TRON: Legacy Review (in 3D)

Okay, so here goes my first review in the blog: TRON: Legacy

But first, i wanna tell you how long I've been waiting for TRON: Legacy. Eight months. I've heard the news over a year ago. Saw the first trailer on March, gak lama sebelom gw ultang tahun (taeah colongan). And boy, was I excited! The trailer was a feast for the eyes. Let's fast forward eight months later, skip all the trailer i saw, music i downloaded (Daft Punk!), and the TRON suit t-shirt i pre-ordered on Kaskus.

Twas a gloomy Friday. Gw ke blitzmegaplex Paris van Java with some friends and a cousin of mine. Bought the tickets, got excited and patiently waiting to be inside the 3D studio. (PS: saw the teaser for Kungfu Panda 2. Woohoo!)

Thus, it begins. 

And ends in dissapointment. Dear Lord, I'm pissed off. Here goes, the real review:

Gw sadar sih kalo film ini bakal mengedepankan mind-blowing visual prowess rather than the depth of the story. Sadly, minds are not blown. More on visual later. Ceritanya standar. Sam Flynn (played by the almost-flat Garrett Hedlund), ahli waris perusahaan komputer Encom yang mencari petunjuk ayahnya, Kevin Flynn (Academy Awards winner Jeff Bridges) yang dicurigai hilang bertahun-tahun lalu. Sam, predictably a strapping, non-conformist, rebellious broken home boy, enters the world of computer program his father created called The Grid. And almost instantly is thrown in the lion cage, sort of speak. Yeah, if by lion cage you're talking about disc-fighting (you'll get it when you see it. At least the trailer).

The problem is, it all happened so fast. Tiba-tiba dia udah bertanding ala gladiator di Colosseum. Tiba-tiba dia udah ditantang oleh sang antagonis. Tiba-tiba dia udah kabur. Tiba-tiba dia udah merencanakan untuk kembali. And so on, you get the drift. Dan ceritanya gak ada klimaksnya. Bahkan gw kesulitan untuk menentukan acts one, two and three.** Plot yang disajikan penulis-penulis naskah (even I'm not that interested to find out who they are) are too predictable. An augmented reality in a computer world is as common as a Lady Gaga tribute in Youtube. Nggak ada faktor kejut, atau faktor "wow!" yang ngebedain sama film-film sejenis. Intinya, the script is lazy, lazy, luh-azy.

Visually, it's not as stunning as I hoped. What can I say,  I had high hopes. Sure, the light-cycle scene is quite impressive. Motorcycle in a stick is pretty neat. The lights reminds me a bit of Speed Racer. But the rest is just, umm, standard. The Grid itself doesn't really has the depth for the audiences' curiosity. Satu-satunya yang mengejutkan secara visual adalah ketika di dunia nyata, film disajikan dalam format 2D (you'll find a forewarning in the beginning of the movie). Director Joseph Kosinski (di film pertamanya -- sebelumnya doi kebanyakan bikin iklan) didn't do a good enough job. Or, maybe a swell job, considering the script and CGI is already bad as it is. He certainly didn't direct his actors to do better. Mungkin Jeff Bridges terlalu dipercaya untuk bermain-main dengan peran(-peran)nya. Fail. I did not see an Oscar winner. Too much dude-ism being thrown by Bridges. Like I said, Hedlund plays a flat protagonist. The better acting found here is the sexy Olivia Wilde playing Quorra (yang entitasnya juga patut dipertanyakan) and the David Bowie-like Martin Sheen as Zuse.

(Note: see this in 3D. Otherwise, it will kill the movie in all. Nontonnya kalo lagi nomat aja biar gak mahal, alias biar gak nyesel).

Satu yang gw suka banget dari film ini: the music. Yang belom denger, pasti kaget kalo tau scoring dan lagu di film TRON dibuat oleh electro-duo Daft Punk! In all realness, I never had this profound excitement to electro music. Sound yang mereka buat cocok banget nangkep dunia cahaya The Grid. Be-tee-dub, they make an appearance in this movie as, you guessed it, DJs. You have got to download the main track from this movie, Derezzed.

So, in all, it's not as mind-blowing as Avatar visually, doesn't have the "wow!" effect like Inception, lacks a genius script like Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network. I really thought TRON would be in my Top 10 Movies of 2010 list. It didn't. Maybe I'll hold a spot for Black Swan or The King's Speech if I see it in the next two weeks.

2.5 stars (out of 5)

Cheers!

PS: Lemme know whatchuthink.