Tonight, Disney Pictures put on an event centered around December’s TRON: Legacy. In addition to all of the previews, teasers, and sneaks we’ve been shown, they gave us a peek at a few scenes from throughout the movie. Most of the footage, according to the pre-roll introduction comes from early on. I’ll explain why that’s important shortly.
The pre-roll introduction was an all-text message from the director. It gives a quick description of what we were about to be shown, including the information about when in the timeline of the movie most of the footage occurs. Fortunately for all of the Tron nerds in the theater, he ends the message with the iconic ‘End of Line’ message, that we all know and love from the original movie’s MCP.
The very first scene is actually in 2D, and takes place entirely in the real world. We’re given a quick introduction and a little bit of background of the central character Sam, Kevin Flynn’s son. Bruce Boxleitner (I spelled that correctly the first time. Awesome.) makes an appearance to help us out with some expository dialog to fill in the nearly 30 years between the end of the original, and the beginning of Legacy.
The next scene involves Sam’s character being captured by the recognizers. Those wonderful 2-legged air-tanks that we all loved from the original, though with an updated design (like just about everything else on the grid in Legacy). While Sam travels along in the recognizer, we are given views of many parts of the grid, including an updated version of the ground tanks. Unfortunately, the update to the recognizers removed their signature sound effect in favor of a rocket-thrust type of sound. The new sound is cool, and fits, but I can hear the original sound in my head so clearly, it just feels out of place.
Next is a scene where Sam becomes a part of the game grid. He is stripped of his ‘worldly’ clothing, and outfitted with attire appropriate for the grid. As with every other design, the suits have been updated immensely (something Jay Maynard should look into building next). The real gem of dialog in this scene is an verbatim repetition of Sark’s “Whatever you do or whatever you learn will be imprinted on this disc…” speech from the original as Sam’s disc is attached to his suit.
We are then treated to a scene on the game grid. Something we’ve all been waiting for. A disc battle in its entirety. While it’s short, it’s completely and utterly awesome. I can’t really give many details, since it’s over almost as quickly as it begins. Suffice it to say, the battles in Legacy will be worth the price of admission.
Finally, a pair of scenes that appear to take place much later in the movie. These are Sam’s escape from the game grid (aided by Olivia Wilde’s character ‘Quorra’) in a digital off-road vehicle, and his reunion with his father Kevin. A quick tease of what is to happen in the later scenes; a ‘vintage’ light-cycle sits in the corner of Kevin Flynn’s living quarters/safe house, and a quote “There’s nothing faster on the grid”, leads us to believe the movie will climax in an epic light-cycle battle.
So why is it important (to me at least) that much of the preview was from early on in the movie? It’s simple: That means a LOT of the movie takes place on the grid, which is where we want to see most of the action, anyway. Sure, it will be cool to see some of the early stuff with Kevin and Sam. Nobody will deny that, particularly since the studio CREATED A YOUNG JEFF BRIDGES for the early scenes and the Clu 2.0 character. But what we all want to see the most of is light-cycle and disc battles, chases and fights. The more we get of that, the more we’ll enjoy the movie.
With completely updated designs, a soundtrack done almost if not completely by the electronic mega-duo Daft Punk, and what appears to be a much more weighty script than the original, I find it hard to imagine that this movie won’t do very very well at the box office. At the very least, people like me who grew up on the original are REALLY looking forward to seeing it.
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