Break out the neon gaffer tape and fire up the light cycle, User – it looks like we’re heading back to the Grid.

After the box office success of 2010’s Tron Legacy (despite a lukewarm critical reception it went on to make $400 million worldwide) and an animated series entitled Tron Uprising on the horizon the idea of another movie in the franchise was always a distinct possibility, and now it seems as if we’ve got some confirmation on that front – and from Tron himself, no less.

Bruce Boxleitner, who played Encom employee Alan Bradley and the title character in both the 1982 original and its sequel, was asked at a signing at the recent D23 Expo if he’d be willing to reprise his roles if a third movie were to be produced. His answer?

“It’s already a done deal … it’s already in the works. 2013, I think.”

This isn’t the first time that we’ve heard about a possible third Tron movie. It was reported back in June that David DiGilio had been hired as a scriptwriter, while previous rumours – and even extras on the Tron Legacy Blu-ray – had already suggested that the character of Edward Dillinger II (played by an uncredited Cillian Murphy in a scene at the beginning of Legacy) would become the primary villain should Disney move forward with another sequel.

No CLU yet what the film will be called, though.

(source: Ain’t It Cool)

Spawned from a graphic novel and possessing the kind of high-concept, easy-sell title which studio executives must have salivated over upon optioning it, Cowboys & Aliens reaches the big screen under the direction of actor-turned A-list director (and seemingly a regular fixture in this season of big-scale blockbusters), Jon Favreau.

This time around, the Iron Man helmer turns his attention towards a band of frontier folk who find themselves tussling with some unidentifiable flying objects who have stolen members of their community for equally mysterious purposes.  A gunslinger (Daniel Craig) who is suffering from amnesia awakens in the desert to find his right wrist is attached to his some kind of otherworldly artifact which he is unable to pry open and remove. Setting foot in the one-horse town of Absolution, he immediately makes his presence known by tangling with the son of the town’s rich and powerful cattleman, Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). Both are arrested and when daddy shows up to try and intervene and stop his son being carted away (alongside Craig) to court, the town is suddenly besieged by an array of large, laser-firing aircrafts, which proceed to turn the place into a fiery wreck, whilst scooping up a number of townsfolk, including Dolarhyde’s son and the local, mild-mannered saloon owner’s wife.

Finding tracks belonging to a creature from one of the invader’s ships, a posse head out at sunrise, intent on retrieving their stolen family members and loved-ones. Dolarhyde ropes in the stranger to help them (he is suffering from flashbacks which reveal snippets of the alien environment) and a mysterious girl from the town (Tron Legacy’s Olivia Wilde), who appears to know more about the situation than she cares to divulge.

The title alone gives you a clear idea of what’s in store here, and the coupling of those two diverse genres actually works well for the most part. These characters are from an age before modern science and pop culture permeated down through the masses, giving us endless stories of supposed other forms of life beyond the stars, and there’s a fun stoicism to the cowboys as they track down this mysterious force of which they have zero knowledge or reference of. However, this can’t quite disguise the flimsiest of premises and ultimately, a formulaic script which doesn’t offer enough surprises (neither the western and sci-fi tropes interwoven throughout offer anything much in the way of originality) to really stand out from the crowd.

Favreau, unsurprisingly, manages to coax some strong performances out of his starry cast. Ford (who seems to be still carrying some of that gruffness left over from his role in Morning Glory) is always a welcome addition to films of this nature (excluding ‘Crystal Skulls’, of course), but even so, he has to wrestle with some wonky  character continuity and actions, an issue which Wilde also suffers a little bit from. Craig is pretty solid, and cuts a lean, mean, figure, although there’s always that nagging doubt which leaves you thinking original lead Robert Downey Jr. may have brought a lightness of touch that the film (and character) needs. Rounding out the cast is the saloon proprietor, Sam Rockwell, bringing his normal reliable and likable quality to the film (and let’s face it, who wouldn’t love to have him serve booze for them at their local watering hole?)

Cowboys & Aliens is still a decent enough adventure flick for the most part, but for a film of this scope, and one which is chock-full of figures from the industry, many of whom have a solid track record for churning out big, audience-friendly hits from the past (Ron Howard and Imagine partner Brian Grazer are onboard as producers, while the big cheese himself, Steven Spielberg, is credited as executive producer) it’s all the more disappointing that this isn’t THE film of the summer.

