Tron Muffin

First off, Merry Christmas! Good, now that I’ve been festive, on to Jeff Bridges: The Movie. It’s about Jeff Bridges. It’s about young Jeff Bridges, old Jeff Bridges, Jeff Bridges not being Jeff Bridges, Jeff Bridges being Jeff Bridges, and Jeff Bridges being a glowing Obi-wan Kenobi.

Funnily enough that pretty accurately describes Jeff Br…I mean Tron Legacy. The original Tron was a film from the 80’s about a software engineer named Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) being digitized (lasered) into a corporation’s computer network by a HAL-esque program called the Master Control Program (MCP). Once inside Flynn discovers that programs are people, data is erased using tanks, arcade games are gladiatorial death matches, and that he, being a “user” is God. The name of the movie is derived from a security program Flynn meets called Tron, designed by a good buddy of his from ENCOM (think Apple, only not Apple). Flynn and Tron eventually (and I mean eventually…the pace of the movie is slower than a fat guy on the toilet after Thanksgiving dinner) destroy the MCP and Flynn finds some data that proves he created some games or something and gets out of glowing-death world.

Tron developed a cult following, but that was about it. The computer graphics were far ahead of their time, and the concepts used in the movie were original and high quality science fiction. The movie’s problem was it was incredibly slow paced and the story and dialogue itself were not that good. Disney presumably put this movie away and forgot about it….that is until twenty some years later.

Today we have Tron Legacy. Legacy follows Flynn’s son Sam who was abandoned after his father (Jeff Bridges) disappeared a short while after the events of the first Tron. Sam is a college-aged computer whiz who likes to screw with ENCOM in the most glorious of ways (leaking software to the interwebs etc.) He eventually stumbles onto the “grid” where his father has been trapped for the last twenty years. After the most balls-out awesome scene of the movie (light cycles FTW), Sam is rescued by the beautiful computer program Quorra (Olivia Wilde) who takes him to his father. Since I don’t feel like describing the rest of the plot in detail, here’s a summary: Quorra is a non-created artificial intelligence, C.L.U. is an evil dictator program who wants to go Hitler on the world and is defeated by “Empty Recycle Bin”, and Sam and Quorra make it back to the real world because Jeff Bridges is a boss.

The reason I didn’t want to describe the plot in detail is because, like the first movie, it isn’t why you go to see the it. No, you go to see Tron because you want your eyes and ears to fornicate with the movie screen. Tron is UNBELIEVABLY pretty. The light effects, vehicles, and Olivia Wilde make Tron a candy store for the eyes. What makes the visuals even more fantastic is the soundtrack Daft Punk put together for the movie. The music is perfect throughout and enhances every action scene by tenfold. It wasn’t Tron's plot that moved me, but the music’s flawless integration with the visuals. Legacy also doesn’t forget that it’s a sequel. There are plenty of references to the original movie, and even I was excited when the “evil ship” appeared in all its newly rendered glory. All the retooling is done creatively and I was thrilled with every old and new vehicle / device the movie threw at me.

While they didn’t have much to work with, the actors did a decent job of making me “care” about the characters. Jeff Bridges was brilliant as Kevin Flynn, however I found myself not being able to take what he was saying seriously most of the time due to his crazy hippie that would surface perhaps a little too often. Garret Hedlund and Olivia Wilde more than substantially filled their respective parts. Jeff Bridges also did a substantial job of playing C.L.U., a program based on his 1980’s self. Computer face-mapping technology has come a long way, and “young Jeff Bridges” looked good, however a combination of lighting issues and the deadness of computer eyes made him discernibly “inhuman.” This turned out to be great though, as C.L.U. is a program, not a human.
While the plot of Tron Legacy isn’t strong as a story, there are several undertones and themes one can take away from it. One could take away religious themes centered toward the deistic, with a summary of how creation rebelling against creator never ends well for either (but mainly the creation). A historical allegory to Hitler can also easily be seen. There’s also a commentary in there about the interaction of man and technology, but I don’t care enough right now to try and elaborate on that. There is one thing that can be HEAVILY pulled out of Tron Legacy though…Star Wars. Flynn is essentially Obi-wan Kenobi (robe and all), a few of the weapons too closely resemble lightsabers, C.L.U.’s ship is a Corellian Corvette, the ship escape at the end might as well have been the Millenium Falcon escaping the Death Star, and Jeff Bridges uses the force to defeat Jeff Bridges in the end.

Overall, Tron Legacy is a film I would recommend you spend your time and money to go see. You’ll find yourself laughing at several points, in awe at others, and having plenty of WTF moments. It’s a good time, and if anything you’ll drive home wishing you had light trails shooting out the back of your minivan.

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