TRON: Legacy (2010)

1 Academy Award Nomination

directed by Joseph Kosinski

starring Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde

It was during the first lightcycle sequence that I looked over to my father, who shared my expression of excitement, and stated: "I need this video game." TRON: Legacy had done its job well.

The film does play like an overlong video game ad at times. It's a wonder, then, how little I minded.

While the main character was forgettable, Olivia Wilde brought liveliness and likeability to the film's designated female. TRON follows a lot of action movie mishaps, not the least of which is the lack of women with lines. There are the bleach-white programs that outfit Sam for battle, with slick appearances and freakishly perfect features, as if they had walked out of a heavily photoshopped perfume advertisement. I wonder why Michael Sheen's eccentric entertainer Zuse couldn't have been female. The traitorous navigator would have been equally entertaining in either gender.

It's quibbles like these that make me wonder why I can enjoy TRON and despise other action movies that offer CGI with little substance. Perhaps it's because, unlike a certain popular franchise raking in millions as we speak, TRON manages to do its job without being offensive. Qorra is not Megan Fox's Mikaela, after all, and Olivia Wilde is an actress, not a model. While TRON's filler may be dull, at least it isn't sexist or racist. Additionally, TRON broke no records and was widely acknowledged for what it is: shiny, simple, 80's nostalgia meets the technology of the twenty-first century. Plus, Jeff Bridges.