Transcending the usual movie experience

Film review: Tron: Legacy

MANILA, Philippines – A few days ago, I was surprised to see the movie Tron: Legacy filling almost all the options in the movie theater listing in my copy of The Philippine Star, abruptly (to my mind) taking over the spot of The Next Three Days which I thought deserved to stay for a much longer time. My 23-year old son Jon, who is superiorly high-tech compared to my being bottom-pit low-tech (not that I am a Neo Luddite), told me it is based on a video game and had to be watched in 3D. To satisfy my curiosity as to why my favorite Russell Crowe movie was bumped off its place, I went with my 88-year-old mom (the only person on this planet who cannot say no to my numerous 30-minutes-before-the-event invitations) at the IMAX Theater in SM North. Although it is hard for me, I have to admit that, yes, Tron: Legacy would capture more viewers and Jeff Bridges (shown in his present age and in a younger, digitized incarnation) would have a much-wider appeal than the star of Gladiator.

Tron: Legacy is a heart-warming as well as an engrossing movie. Heart-warming because it is a film on love between a father and a son, separation, reunion, conflict and salvation. Engrossing because it is a movie with cyberspace games, robots, video fights and requisite lights and sounds, as enhanced by the IMAX and 3D experience. It is a movie both for the mainstream audience and for the techno-savvy crowd.

Tron: Legacy is the 20 plus years sequel to the ’80s cult hit Tron, where Kevin Flynn (Jeff), then a successful videogame entrepreneur and CEO of Encom, had unintentionally gone for his ultimate videogame trip and biggest experiment in life. He left behind his then seven-year old son, Sam, who grows up to be a 27-year-old motorcycle daredevil and a recluse, unmindful of Encom’s success. Visiting a decrepit Flynn’s arcade as a grown-up, Sam stumbles into a machine that eventually transports him into the digital world where his father Kevin was all along trapped. This is the point of the movie where the greatest cyberspace excitement begins with non-stop action and electrifying special effects.

The plot revolves on the objective of the father and son, with the help of a female warrior Quorra, to return to the real world. The journey home is not easy. The viewer suspends disbelief and enjoys a visually mesmerizing universe, which Kevin himself had designed and created. The Star Wars saga comes to mind, but the seamless travel is more advanced with landscapes, vehicles and high-tech weapons. Kevin’s clone and creation tries to thwart, at all cost, their attempt at escaping this digital world of violence. The fight scenes are exciting and exquisite which hypnotize the audience including my 88-year old mother (in her 3D glasses!). The final escape and chase sequence with Kevin, Sam and Quorra in a spacecraft is riveting, even for a videogame non-fan. Will the trio successfully manage to break out and will all three cross over to the real universe?

Jeff as Kevin Flynn, the father, brings to the role a certain gravitas whose character’s humanity whether in the real world or the digital world is etched in his face, even in the way he walks and delivers his dialogue. You feel empathy for him. His facial expressions alone, even without dialogue, show love for his son, fear, surprise, delight, exhaustion, power, gratitude and even loneliness. He deserves an acting award nomination, to say the least. Garrett Hedlund as Sam may not be as good an actor as the seasoned Bridges, but you see the great potential in his abilities. (I assume teenage girls would be much more interested in him than in Jeff.) Given more roles as demanding as this, he will definitely pose a challenge to others in the current crop of emerging actors. Olivia Wilde, who provides the sole female lead character (and is coincidentally a supporting actress for Russel Crowe in The Next Three Days), is lovely as Quorra who helps the father and son in their travel to the real world. Wilde is a refreshing face in a sea of male warriors, with a good mind and a good heart.

The director, Joseph Kosinski, should be given credit for a non-stop action cyberspace movie. He handled the fight sequences convincingly (against my better judgment, I instinctively jerked my head, topped with newly-blown-dry hair, sideways, a la Angelina Jolie, to evade a weapon that went straight at me and later hoped nobody saw how stupid I looked), and gives the audience heart-palpitating sound effects including suitable music as background. The futuristic costumes are fabulous, sleek and, immaculate, I immediately wanted to wear one. The viewer sees a clean cyber landscape, not cluttered with so many weapons, spaceships and neon-lit structures. The chase scene is thrilling and so involving, you become fellow riders in the spaceship carrying Kevin, Sam and Quorra pursued by other spaceships. The IMAX and 3D formats truly complimented this action movie by fittingly allowing the audience to transcend the usual movie experience and be participants in the action.

This film is quite long, at a little more than two hours, which worried me no end for my octogenarian movie date who surprisingly remained awake and awed during its entire duration. All in all, Tron: Legacy is a must-see for all ages before the MMFF gives it a backseat for the rest of the holiday season.

 (E-mail me at [email protected] or text 0927-5000833).