Let me start out by saying I never saw the first Tron. And I'm pretty sure most of the audience didn't either. The movie does a great job of explaining the events of the last movie, they just never explain what the hell is going on in this one. I still don't know what exactly the Grid is. Where did this place come from? What are all these programs? Are they like people or something? How does their culture work? I can't bother to care about whether this place lives or dies since I don't a thing about it.
And by the way, neither does our protagonist, Sam Flynn. Son of Jeff Bridge's character, the protagonist from the original Tron, this guy is waaaaaay to cavalier about being transported to a new dimension. Thrust into a shocking world that tries to kill him from the moment he arrives, Sam never feels the urge to panic or scream wildly in terror. Then again, the whole character is kind of bland. The movie's biggest weakness is that it never makes you care about any of these characters. All we know about Sam is that he's a whiney little jerk who does nothing but steal from his own company. The story has no real emotion or pathos, and constantly runs on autopilot. There are some touching moments scattering across the film, but they're too few and far between. The movie also sports some crazy lines by Jeff Bridges about "digital age jazz" or something that left me deeply confused yet highly entertained. Then there were two or three character moments that came completely out of nowhere and felt incredibly forced, but they didn't spoil the movie.
The other awkward part of the move was the whole love interest thing. I'm not spoiling much by saying that Olivia Wilde is a love interest, but considering she's a glorified program it feels more than a little creepy. It would be like flirting with a spam bot.
Where the movie really shines is with it's jaw dropping visuals. If you've seen the trailers, you should know just how stylish the world of Tron can be. Daft Punk's soundtrack fits perfectly, although will never quite blow you away completely. The action scenes are hit or miss. Some sequences involving the light cycles were impressive. The only thing cooler in the movie was Daft Punk's cameo. Then we had a long sequence with these plane type things which ended things with a whimper. During the entire aerial duel, I was just waiting for the gang to reach the finish line.
To sum things up, Tron: Legacy was a decent movie. It was an enjoyable way to spend two hours, but little more. The characters were forgettable and the story was just lackluster. Impressive visuals can only go so far, and if you can't make me care about the characters then you just can't make I did go see it in 3-D, and I think it helped a bit. If you really don't want to spend that extra $4 then you can probably get away with seeing the normal 2D version. If you need something to do on a Friday night, go see the movie. But I wouldn't go too far out of your way for it.
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