TRON LEGACY (Joseph Kosinski)

-

It has been about three decades since the first TRON came out in theatres; I just saw it some couple months ago for the first time, and it got me excited about the sequel.

Last night I saw TRON LEGACY alone, surrounded by some 20 people in a cinema that seats 300, a month after its first showing, and all my expectations were met. TRON LEGACY delivers the goods.

TRON LEGACY picks up 20 years later, with a short premise informing the audience that Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) already has a young son. Shortly thereafter Flynn goes off to work, and that is the last time anyone ever heard of him.

Present day. Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) is a rebellious, adrenaline junkie on a mission to make a statement at ENCOM, the company of which he is a major stockholder. He rides his Ducati at full speed, and cops are all over his tail. The ensuing chase sequence set to the tune of Daft Punk's electric house soundtrack is arresting.

Meanwhile, Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner), Kevin Flynn's business associate and a father figure to Sam informs him that a strange call came from Flynn's old arcade. Sam reluctantly checks it out, and voila we are barraged with rocking themes by Journey and Eurythmics as a reminder of the 80s period in which the first film was set.

Just seeing all those beautiful vintage arcade games and the recreated arcade set is thrilling, especially for those who loved the first film like me.

Sam noses around and suddenly he gets warped to The Grid. He gets involved in the dangerous sport involving those "light rings" only to be exposed as a "user". He faces the leader of The Grid, CLU (also played by Jeff Bridges) whom Sam mistakes for his father at first.

Pitted in another dangerous race game, Sam is rescued by Quorra (Olivia Wilde) and taken to the real Kevin Flynn who is imprisoned in the digital world.

The movie then revolves around the three trying to escape and CLU desperately trying to enter the human world.

In the visual effects department, nothing can be said. All sorts of dazzle and spectacle have been dished in front of your eyes. The game world is breathtakingly near reality, almost close to the touch. The set construction is impressive. The races are all worth-watching.

The soundtrack by Daft Punk booms throughout the film. The French music duo even appears as DJs in a club run by Michael Sheen, who plays Castor, a duplicitous character.

Basically a rehash of the original TRON's story, TRON LEGACY succeeds as a worthy sequel only because of the dazzling audio visual effects, and the need to just give a conclusion. The story of LEGACY isn't commendably original, but at least it wasn't NARNIA 3 which was reportedly so alienating if it wasn't for Georgie Henley who plays Lucy, it could have been as well another movie.

Jeff Bridges still got it. He is most effective playing CLU, Flynn's digital alter-ego, but when he is Kevin Flynn he sure does know how to make an entrance. Move over, X-MEN.

The ending of the film is genuinely heartfelt;. as Sam and Quorra thread on, a piece of the digital world is preserved, and Kevin Flynn's dream may be realized after all.

Yet another implication of the man VS technology paradox, TRON LEGACY makes us realize that technology is neither good or bad; it's in how we use it, although sometimes shit does happen despite the best intentions.

Oh, and the TRON character from which the title stems from gets a fresh reboot: new look, and surprising character twist.

RATING: 4/5

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TUHOG (Jeffrey Jeturian)

-
Image
Film within a film-structured movies are always interesting watch. Not only do they provide a much-needed deconstruction of form and content of cinema itself, but also that much-needed emotional punch a cinephile would surely love.  Like in BAD EDUCATION (Almodovar, 2004), we witness the characters tell the back story via montage, as if we are part of the cast of characters watching an actual movie. The form was successful in evoking pain and regret, and also of empathy. In TUHOG, Jeffrey Jeturian and screenwriter Bing Lao tackles sensational media in the Philippines, especially in cinema. The film opens as a film producer hears a pitch for a possible movie- a story of a grandfather who rapes his own granddaughter.  The director of the film soon after visits the victim of the crime, Floring (Ina Raymundo). Coercing both she and her mother, Perla (Irma Adlawan) to sell them the movie rights to their story, we witness as exploitation cinema unfolds. To think of it, capitalizing on ta
Read more

ANINO SA LIKOD NG BUWAN (Jun Lana, 2015)

-
Image
* English title "Shadow behind the Moon" The best term to describe Jun Lana's latest film would be a cinematic charade- a game of identities, of motives, of suppressed passions, and of uncertainty. Or the film equivalent of a Russian doll, if you will. "Anino sa Likod ng Buwan" only has three characters- husband and wife Nando (Anthony Falcon) and Emma (LJ Reyes) and military man Joel (Luis Alandy). What started as a seemingly routine banter among friends gradually and intensely escalated into an examination of society, where the definition of immorality is blurred during a time of insurgency.  And in fact, the film does discuss the subject of immorality from various paradigms. When does adultery become acceptable, and to whom? Is sexual liberation more heinous than murder? Why is immorality always a double standard? The film plays out the ideas in endless games. Or are they really games at all? Lana could have stopped there, but he didn'
Read more

A study of spaces in Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit's 'Happy Old Year'

-
Image
Space is both an overarching theme and visual signifier in Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit's Happy Old Year . Its protagonist, Jean (Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying) comes home from a lengthy stay abroad, determined to declutter her life, and along with it, old things that belong to a past she is desperately running away from. As we watch Jean plan the redesign of their family house into a more spacious and minimalist residential office, we also witness the transformation of the persons that inhabit the house, as well as their connection to other people, most of them absent from the frame. Jean the destroyer Millennials have often been criticized for being rash with their actions, and for having their way, no matter what. The filmmaker, a millennial himself, understands this stigma, and subliminally argues that millennials are the way they are because of a multitude of factors: rising cost of living, the evolution of discourse as a result of technology (such as film streaming se
Read more