TRON: Legacy is Joseph Kosinski‘s sequel to TRON, starring Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, James Frain, Michael Sheen and in an absolutely squandered capacity Cillian Murphy.

Plot:
20 years ago, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), programmer extraordinaire, vanished and left his young son with the mess. Now Sam (Garrett Hedlund) has grown from a confused child into a confused adult, who plays annual pranks on his father’s (now his own) company instead of working there. But then Sam gets a clue about his fathers disappearance and before he knows it ends up “on the grid” – a virtual world where his father’s program Clu (UncannyValley!Jeff Bridges) rules the programs with an iron fist.

I was expecting a very bad movie but what I got was pretty tolerable. I mean, there’s still a lot of crap going on – but at least it’s mostly entertaining. And the soundtrack is absolutely awesome.

I have to say that this movie really was the first time that I agreed with Roger Ebert about the use of 3D. He always says that it makes the films too dark – and it’s certainly true for this one. Even though you could always see what was going on it felt like you couldn’t. And the contrast between the glowing lines and edges and the darkness around it didn’t really make it better.

But other than that, the movie was a visual and especially an auditory feast. Daft Punk’s soundtrack is a wonderful, wonderful piece of music and sometimes takes center stage over everything else that happens in the film. [I still don’t get how they weren’t nominated for the Oscar.]

Unfortunately the movie doesn’t make any sense at all. The plot – much as in the original – doesn’t make sense and if you try to apply any kind of rational thought to it, you will fail miserably and probably go crazy in the process.

The actors – with the exception of Gerratt Hedlung who is pretty but wooden – were mostly good. Jeff Bridges is seriously crippled by the CGI as his younger self, but otherwise great. Olivia Wilde actually gives this movie some class. James Frain’s biggest asset was taken from him because they altered his voice. Michael Sheen is wonderfully camp and overblown. I expected Cillian Murphy to turn up in some way in the digital world because why would you cast him and then not use him? But he never did and I still don’t understand why. It would have been brilliant.

Summarising: Despite its shortcomings it is rather entertaining.