While there are a couple of admittedly thrilling set-pieces (the terrifying alien attack on the town is well-crafted and a huge, upturned boat which has been left slap bang in the middle of the desert by the unwelcome ET’s, offers a surreal and wondrous sight), they can’t disguise the meagre plot and an unimaginative alien species (their lair, look and even the meaning behind their decision to come to earth, echoes that of the other big-profile creature feature of this summer, Super 8).

Many may enjoy what’s on offer here, and it’s certainly an enjoyable romp for a Saturday night out at the local multiplex. Just don’t go in there expecting to see much originality or freshness – something which would have been welcomed and embraced in yet another season crammed with the overly familiar.

***~~ (3/5)

Roles in high-profile geek-centric films like Iron Man and Tron: Legacy must have proved to be an enjoyable experience for Jeff Bridges. The Wrap reports that the actor is now set to join Ryan Reynolds in comic book adaptation, R.I.P.D.

R.I.P.D. (Rest In Peace Department) is the tale of dead police officers who keep watch over the underworld. Reynolds plays a recently deceased cop who plans to take revenge on his murderer, and Bridges is taking over the role which Zack Galifianakis was hovering over of a veteran officer and partner to Reynolds.

German director Robert Schwentke is onboard, having recently scored big with action ensemble film, Red.

The name of Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski was attached to the big screen adaptation of the Arvid Nelson graphic novel Oblivion as far back as July of last year and while the premise of humans escaping the scorched ruins of Earth’s surface to live in the clouds is intriguing Universal needed more than ‘From the director of Tron: Legacy’ to plaster over the poster to draw in the crowds.

Now it seems that particular problem has been solved with the casting of perhaps the most famous face in Hollywood, as Deadline reports Tom Cruise has officially signed on the play the lead in the film. He will play a soldier who repairs the  drones that patrol the desolate surface and destroy savage aliens known as Scavengers, when a woman crashes to the surface in a craft and they set of on a journey of discovery and adventure.

Cruise is no stranger to sci-fi action adventuring with after his work on Minority Report and War of the Worlds with Spielberg and while Oblivion sounds like it may not break any moulds the casting of Cruise shows that Universal have enormous faith, and more importantly – money, in Kosinski and his film.

Zoe Saldana (Avatar) and Dennis Quaid (Pandorum) have signed on to star in The Words.

Saldana and Quaid will star opposite Bradley Cooper (Limitless) and Jeremy Irons (Being Julia) in the indie drama.

The synopsis is both short and sweet.

A writer comes to terms with a dark secret.

Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal – who wrote Tron: Legacy together – are attached to make their directorial debut on the project.

Benaroya Pictures will produce.

Source: The Playlist

Now this is a rather awesome prize! Disney have been in touch to offer us 5 pairs of tickets to their Tron: Legacy DVD & Reconfigured Album Launch Party which is taking place in London next Wednesday, 20th April. The party is to celebrate the release of Tron: Legacy on Blu-Ray, DVD, On Demand, and Digital Download (order your copy here) as well as the launch of the Tron: Reconfigured Album; a remix album of the stunning Daft Punk release.

There will also be some performances by some very special guests. After attending the premiere after-party for this movie, I have no doubt that this event will be spectacular!

On April 20^th April 2011, The Walt Disney Company will be celebrating the release of TRON: Legacy DVD/BLUE RAY & RECONFIGURED ALBUM with a Launch Party @ Heaven nightclub in London, featuring performances by some special guests.

Beyond the amazing line up, Heaven will be plugged into the GRID for the night to create the ultimate TRON experience and an amazing hands on experience provided by HP ePrint.

Tron: Legacy stars, Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, James Frain, Beau Garrett and is directed by Joseph Kosinski. If you missed our rather extensive coverage of the Theatrical release, you can check it all out here.

To be in with a chance of winning one pair of tickets to this exclusive event, all you need to do is become a fan of HeyUGuys on Facebook and answer the question using the form below:

Who directed the movie, Tron: Legacy?

Please note: If you enter this competition you MUST be free to attend the party in a central London location on Wednesday, 20th April.

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

The small print:

• You must be free to attend the party in London on Wednesday 20th April
• Transportation is not included in the prize and you must arrange your own transport to and from the venue
• Open to UK residents only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close 18th April 12.30 GMT
• The winner will be picked at random from entries received

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

The forthcoming Tron: Legacy Blu-ray continues to be a spluttering fountain of teasers for the expected third film in the Tron series, Tron 3 (or Tr3N or Tron: Legacy: Legacy – if you must), which of course hasn’t been confirmed by Disney but doesn’t seem in any real doubt does it?

