First Hit: Great 3D visual experience and if the dialogue were better we’d have a good film.
The original film TRON wasn’t a great film, what made is irresistible was the cutting edge visuals. This second effort has many of the same; great visuals. The 3D adds so much to the original look and feel which makes this film fun to watch.
The film begins with Sam Flynn (played by Garrett Hedlund) playing havoc with the company he owns. The company is one his father Kevin Flynn (played by Jeff Bridges who also starred in the original) started with cutting edge technology before he disappeared into “the grid”. Kevin disappeared when Sam was only 2 and therefore Sam is angry at his father for leaving him.
Alan Bradley (played by Bruce Boxleitner) who was his father’s confidant tells Sam that his there was a page from Flynn’s old office below an arcade. Sam goes to the office and discovers a way to get sucked into the grid. There he meets his father’s alter ego Clu who challenges Sam (the User) to a match against his perfect programs. His programs are part of the perfection he was commanded to create by Kevin.
Sam with the help of Kevin's confidant Quorra (played by Olivia Wilde), escapes Clu's challenge on light-cycles and is delivered to his real father Kevin. Kevin on the other hand sees that perfection includes imperfection and that sometimes doing nothing is the best thing to do.
Philosophically this could have been an interesting film but what hurts this film is the dialogue. Kevin is reduced to living in the grid with no way back to reality after discovering the perfection.
The visuals are, again, extraordinary and just like the first film; I want to ride a light-cycle.
Bridges was good when the dialogue was OK but when it was poor, the film fell flat and Jeff looked less than the man who was master of the grid. Hedlund was good enough to make it work. Again, the script let the actors down. Wilde was very good and less affected by the poor script. Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz are to blame for much of the failings of this picture as their script was weak, unclear and not thought out. Joseph Kosinski exceeded my hopes on the visuals, I love them. However, the script needed a lot of work to hold up to the world created by the legacy of the first film.
Overall: Unfortunately the best part of this film is the visuals and the weak part is the dialogue. This is a very uneven film.