Blu-ray Review

Blu-ray Review: TRON: Legacy (2010) / TRON (1982): Five-Disc Combo Set

Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, TRON: Legacy

TRON: Legacy / TRON (Five-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy) Review, a 2010 movie directed by Joseph Kosinski, starring Jeff BridgesGarrett HedlundOlivia WildeBruce Boxleitner, Michael Sheen, and Beau Garrett and a 1982 movie directed by Steven Lisberger, starring Jeff Bridges, David Warner, Bruce Boxleitner, and Cindy Morgan.

Release Date: April 5, 2011

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TRON Review

The indelible world of the software engineer and the incoherency of their digital workplace to the laymen is interlaced within a tale of one engineer’ desire to retrieve intellectual property that he can’t prove he ever owned.

Sliding between video game, a computer mainframe, and the real world, TRON seeks to balance its three universes in one narrative. The film both succeeds and fails at this. The editing of a few of the transitions are not as smooth as they could be and the terminology used will disengaged some viewers as they will not know what is being referred to. In the real world, the viewer cares far more for Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) than they do when he finds himself facing de-resolution within the ENCOM mainframe.

TRON: Legacy Review

TRON: Legacy is the story of the effect of a father’s absence on his son’s personality, birthrights, evolution, revolution, accepting who and what you really one, the art of creation, and loss of innocence.

Giving birth to something, stamping it with your DNA, expending sweat equity and time started for Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) in the past with TRON, a film manufactured when special effects could barely realize the technological ambition of its screenplay.

Things have changed in big ways in modern filmmaking – an advantageous occurrence for the TRON franchise – and are evident in aggrandized form in The Grid (formerly The Game Grid), a virtual world inside the ENCOM mainframe. Vague has become detailed; miles of neon code have become a sprawling, living metropolis. The society that exists within the mainframe is segmented into two groups: those that go with the flow: purity and bloodletting, and those that don’t.

…the remainder of the TRON: Legacy Film Review and a TRON: Legacy: Scientific Concepts, Script Quality, Plot Themes Analysis

TRON: Legacy (2010) / TRON (1982): Five-Disc Combo Set

TRON: Legacy (2010) / TRON (1982): Five-Disc Combo Set

TRON Video

This is the cleanest I have ever seen the film and I have seen it many times, though never in theater. The artifacts are gone and the colors are definitely brighter. I’m guessing they were enhanced in some way because I do not remember them this vibrant.

TRON: Legacy Video

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The video has the crisp digital edges that one would expect from a cutting edge CGI film like this. I only watched the Blu-ray presentation, not the 3D or the DVD versions. I saw the film at an IMAX movie theater so the transition to high-definition 1080p was not jarring. Most of the beauty of the video comes forth with the characters and the events within the ENCOM mainframe, as lights and darks are blended and contrasted.

TRON Audio

The soundtrack doesn’t quit hold up as well as its video has. You certainly hear the eighties in its new English 7.1 DTS-HD MA (48kHz/24-bit) container on the Blu-ray but the sounds of the movie were not engineered for surround sound so some speakers go under-utilized.

TRON: Legacy Audio

All of the subtle sounds come through but the English 7.1 DTS-HD MA (48kHz/24-bit) rears its multi-faceted head during on-screen commotions and conflicts i.e. Disc Wars.

TRON Bonus Features

The TRON Phenomenon

This bonus feature talks about how TRON was ahead of its time. When I heard this, I immediately thought about how Blade Runner faced the same predicament. The actors didn’t understand the terms in the script i.e. Bit. The viewer also finds out that TRON was shot in black and white and that color was added later.

Photo Tronlogy

The director and his son look at photos from the production of the original film.

Original DVD Features

Development, Digital Imagery, The Making of TRON, Music, Publicity, Deleted Scenes, Design, Storyboarding, Galleries.

TRON: Legacy Bonus Features

The Next Day: Flynn Lives Revealed

We posted about this bonus feature here: TRON: The Next Day: TRON: LEGACY Blu-ray Video

First Look at TRON: Uprising, The Disney XD Animated series

This a cool but short video introduction to the animated prequel to TRON: Legacy and sequel to TRON. The best part is that Bruce Boxleitner will be voicing TRON.

Music Video

We posted about this bonus feature here: TRON: LEGACY: Daft Punk “Derezzed” Video

Launching the Legacy

TRON director Steven Lisberger speaks about TRON and bringing it back to life. The viewer learns that the 2007 TRON: Legacy movie trailer was commissioned and presented at the 2009 Comic-Con (presented here: TRON: Legacy Comic-Con 2009 Test Teaser Trailer) and also shown in its entirety during this bonus feature. The response to this trailer got TRON: Legacy green-lit.

Visualizing TRON

This bonus feature talks about how light is in everything in the film. The most interesting part  is what the the viewer learns about the world of TRON. That world has evolved on its own server in Flynn’s secret lab, which has been cut off from the rest of the online world. The simulation has gotten more realistic, its evolved.

A funny moment happens during this special feature. Rinzler is doing karate for a person filming and Olivia Wilde is in the background, wigged, and watching. Jeff Bridges’ CLU 2.0 body double, John Reardon, is also shown.

Installing the Cast

The cast talks about Jeff Bridges, how there was a world wide casting and screen tests for the character of Sam Flynn. Olivia Wilde was the first actress the director met for the Quorra role. He was sent her head shot.  He saw 50-60 actresses after her. Being first and “striking” were obviously in Olivia’s favor.

Disc Roars

The viewer finds out that a Comic-Con audience recorded the audience chants for Disc Wars: Disc Wars, Rinz-ler, and De-Rez.

TRON: Legacy Easter Eggs

I knew some Easter Eggs were on the TRON: Legacy Blu-ray, so I enlisted the help of someone else. Here is what he told me:

it’s only the US version of the Blu-Ray which has Easter Eggs, not the European release. If you do have the American version, they’re all part of “TRON: The Next Day – Flynn Lives Revealed” special feature on the disc. Go to the bonus features and click on that. Watch the 10:26 video (btw, it’s the one I uploaded first and its also on the UK/EU release) and at the end, if you have the US Blu-Ray, there should be an arcade high score screen with an input field or something (I don’t have the disc, a friend has it and emailed me the Dillinger video) and input any of the names of the high scorers on the screen. There are several clips, but only the Dillinger one relates to TRON 3 (TR3N). To watch it, type DJR in the high score field. To watch all the extra segments, including the Dillinger one, type in ALL.

Final Thoughts

Great presentation, great collection though I did like the title screen of the Firefly DVD over TRON: Legacy‘s Blu-ray title screen. Surprisingly, the TRON: Legacy Movie Trailer, TRON: Legacy Movie Trailer 2, and TRON: Legacy Movie Trailer 3 are not present on the Blu-ray. The new transfer of TRON is great, all the years between the the two films have almost been wiped away. This is the premium home edition to have a complete TRON adventure, baring in mind that you don’t already own either film.

Buy TRON: Legacy or TRON on Blu-ray or DVD Buy Now!

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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