The first teaser video was a rather more substantial look at life after Tron: Legacy and this clip, uploaded by the same Anton Volkov who made friends at Disney with his last video, is a less showy affair but features the character Cillian Murphy played in the second film, that of Edward Dillinger Jr, and his father, played by David Warner, and hints at trouble ahead for Encom.

Both this and the last video are only really worth watching if you’ve seen the events of Tron: Legacy unfold, and if you’re looking forward to seeing more Tron then I suspect you’ll like what you see here.

The good people at Movie Viral found it first, here it is…

The dark side to country music is explored yet again as relationships are put to the test (on and off stage) in Country Strong.

Gwyneth Paltrow is country superstar Kelly Canter, a Faith Hill-esque figure (presumably with added hedonistic tendencies) who has fallen on hard times. Finishing a stint in rehab, she’s due to stage a comeback tour, although her mental and physical wellbeing may not be ready for such a demanding activity. Manager/husband James (Tim McGraw – ironically, the only bona fide country star in the film who doesn’t sing) however, is convinced this is just what she needs in order to make it back to the top again. Much to the annoyance of her husband, Kelly insists on bringing with her on tour as a supporting act, a young hospital orderly and aspiring singer-songwriter (Tron: Legacy’s Garrett Hedlund, swapping a light cycle for an acoustic guitar) whom she has formed an intimate bond with during her hospitalisation.

Emotions are further tempered when jealously rears its ugly head as a beauty queen-turned-singer (Leighton Meester) joins the tour as James’ protégé. Can Kelly make it through to the all-important dates, or will she be doing bourbon chasers while popping those pills by the time the tour reaches Dallas (the setting and catalyst for her previous downfall).

In the past few years in particular, the world of country music has created a fascinating outlet for both real-life and fictitious cinematic lost souls who are battling their demons and trying to regain the magic touch the once possessed. Some have even reaped the ultimate Hollywood accolade for their portrayals, with Oscar nods for both Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Jeff Bridges finally picking up the statue via Crazy Heart.

Although acquitting herself quite well in the singing department (and her recent guest spot on TV’s Glee is further evidence that she has the chops) unfortunately, Paltrow just doesn’t have the range to play a fragile and week-willed addict, and as her performance is the crux of the film, this is a major issue. When Kelly’s husband keeps lamenting about her success in the past and acknowledging that “she used to be tough as nails”, you don’t buy into that at all. One of the reasons behind her stay in rehab is due to behaviour which contributed to the death of her unborn baby, but as the character is so shallow and one-dimensional, the audience’s sympathy is never there for her, despite this tragic revelation.

A stronger actress in the lead may have elevated the film to a so-so drama, although Shana Feste’s unambitious and pedestrian direction doesn’t help either. The film looks like one of those made-for-TV movies and apart from the odd glimpse of Kelly’s destructive behaviour (which don’t really push the boundaries of decency and taste anyway) the film wouldn’t seem out of place in one of those mid-afternoon screening slots on terrestrial TV. The only touching scene is delivered when Kelly pays a visit to a school during the tour, and plays to a young child suffering from leukaemia. It helps that the kid looks genuinely sick, but we’re also offered a fleeting look at a warm and maternal side to the singer – an interesting and conflicting aspect an to an otherwise cold and detached character, which is never really exploited again in the film.

The two younger co-stars fare much better. Meester (best known for TV’s Gossip Girl) initially comes over as all naïve and innocent, but is able to imbue her character with a strength and level-headedness which is very appealing. Hedlund too is surprisingly good, and handles the singing side admirably, his gravelly voice completely lending itself to a heart-felt country ditties he croons. It wouldn’t be surprising if he isn’t already fielding offers from potential records companies on the quality of his work here.

The fine efforts of the supporting cast can’t save the film though, and the overly-melodramatic and emotionally contrived ending, which seems to come out of nowhere, doesn’t ring true at all. What’s left is an essentially hollow and lifeless piece, enlivened by some impressive musical numbers and a couple of decent performances, but little else.

If country music is your thing, give the film a miss and download the soundtrack instead.

