It has taken nearly 30 years for this 1982 Disney classic among geeks to get a properly made and budgeted sequel, and hype for this film has been palpable since the first teaser trailer leaked in the form of a cellphone video quite a while ago. The geeks of the world have been concerned, tearing our hair out with worry and jumping up and down with anticipation. A few trailers, a few 30 second clips on youtube, a couple short interviews, all of these watched and re-watched ad-nauseum. I've been following this film since I first became aware of it and I am a huge fan of the original, and to put it simply, this film did not disappoint.
A few people asked me if they needed to see the original film before seeing this very delayed sequel, and the answer is a delayed no, but seeing the original pushes this film from good to great, and from slightly emotional to touching and, in my case, tear jerking. There are a number of references to the original film, as well as a few references to other classic sci-fi geek classics of the 80's. In short, this is not a movie made specifically for the fans, but a film made to create them. I saw the film with a few friends, some who had seen the original and some who had not. The post-movie discussion showed similar ratings of 9's and 10's from both sides, and vows from the uninitiated to watch the original as soon as possible.
I am not going to go into the plot here in the interest of keeping spoilers out for people who have not yet seen the film, but I will make a few judgement calls. Firstly, the acting. Garrett Hedlund's performance as Sam Flynn is impeccable. He is both a new and interesting character, as well as very much his father's son. The somewhat shoe-horned in character development for him in the first act is only barely noticeable. His performance is so spot on that the audience simply doesn't care, and by the beginning of the 2nd act is entirely forgotten as forced in lieu of empathy for the character and genuine concern for his fate. The female lead Quorra, portrayed nearly as well by Olivia Wilde, who I hope will go on to bigger and better dramatic things now that she's been in her big budget blockbuster and performed admirably. Olivia Wilde was able to pull off a sexy, and to be honest, breathtakingly beautiful woman, but not to play her as the shoved in Bond girl equivalent of the grid. She is a real character, and we care about her as much as our protagonist. Everything about these two was well done.
As for my judgment on Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner, both of whom reprised their integral roles in the TRON universe, as well as the new villain portrayed by a digitally de-aged Bridges, CLU, there is nothing more for me to say beyond amazing.
I actually have essentially no complaints. I loved everything about this film. I got every single reference to the original film, I understood the plot, I loved the action, I was perceptually overwhelmed with the strength of the IMAX score, despite having already heard Daft Punk's entire soundtrack a week earlier. The music, as good as it is, takes a backseat to some of the action scenes, which are so well done, so grand in scale, so effective in execution, that I think this film is what every digitally created action film henceforth should try to emulate. No overuse of shaky cam, no overuse of slow-motion (though there is some), no needless violence, just what had to be there.
Crisp, beautiful, compelling, digital love. 4.5 out of 5 stars
****.5 out of *****
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