I think it's a legitimate question to ask how the reputation of 'Tron: Legacy' has changed over the last decade. With the seemingly scattered rumors/reports of whatever Disney is planning for a third 'Tron' project, I've seen so much love, particularly from younger audiences, for this project. Yet, at the time and even now, there is still this kind of aura around the film; that it failed to explore any of the mythology or themes of the original beyond just a nostalgic, albeit upgraded, cash grab.
*Side note: I just guested on the No Capes Required podcast talking about those 'Tron 3' talks, link is right here if you want.

And this is where I have to be honest and anger some people: the original 'Tron' is not THAT great. I'm not arguing the significance of it to American sci-fi films, nor the incredibly unique visual style, nor the incredible Wendy Carlos score. But in going back to watch that film for context, I was surprised by how empty some it feels.

Yes, the story of Jeff Bridges' Kevin Flynn discovering a vast technological world certainly has its moments of genuine emotion. But even if the point was for the film to feel cold and unknown (like the technological leaps it tried to predict in the early '80s), the story is flimsy, the characters (minus Flynn) aren't all that compelling, and if we're not going to call out 'Tron: Legacy's deeper story issues and act like the original doesn't have some of the same ones.

While I don't remember whether or not I saw 'Tron: Legacy' in theaters (shame on me if I didn't), I certainly remember one thing about it: the film was cool. It was sleek, bright, something that felt epic and a film that I held in pretty high regard for years. A decade later, I think I stand by a lot of those notions. There are plenty of criticisms that I think have only lingered over time (some have been valid from the start), but between visuals that hold up remarkably well, characters that at least try to have some distinct developments, and a story that deserves a bigger scope, there's certainly praise to be warranted.

Shortly after the events of the first 'Tron' film and his appointment as CEO of ENCOM, Kevin Flynn (played by Jeff Bridges) disappears without a trace. Flash forward to 2009 and Sam (played by Garrett Hedlund) is the company's primary shareholder, albeit incredibly distant from any of their affairs. He even goes so far as to release the company's source code for free, landing him jail and getting bailed out by his father's old friend, Alan Bradley (played by Bruce Boxleitner). Alan reveals that he received a pager message from Kevin's old arcade office, believing it to be a sign of Kevin's return.

A skeptical Sam returns to the arcade to find a secret basement of his father's work. But before he can explore any further, he is beamed inside the Grid, a virtual reality created by Flynn as an upgrade to the previous film's digital world. He survives the disk games and is seemingly reunited with his father. But it's revealed that this is actually Clu (played by a de-aged Bridges), a duplicated program of his father who went corrupt and took over the Grid.

Before Clu can kill Sam, he is rescued by Quorra (played by Olivia Wilde), a mysterious program and apprentice to the real Kevin, now older and in hiding from Clu. Together with Quorra and his father, Sam must navigate this new world to find a way home, all while stopping Clu from achieving the means to enter the real world and expand his "perfect system."

It's not necessarily subtle that this is Joseph Kosinski's debut feature film (prior to this, he had a 'Gears of War' commercial and that's about it). While I'm not ecstatic about Kosinski's first feature film being something as big as this, the results are actually pretty convincing. The original 'Tron,' for as worshipping of technological evolution as it was, still feels a bit out of touch with what it wants to be, especially in terms of emotional hooks.

In 'Legacy', Kosinski (along with 'Lost' alumni Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz on screenplay duties) actually try to lean into some of the character arcs and, as a result, make a film that feels warmer and more welcoming, but still embraces much of the world-building from the original. The Grid isn't just a sentient series of zeroes and ones, it has societal structures, businesses, and beings with goals that blur the line between programming and personality.

Not all of it works, but it at least goes for the extra effort to make the world feel alive and, by extension, poses an equal feeling of discovery and danger to our characters. That's also to say nothing of the rest of the film on a technical level: the chrome-laced visuals hold up staggeringly well a decade later, the editing is quick and contributes a lot to the action set pieces, and Daft Punk and Joseph Trapanese's music is still probably one of my favorite film scores of the 2010s. Seriously, it holds up THAT well.

While I can sit here and praise the new over the old, the new is still not perfect and, unfortunately, a lot of my positives come with caveats. The visuals are fantastic, until you get into things like de-aged Jeff Bridges as Clu and, even for someone like me not opposed to de-aging tech, it just comes off as rubbery and strangely inconsistent with the rest of the movie. The story and world can be really compelling, unless you try to think about them any deeper and you get the feeling that some of those really big ideas the movie tries to pitch air more on the side of grandiose platitudes than actual commentary.

I don't want to chalk up a lot of those issues to Kosinski, and yet that idea of him being an obscure first-time name is a double-edged sword. Maybe he does have the sensibilities to craft something really cool, but he can't quite push it to where I can it great or truly groundbreaking.

It doesn't mean the characters are bad or even that the performances aren't either, it just entails that there's a certain staleness that can sometimes seep through. It's almost afraid that if it goes deeper into Sam and Kevin's estranged relationship, Quorra's pseudo-chosen one status or even Clu's innate desire for perfection that it will feel too human, which is weird coming from a movie like this of all things.

Over the last decade, the critical consensus on 'Tron: Legacy' has mostly been that, on a technical level, it's a marvel to behold, but on a story/character level, it's not always the deepest. To an extent, I'd include myself in that consensus, but I'd also argue that it tries way harder, and manages to feel a lot more consistent, than its detractors might argue.

For all the style over substance, the style itself is still really fun and the substance within is certainly appealing enough a decade later, at least for me. Whether or not that third film ever does actually happen, 'Tron' is always going to be 'Tron:' confusing, brilliant, ambiguous, unique, but never afraid to try new things and push the embrace the storytelling potential of technology. I don't think 'Tron: Legacy' perfectly encapsulates that potential, but I do applaud the legitimately fun ride that it aims for.

Overall, I give 'Tron: Legacy' 8/10

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