**~~~ (2/5)

This, we are reliably informed, is the first of two teasers for a third Tron film (or Tr3N if you must) and if you a fan of Tron and its legacy then you’ll simply eat this up.

FirstShowing lived up to their name and now we all have the chance to find out what happened after Tron: Legacy packed up and went home – and this is clearly the first strike in a coming campaign to get us excited for another Tron film despite Legacy looking pretty but offering nothing as substantial as plot or narrative excitement.

Promised as a Blu-ray/DVD extra, this video is pretty cool to watch, and if you read the description on the Youtube page then there are hints as to what the other DVD Easter Eggs will contain. There are hints here which would confirm a story we ran last year about the next Tron film. Breath baited, etc.

Here’s the vid,

Playing paternal figures in Tron Legacy and True Grit must have proved to be a positive working experience for Jeff Bridges – he has now signed up for a similar role in The Seventh Son.

Taken from the first novel in The Wardstone Chronicles (Published in the United States as The Last Apprentice) The Seventh Son is a dark fantasy series of books written by British author Joseph Delaney and centres on a young farmboy named Tom, a seventh son of a seventh son, who has acquired many supernatural gifts, including the ability to see ghosts and ward off witches.

Bridges will play the mentor-type role of The Spook, an 18th Century equivalent and Peter Venkman and Co., whose mission in life is to despatch ghosts and goblins.

Just Jared are reporting that makers Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures are currently looking at Alex Pettyfer for the role of Tom, with Oscar-nominated Jennifer Lawrence being eyed up for another leading part.

Fans of Tron Legacy (I know there are some of you out there!) may be interested to see what Disney are planning for the film’s small screen release.

Coming Soon has unearthed some rather nifty-looking package design from Amazon US of the four different versions on Blu-ray. As to be expected, the original Tron looks like its being included in the five discs box (and blue neon Identity Disc/Frisbee-shaped pack) and the two-disc special edition. As you’ll recall, Disney deleted the first film on DVD prior to Legacy’s cinema release, so there’s bound to be a big interest for the first film, especially for those who haven’t had the opportunity to see it yet!

These variations will probably be available in the UK too, so get saving your hard-earned pocket money kids – there’s hours of life in The Grid to absorb and delve into.

Ain’t It Cool founder and father geek Harry Knowles has posted a news story in which he reveals that through his industry contacts, he’s received word that a sequel to Tron Legacy is “incredibly close” to being announced. He’s goes on to state that the film is set to cross the $300 million mark worldwide, which he implies is a significant enough figure to greenlight a follow up.

The international box office is certainly impressive, but as the film is still $40m short of reaching its estimated budget of $170m at the domestic box office, this news does sound a little premature.

You may remember the 2007 fantasy-adventure film The Golden Compass was intended as the first instalment in the trilogy based on Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials books before modest US box office returns scuppered these plans, despite the film doing $372m worldwide.

Admittedly, that film never managed to cross the $100m mark in the US, but even if Tron Legacy makes it’s budget back in the US, putting money into a second sequel at this stage would require a huge leap of faith by the studio, particularly in the current belt-tightening financial atmosphere.

It may have been out in the cinema for a couple of weeks but Disney’s Tron: Legacy is still pulling me in with all the cool stuff that we have coming out for the movie. Last week, we posted Buzz on the grid which, although was unofficial, was still pretty awesome!

Today I’ve found this new featurette for the Joseph Kosinski directed movie which focuses on the light-suits and interviews costume designer, Christine Clarke as she talks about just how cool they were to design and make. In this featurette, we get to see the stars of the movie, Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde talk about working in the suits and how they found it.

If you didn’t see our extended presentation where Christine talks more in depth about the design process of building the suits, you can see it posted here.

Tron: Legacy is currently in all cinemas across the UK and if you’ve missed all our extensive coverage, you can check it all out here.

Last week we had one of the most popular posts in HeyUGuys history in the form of Buzz Lightyear and a London Bus appearing on The Grid. Now our friends from The Pixar Times have come up with their own version but is slightly more cartoony but is equally as cool.

There’s not too much more to say really but scroll down to check out Cartoon Buzz on the grid – BuzzTRON designed by Jerrod Maruyama.

It is of course something of an understatement to say that all things Tron related are flying at us left, right and centre. I think my favourite piece of Tron-related fun is this Buzz Lightyear and London Bus fan art. You can catch all of the essential Tron and Tron: Legacy lowdown, right here.

