BIG SCREEN
Movie: Tron: Legacy
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde
Almost three decades ago Disney made “Tron”, a tech-savvy sci-fic fantasy-adventure, a path breaker of a film which would always be remembered as a landmark in computer animation. With “Tron: Legacy” we get to see that nothing much has changed with time. The movie, just like its predecessor has been engineered mainly to push the boundaries of technology in cinema with little regard to every other aspect of movie making and it does that in a spectacular fashion.
Plot
Sam Flynn (Hedlund), a brilliant young computer programmer, plagued by the mysterious disappearance of his father, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) many years ago finds out that the latter was actually zapped into the digitised world of computers, trapped inside a grid (a simulated world created by him to enable computer programs and their “users” to interact with each other on it) by his own creation, a rogue program, Clu (a younger, digitised version of Bridges) hell bent on taking over the “real” world and perfecting it. Trust me folks, it sounds far more complicated on paper.
Visual treat
True to its promise, the film is a visually stunning jaunt into the digital dimension and I really lost count of how many times I've had to say this (think “Avatar” or “Inception”) but here goes — it's like nothing you've ever seen or experienced on the big screen. Talking of visual spectacles, those disc wars and light motorcycle races witnessed in the film could probably be rated on par with the twisted dream alleys and paradoxical stairs of “Inception”.
To back up those rich visuals the movie also boasts of a rocking background score making for an exhilarating audio-visual experience! Just couldn't be better! However as the initial awe of the first act wears out, the story and screenplay have very little in store to sustain interest, making for a dull and drab middle portion leading up to a rather well made finale, one which, sadly, is not worth the wait.
The fact that you spend most of the duration of the second half wondering how the digitisation technique, successful in making Jeff Bridges, who by the way proves that he has still got it in him to pull off a heavy duty role in a major motion picture, look a good 30 years younger, could give some of the biggest yet ageing superstars a new lease of life.
Bottomline: A visually dazzling digital world, but lacks a good script.
K. ANANTH, Pursuing Chartered Accountancy
