosinski's "Tron: Legacy" steps nimbly over such obstacles and hits the ground running, in a 3-D sound-and light show that plays to the eyes and ears more than the mind. Among its real-world technology is a performance by Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn at two different ages — now, and 20 years ago. The original "Tron" was made 28 years ...

  8. Tron: Legacy

    Tron Legacy boasts dazzling visuals, ... Rated 2.5/5 Stars • Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 05/12/24 Full Review Ron K This movie is action packed with the best cgi i have ever seen, ...

  9. TRON: Legacy

    Movie Review. In 1989, Sam Flynn was just a kid. A kid who adored and looked up to his dad—video game developer and all around science whiz Kevin Flynn. But then his father mysteriously vanished. Skip ahead to the present and Sam is feeling just as disillusioned and empty as he felt deserted back then.

  10. Tron: Legacy

    Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 3, 2023. Tron: Legacy, and it remains, even more than a decade after its release, one of the most audacious big-budget debuts in recent memory. Full ...

  11. Tron: Legacy (2010)

    Tron: Legacy: Directed by Joseph Kosinski. With Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner. The son of a virtual world designer goes looking for his father and ends up inside the digital world that his father designed. He meets his father's corrupted creation and a unique ally who was born inside the digital world.

  12. Tron: Legacy Review

    Review: Tron: Legacy is a good movie that has amazing moments and is beautiful to see, but it falls short of being a great film. ... an eye-opening family adventure, an animated classic, one of ...

  13. Parent reviews for TRON

    As for the movie itself, yes, it is a little cheesy. And yes, the effects are beyond horrible, but if you can get past that, you might find it worth your time. And for kids, it is still suitable, with only a couple "damn"s and some light sci-fi action. That's why my recommendation is, don't sleep on it, especially if you like Tron: Legacy and ...

  14. Tron: Legacy (2010)

    7/10. A spectacular visual experience to be taken with a pinch of salt! alwaysbwithu 5 December 2010. Kevin Flynn (Bridges) is the CEO of Encom and the world's best video game developer. One night he simply vanishes without a trace and leaves his company in chaos and his young son.

  15. Tron: Legacy Review

    All Reviews Editor's Choice Game Reviews Movie Reviews TV Show Reviews ... But even though we're being presented with a surprisingly effective "passing the torch" family ... Tron: Legacy Review. 8.

  16. Tron: Legacy (2010)

    Sam Flynn (Hedlund), a rebellious 27-year-old, is haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his father Kevin Flynn (Bridges), a man once known as the world's leading video-game developer. When Sam investigates a strange signal sent from the old Flynn's Arcade -- a signal that could only come from his father-- he finds himself pulled into a ...

  17. Movie review: 'Tron: Legacy'

    By Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times Film Critic. Dec. 16, 2010 12 AM PT. "Tron: Legacy" is as much legacy as Tron. You can feel the deep imprint left by the 1982 cult classic with every flip ...

  18. TRON (1982)

    The movie is of a very high quality, characterized by thoughtful and creative storytelling, excellent writing, and overall good production values. Repeated viewings of Tron are helpful in detecting its several complex and nuanced layers. One unique and notable way in which the movie stands out is in its biblical worldview and very clear Christ ...

  19. TRON: LEGACY Movie Review

    Matt's review of TRON: Legacy. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, TRON: Legacy stars Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, and Jeff Bridges.

  20. Tron: Legacy

    B ack in 1982, Disney's ground-breaking hi-tech SF movie Tron opened in the same week as the epoch-making decision at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University to order its students to abandon pen ...

  21. Movie Review: TRON: Legacy (2010)

    Tron: Legacy is a film that has been hinted at since the 1990s, however, excitement sky-rocketed in 2008 after a teaser trailer, helmed by Joseph Kosinski, was screened at the San Diego comic con. Of course, reception was spectacular, thus allowing Disney to green-light a sequel to one of their most subtly darkest (and in my opinion, greatest) films, TRON, which was released in 1982 by ...

  22. Tron: Legacy

    The 1982 film "Tron," was about hacker/arcade owner Kevin Flynn who is digitally broken down into a data stream by a villainous software pirate known as the Master Control Program (MCP) and reconstituted into the internal, 3-D graphical world of computers. It is there, in the ultimate blazingly colorful, geometrically intense landscapes of cyberspace, that Flynn joins forces with Tron to ...

  23. Movie Review: TRON: Legacy (PG)

    By Roxana Hadadi Movies for nerds have gotten way cooler since the '80s, arguably their heyday. The sentiment of "Revenge of the Nerds" has been carried on in films like "Superbad," and the fantasy dynamic of "Labyrinth" and "Legend" got a million times more detailed and wondrous with the "Lord of the Rings" and "Chronicles …

  24. Tron movie review & film summary (1982)

    Tron. Speed racers in "Tron." The interior of a computer is a fine and private place, but none, I fear, do there embrace, except in "Tron," a dazzling movie from Walt Disney in which computers have been used to make themselves romantic and glamorous. Here's a technological sound-and-light show that is sensational and brainy, stylish, and fun.