Added to all of that is some excellent Disney character work from CalArts, via SlashFilm, with old favourites given the Tron treatment. We’ve got the whole gallery below for you to feast upon, then you can let us know your favourite. Personally, I think either Stitch or Maleficent get my vote. Not at all sure about The Mad Hatter and who or what the heck is “Tron-a-bog”?

We’ve had our fair share of fan made art and videos already for Disney’s new movie, Tron: Legacy but these were so good that they had to get posted!

A user on DeviantArt known as iamclu has published these rather fantastic images that put us right onto The Grid in Tron. Ever wondered what Buzz Lightyear would look like on The Grid? Well, wonder no more as we get to see what Buzz may look like if ever he stepped into Kevin Flynn’s computer system, or even a brand new London Bus (which I think the last time I saw was at the Beijing Olympics when David Beckham appeared at the top of it to kick a football off the top at the Closing Ceremony!). Interestingly, there is somewhere called Liverpool Street inside The Grid! I wonder if Kevin Flynn took a trip to London before programming that particular vehicle into his system!

The icing on the cake however has to be London’s very own Tube Map which has been completely changed or ‘Tronified’ if you will! Instead of ‘Underground’, we have ‘The Grid’ with a neon tube map which I personally plan to print off and use for my regular trips to London from this day forth! Who’s with me?!!

Tron: Legacy is currently in cinemas across the UK and you can keep track of our coverage here and click these amazing images below to enlarge!

Tron: Legacy is top of the US box office this week, having brought in over $43 million in receipts ($43,600,000).

Disney were probably hoping for a bigger figure (the film is budgeted at around $170 million before promotional and advertising costs) but the first film was hardly in the same league as something like Star Wars in terms of  popularity and does not engender a huge sense of excitement for the follow up. It’s worth noting however, that Avatar opened around the same time last year with a moderate haul of $70 million and went on to become the biggest-grossing film in the world.

The GC makeover of popular Hanna Barbera cartoon Yogi Bear has debuted at number 2 with a below-par $16m. It’s probably safe to say that this film’s finally box office tally won’t be anywhere close to what the similarly kids-marketed Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel made last year (a staggering $219m!).

The third in The Chronicles of Narnia series (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) rounds off the top three, bringing in just over $44m after two weeks on release. It’s another big-budgeted family feature which has a way to go to break even (it has a budget of around $155m) but this film (like the first two) should prove to be popular with an overseas audience.

Figures courtesy of Box Office Mojo.

Last week, I got to see the very first UK screening of Disney’s new tent pole movie, Tron: Legacy. The hype for the movie had been building over the past 12 months with various trailers and marketing telling us that this could be the coolest movie we see all year! Disney had arranged the first screening to be at the Waterloo IMAX which is a fantastic venue, and we were told that the print we were watching was the only IMAX print in the world.  All impressive stuff but read on to find out if it deserves the title as the coolest film of 2010… and to find out if it’s any good!

It is probably fair to say that most people won’t know where the Tron franchise has come from – or that it is indeed a franchise. After telling my friends that I’d just been to see Tron: Legacy, most of them looked blankly at me when I told them it’s actually a sequel to the 1982,  Steven Lisberger directed movie with the title ‘Tron’. Back in ’82, Tron was a huge cult movie which still has a massive following although most of them were quiet until the computer game commercial director, Joseph Kosinski, created a rather fantastic promo as a proof of concept at Comic Con back in 2008. What he created wowed fans and the hype went mad! With Disney bosses overjoyed at the response, Tron: Legacy was green-lit and now, in 2010, we have the finished product.

Tron: Legacy stars Jeff Bridges who returns as Kevin Flynn (and the character of Clu 2.0 but more on that later), Olivia Wilde, Michael Sheen, Beau Garrett, Bruce Boxleitner and relative newcomer, Garett Hedlund. Hedlund plays the character of Sam Flynn, the son of legendary game creator, Kevin Flynn.

