Tron: Legacy continues on from the end of the first film with Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) focused on the world of “The Grid”, the computer generated world within the system from the original movie. Telling his son, Sam, a bed time story about the way the wonderful world within will revolutionise the world, he heads off, never to return. The future of his software empire has been subsumed by a board of directors who are more concerned with re-releasing their existing operating system to the world, while the major shareholder Sam Flynn, wants nothing to do with their dealings. Lured back to an old arcade, he stumbles upon his father's old lab, something that 20 years worth of detectives and investigators appear to have missed. Once Sam is inside the world of the grid, updated to hexagonal resolution, the real movie begins, with his fathers lookalike program “Clu”, in charge and planning to revolutionise the world outside in a alarmingly different way

Legacy is a visual feast for the eyes, especially in the 3D format. There is an ever-present dark background the movie uses to make the light suits/bikes/etc stand out. This also gives the world of “The Grid an endless feel. The outfits feel a touch more fetishised, both for the male and female “programmes” than you might expect for a Disney movie, They've been redesigned for minimal light lines, but updated for rubber enhancement of shoulders, hips, thighs and buttocks. And this was where I had a problem with the movie.

While the original movie used cutting edge wire graphics to give the film a futuristic, inside the computer feel, giving us visuals of a game that you could feel like you wanted to play, the update wants us to thinks that it's using the latest multi-sequenced rendering, which makes the action sequences feel like a cut sequence, the point where interaction with the characters drops off and leaves you as a passive viewer. There is an attempt to make the visuals seem real, to the point of using props that emit light, where constructs of light would have sufficed.

But once you get over this small aesthetic gripe and get into the movie, it's an enjoyable epic tale of clearly defined good vs clearly defined evil, excellent characters and a cautious fable of identity theft with a reflection on who we are compared to who we were.

Garret Hedlund does a reasonable job with carrying the film as it's true lead character, Sam Flynn, but appears to come off as an unwitting pawn of almost everyone else in the film, running back and forth, with no real plan, just reacting to what he gets told, guided only by his actions. Jeff Bridges works double-time with the rendering of his young face. It works best in the “real world” flash backs. At other times the lighting and furrowed brow made him look more like Alec Baldwin, now. His turn at Kevin Flynn, 20 years on, however, lacks the heart that the original character had. I can't help but feel that an old school hacker would just sit back like a zen hippy, without trying to re-write the error, or trying to re-create the miraculous discovery within. Olivia Wilde captures the ferocity mixed with innocence that her character, Quorra, deserves. Bruce Boxleitner returns as Allen Bradley, giving the real world scenes a connection to the previous film that would have been otherwise lacking. Michael Sheen does an amazing job with his all too brief appearance, all but stealing every scene he has as Castor. The cameo by the musical directors of the film Daft Punk, fits in perfectly.

j17eph Kosinski has previously worked with CGI, producing/directing commercials to sell computer games, such as Halo and Gears of War, but Disney are clearly pinning a great deal of hope on him as he's already signed to do the re-make of The Black Hole. With Legacy, he manages to create tension with characters and explosive action with effects. I can only hope that, as he continues to make feature length movies, he learns how to mesh the two, seamlessly.

REVIEWED BY SIMON FEENEY