In 1982 a movie was released by Disney. While memorable, it was not a traditional Disney cartoon based on a more-or-less famous fairy tale. The movie told of a world not far in the future where anthropomorphic computer programs lived in a digital realm and where a sentient program has turned the realm into a totalitarian society. The protagonist Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges, enters this world by accident and makes the decision to save this virtual world along with a security program named TRON, designed by Flynn’s friend working at the software company ENCOM. Though the plot was paper-thin, the revolutionary 3D computer modeling, light-cycles, disk-battles, and the digital fantasy of the integration of human beings into a virtual world left a deep impression to those who watched it. Almost 30 years later, the cult classic would finally receive a sequel.
“The Grid: a digital frontier. I tried to picture cluster of information as they move through a computer. What would they look like? Ships? Motorcycles? With a circuits-like street-way? I kept dreaming of a world I thought I’d never see. And then, one day, I got in.”
Those were the words of Kevin Flynn coupled with music arranged by Daft Punk as the title sequence for TRON: Legacy came into view and having watched the first movie, I knew picking to see this movie during winter break over Gulliver’s Travels was the right decision.
This movie was a great sequel to the original TRON movie, albeit taking almost 30 years to make. The plot isn’t paper-thin, its more like the thickness of construction paper this time… Ok so the plot still isn’t as deep to something similar in its niche like the Matrix Trilogy, but it is sufficient to drive the movie along as the senses are overloaded by both the visual and the audio. Visually the movie was fantastic, being able to keep a lot of the original designs and concept arts, yet using newer technology to make the world seem more real and technological with grand scenes designed to amaze. Those scenes would only be mediocre had they not been coupled with music by Daft Punk, who integrated their electronic music into their own orchestral compositions to achieve a unique sci-fi feel.
One interesting thing I found within the movie is the concept of isomorphism (semi-spoilers coming up.) ISOs were the race of programs Flynn found that were perfect within the realm and was what sparked the central conflict within the movie. Based on the mathematical idea of isomorphism, the ISOs could be interpreted to be the ideological symbol of human beings in the real world. Interestingly, Flynn has a revelation in the movie and that is perfection is unachievable, yet always within our grasps. If the ISOs are representative of human beings, then the revelation can be interpreted to be that human beings, despite all of our fallacies, are perfect. Quite a powerful moment as Flynn rides the Solar Sailor with his son, whom he has not seen for 20 years.
If you are the type of person who believes a good movie should be based most strongly on plot, then you might find TRON: Legacy to be a mediocre movie. Nevertheless, I do recommend this movie as the sensual experience is well worth the ticket price.