The movie opens with an immensely cool sequence where the Disney Magic Kingdom is completely made out of computer ‘bits’ and immediately had me excited with what was to come. We start in the real world where Kevin Flynn (Bridges) is the owner of computer company, Encom. Flynn has made his name from creating computer games Space Paranoids and Tron (see the 1982 version for the full lowdown) and is happy in life with his son who has a bedroom kited out with Tron merchandise from the past 20 years! Bridges has his back to us for most of the scene which is used to tell the audience who know nothing about the original Tron, exactly what’s going on – plus telling his son about The Grid. As the scene approaches it’s close, Flynn turns around to face Sam, revealing his face and showing the audience that he’s 20 years younger than Bridges actually is now. Cut to the News report following to reveal that after he left Sam that night, he wasn’t seen again, with rumours that he’s skipped the country through not being able to take the pressure, or has been killed with his body missing.

Moving on 20 years, we get to see Sam now much older and with a real attitude and a gripe against the world, blaming his father for all the misfortune he’s had in his life. Now the film really begins with a rather cool opening sequence where we see Sam infiltrating Encom for his ‘yearly visit’. Throughout this sequence, we get to see exactly where all our main characters are now within the world and within the organisation of Encom, who are about to release their new Operating System known as OS12. Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) is now on the board of Encom while we get a little cameo from a well known, uncredited Irish actor who I won’t name but plays Dillinger’s son – see if you can spot him.

After causing quite a few problems at Encom, Bradley pays a visit to Sam’s digs to tell him that he’s received a page from his father and that it came from Kevin Flynn’s arcade which hasn’t been open for 20 years. Cue the biggest little dog that you’ve ever seen on a cinema screen (especially at an IMAX!).  Throughout this opening scene (which does pass by pretty quickly) you’re just desperate to get into the stunning visuals that we’ve seen in all the trailers, and it doesn’t take long before Sam finds himself on The Grid which his father told him about all those years ago. The mission now, how does he get out?!

Now, onto the cool stuff! Where do I start with the coolness of Tron: Legacy?

The Visuals

Part of the sell for Tron: Legacy has to be the visuals. We’ve all gotten used to CGI as it’s been around for quite a while now but director Joseph Kosinski knew that the visuals were key to the look of the movie. By enlisting digital effects house, Digital Domain (founded by James Cameron and now owned by Michael Bay) he was able to not only create some of the most stunning visuals I’ve ever seen in a movie but also manage to make Jeff Bridges 20 years younger!

The Light Cycles were made famous in the original movie too with a trail of light being created wherever they go to create an extremely dangerous game which, if hit, would destroy you. Kosinski was very clever with the set design as a lot of it was real sets and not all CGI. He would create much of the platform on which the actors stand and then green screens would complete the structure so that we, the audience, never notice.

The Light Disc battle, the Light Jets and the Light Cars were all new for Tron: Legacy and were fantastic additions to the movie. Kosinski had brought concept car designer (Daniel Simon) on board who quit his job to come and work on the movie and was able to create some of the most amazing new vehicles, none of which disappointed. I think if you went into the movie just to look at the vehicle concept and not look at the story at all, you’d have to give it 10/10.

My one criticism of the Light-Bikes was in the way parts of it were shot. Often the cameras were too close to the subject making it hard to see exactly what was going on but overall, the exhibition of ‘Light’ was rather mesmerizing!

The Light disc fight was one of my personal favourites parts of the movie with the competitors ending up in a billion pieces on the floor if they got hit by the disc. Digital Domain spared no expense in getting these sequences 100% right and they simply looked fantastic.

One element that was quite hard to get used to was Clu’s CGI face. Yes it did look pretty realistic but there was something about it that you could never shake off, and although it was only his head that was actually moulded in a computer, it still felt like you were watching a CGI model of someone and I’m not sure I ever fully got used to it.

I could talk all day about each visual concept in detail but suffice to say, you wont be disappointed if you want to see a lot of cool looking neon in this movie!

The 3D

After seeing the movie, there were numerous comments from people saying that this is the best 3d that they’ve seen in a movie. I didn’t really notice the 3D standing out but then I think that’s probably as good thing, this 3D does work and when you’re immersed in the Light Cycle battle or the Light Discs, you’ll absolutely love it. Filming in 3d rather than doing it in post is most definitely the way to go if you can achieve results like this!

The Score

The Score has been produced by Daft Punk and man, have they done a good job with it!! The hype for the Official SoundTrack (OST) has been almost as big as it has been for the film itself and the pair of French artists even get a little cameo in the movie. Although their soundtrack plays throughout the movie, there was one scene where Michael Sheen asks them to ‘Electrify’ the End of the Line club, and just as the music kicks in, they cut to another room within the club compeltely drowning out the music. Was a bit disappointing (due to the amazing build-up by Sheen) but I’ll just have to buy the OST and crank it up when I’ve got my copy!

The Costumes

In 1982, to get the effect of having light inside the costumes, each frame had to be hand-drawn and coloured into the final product before it could be placed on screen. Each cell was sent over to Asia to complete this work and it was obviously extremely expensive and time consuming. Fortunately for Kosinski, computers have advanced somewhat although it may surprise some of you to hear that the costumes were actually built with the lights inside them, much like the technology for the Motorola Razr phone which came out a couple of years ago.

The costume design was again, visually stunning with every suit built to match the body shape of each actor after being digitally scanned into a computer and then created on a CNC process (find out more about that process and costume design in general here).

The Cast

OK, down to the nitty gritty, how did they all perform? Overall, pretty well. Jeff Bridges was absolutely brilliant and delivered some killer lines including ‘radical man’ (no, I’m not lying!) and so much of the young, not-a-care-in-the-world attitude that we saw in the first movie really came through, although it was hard not to mix that up with his character as ‘The Dude’ in The Big Lebowski. Seeing him back in the world of Tron will pleased so many people and it was a joy to see him embrace the character. Even though it was shot 30 years ago, it really felt like he was pleased to be back, especially since this sort of role is probably so far removed from the roles we see him in nowadays. This performance just goes to show what a great and diverse actor he really is, especially as he has to play two parts in the movie.

Another excellent performance comes from Michael Sheen, and just like Jeff Bridges, the man never puts a foot wrong. I was talking with my fellow blogger friends about this afterwards and we’ve all come out with a different opinion on who he’s trying to portray. For me, I saw loads of Gene Wilder in his character from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with his cane being swung around his arm and his leg crossed as he walked along.

Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde performed well together and there was really good chemistry on the screen between the actors. The problem for me was the dodgy lines which Hedlund was given. They just didn’t fit in the script and made the audience laugh when he delivered them. The cheesy one liners which if they hadn’t been put in there, would have been fine. Olivia Wilde is an wonderful upcoming actress and there’s a reason that she’s appearing in so many big budget movies over the next year. In Tron: Legacy, she has a great childlike quality to her playing the role of Quorra, a program living on The Grid who is desperate to find out about the ‘real world’ and meeting Sam for the first time is a real proof that the ‘real world’ exists after living with Jeff Bridges for so many years.

The supporting cast including Beau Garrett and James Frain were all really well cast and I couldn’t fault their performances. One slight downside to the casting was Bruce Boxleitner. He was completely underused and I was really hoping that we’d see a lot of him in the sequel to the movie which really, was named after him. You will see him after the opening sequences in the ‘real world’ but in my opinion, not enough.

The Storyline

This is where negatives come into my review I’m afraid as the storyline did need some work. It seems that not even Pixar-guru John Lasseter (who was rumoured to have had a go at rewriting it) could make it more compelling. The basic storyline is Sam goes in, Sam needs to get out again with a load of challenges in the middle to get him there. And yes, the Light-Cycles, Light-Discs and Light-Jets are all cool but it felt like they were just thrown in at sporadic points. I think it lacked originality and with nearly 30 years to write a script, it could have been a little bit more structured and had a few more twists.

Don’t let this put you off to much though because when you do get the all the different ‘Light’ sections, you’ll be absolutely loving them!

Overall

Overall, if you’re looking for an action packed movie that has every element of ‘cool’ that you could ever want in it, then this is the movie you need to see in 2010. There’s no need to have seen the original movie but if you’re a fan of the Tron, then this is a good followup and stays very true to the 1982 version. The storyline lets it down somewhat but just keep your focus on Jeff Bridges and Michael Sheen for some excellent performances. Another little tip is to keep watching the bar at the End of the Line club to see if you can spot another cameo from someone instrumental in the Tron movie(s).

There were quite a few nods to the original movie with comments like ‘Man, that is a big door’ coming from Sam following in his fathers footsteps and as a movie that has been in the making within Joe Kosinski’s head for the past 30 years, he has done a good job, just a shame about the storyline. However Tron: Legacy is a must watch – especially if you’re a fan of neon!

Tron: Legacy is released in UK and US cinemas 17th December.

***~~ (3/5)

The guys from Alamo Drafthouse and Sideshow Collectibles have just sent us these rather awesome new posters for Tron and Tron: Legacy, both of which are available to buy with the details below and were designed by Eric Tan. I’ll let the press release do the talking but scroll down to check out these new posters which even glow in the dark!

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE’S MONDO TEAMS UP WITH SIDESHOW COLLECTIBLES FOR POSTER SERIES

Austin, TX— December 15, 2010— Mondo, the collectible art boutique arm of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, announced a partnership with Sideshow Collectibles to release a series of Mondo’s highly sought after film posters from world famous artists. Mondo’s limited edition, screen-printed posters will be available for purchase at MondoTees.com, with variants available at SideshowCollectibles.com. The first series in the partnership will be Walt Disney Picture’s 3D high-tech adventure “TRON: Legacy” and the original “TRON.”

“We’re very excited to join forces with Sideshow Collectibles, the leading collectible manufacturer.  We’re working on several major licensed film properties that we will roll out via this partnership,” said Mondo Creative Director Justin Ishmael.

Sideshow Collectibles’ Creative Director Tom Gilliand said, “With the combination of Mondo’s great group of artists, and Sideshow’s licenses, we’re ecstatic to be able to offer some fresh new designs to fans of screen prints and collectibles alike!”

With the multi-million dollar movie, Tron: Legacy movie coming out later this week, it was simply a formality that a computer game to accompany film would be brought out alongside it. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, Tron (1982) is based around an uber-intelligent programmer named Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) who, through various circumstances manages to get himself sucked inside his own computer system and has to battle against the various nasties which lie inside it.

This idea was pushing huge boundaries back in 1982 and the storyline lent itself perfectly to a computer game. Now that a sequel to the movie is being released, it was time for game creators to bring back Tron into the console / PC market and Disney Interactive / Propaganda Games took up the challenge to bring the game to PC, XBox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Wii. This review is of the XBox 360 version only.

Tron: Evolution is a third person platform and strategy game where you play the character of an unnamed ‘User’ (You) a human from the outside world. The storyline is set between the 1982 movie and 2010 Tron: Legacy where Clu (the system administrator inside the computer) is ruler of the Grid but an Isomorphic Algorithm (ISO) has been given joint leadership. It doesn’t take long before Clu gets jealous and stages a coup which you have to try and cull to complete the game.

You start off playing in third person mode, free-running through levels and learning how to control your character. The graphics are pretty impressive and, just like the movie, the colour scheme is based on the black worlds interspersed with blue neon throughout making it look rather cool!  You have to negotiate obstacles and after a few stages of control practice and and video overviews, you have to kill off Clu’s combatants who spawn from damaged chips and circuits using your Lightdisc – again mirroring the movie. The tutorials are fantastic and will help you whenever you get stuck. You also have the chance to upgrade your armoury and skillset in the game which will also translate to the multi-player version if you chose to play online.

After progressing a little further, you get the chance to drive the lightcycle which I’d been looking forward to since I started playing. To be honest it was pretty terrible. You basically just have to steer left and right to avoid the sections of road which are crumbling beneath you and giving you no real challenge whatsoever. Further into the game, you can control the lightcycle on the levels themselves but this initial outing with it wasn’t very memorable but as you get deeper into the game, playing with the lightcycle is a lot more fun!

Have a watch of the video below for a game-play demo of the game.

I’d like to give you a full run-down of the multi-player options but I spent an hour trying to connect to a game and failed miserably and unfortunately didn’t have any further time to commit to trying to get ten other people to join. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just me being thick as others were coming over via headsets saying how annoying this was. I tried joining other people’s games but never did we get the minimum of 10 people to play and after that hour of sitting there waiting for a connection, I decided I had better things to do!

Ultimately this game looks pretty and the third-person free-running  sections are impressive and fun to play. The initial lightcycle and tank sections – not so much. I really liked the way the game mirrors the movie using parts of the official score by Daft Punk to tie it all together and even getting Olivia Wilde and Bruce Boxleitner to voice their characters in the game. – there are even a few spoilers in there for the movie if you look hard enough. The free-running sections are fun top play and throwing the lightdisc to fight your way through the levels are fun but ultimately, if you’re a fan of the movie(s) then this is most definitely a game you’ll want to get your hands on as it’s the perfect companion!

Tron: Evolution is available to buy now on all formats. Click here to purchase.

***~~ (3/5)

Please note, this is a sponsored post.