TRON: Legacy
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: December 17, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
22
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondDec 7, 2010
On the heels of another revelatory turn in True Grit, Bridges is sensational again, here in a groundbreaking performance. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithDec 17, 2010
An eyeball party. The score by Daft Punk, which veers from homages to Hans Zimmer's thundery work in "The Dark Knight" to a retro-'80s synth sound, surpasses magnificence. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 17, 2010
Bridges has a fine time playing with himself, so to speak. Add Garrett Hedlund as Flynn's son Sam, the rebel who zaps himself into the server to find his lost dad, and director Joseph Kosinski has a recipe for adventure that should delight gamers. Non-techies are on their own. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertDec 15, 2010
Tron: Legacy, a sequel made 28 years after the original but with the same actor, is true to the first film: It also can't be understood, but looks great. Both films, made so many years apart, can fairly lay claim to being state of the art. This time that includes the use of 3-D. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanDec 15, 2010
The sequel, more successfully (if less innocently), injects you into a luminous technological wonderland and asks you to be happy with the ride. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesDec 16, 2010
The special effects are incredible, blah blah blah, but oddly, the most effective element here is the original movie's striking visual design-everything pitch black except for the luminescent piping on the costumes and foreground objects-which was inspired by the primitive arcade games of the early 80s. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. HobermanDec 14, 2010
Given the movie's graphic pizzazz, the best hippie wisdom Bridges might offer the viewer is: Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 17, 2010
When director Joseph Kosinski flips the switch on action, TRON: Legacy is entertaining enough. Especially in 3D IMAX, with a mega-audio system booming Deft Punk's droning Xbox-ready musical score, nearly drowning out the collisions. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovDec 15, 2010
There's absolutely no shortage of stunning eye candy in this spiffy, sexy, and frequently thrilling sequel to Disney's 1982 game-changer Tron. There is, however, a certain lack of connectivity between the digitally enhanced characters onscreen and the user – excuse me, "audience" – in the flesh. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyDec 17, 2010
With a curiously stubborn kind of integrity, Tron: Legacy follows what did and didn't work the first time – another weak story with sub-B-movie dialogue, partly compensated for by intensely conceived geometric design and special effects. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsDec 16, 2010
It's a triumph of streamlined design, but TRON: Legacy never enters the fourth dimension where it's worth a plugged nickel to humans. Read full review
63
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreDec 15, 2010
Like "Avatar," "Legacy" is a film too in love with its own good looks. And like the original "TRON," the sequel's a bit of a slog. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 15, 2010
They had 28 years, and this is the best they could come up with? Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierDec 17, 2010
Bridges is enjoyable as he gives the older Flynn a Zen hero quality, and even breaks through the effects to make his younger-Clu-self oddly engaging. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfDec 14, 2010
The profusion of Dudes is - pardon the apt pun - game-changing. By turns a fierce megalomaniac and a Lebowskian monk, Bridges supplies more soul than any sci-fi sequel deserves. Read full review
60
EmpireNick de SemlyenDec 8, 2010
A triumph of art direction, sound design and Gallic phat beats, but could do with a script upgrade and fun.exe patch. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeDec 6, 2010
While 21st-century effects and a cutting-edge dance score make this a stunning virtual ride, the underlying concept feels as far-fetched as ever. Read full review
59
NPRIan BuckwalterDec 17, 2010
Tron: Legacy revels in its over-the-top nature: the sharp contrast of inky blacks against vibrant neons, the bombastic clash of orchestral and synthetic elements in the soundtrack (by French electronic musicians Daft Punk), the trippy, sometimes incoherent ideas it presents. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn LevyDec 16, 2010
It's a handsome film, and Bridges is back, but little has been done to deepen the story into a saga, and the leading man, Garrett Hedlund, rivals Bit for inexpressivity. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliDec 16, 2010
This sequel is also goofy, also eye-popping - see it in Imax 3-D if you really want to fry your optic nerve - and also weakly scripted. And yet the sheer size of the thing works against it: The effects are absolutely spectacular, but they blow the goofy-cheesy quotient straight through the roof. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanDec 16, 2010
There are worse things than being trapped inside a computer game with Olivia Wilde. In Tron: Legacy, the loud, long and less than wholly satisfying sequel to "Tron," that's the bittersweet fate of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), the computer-nerd hero of both the 1982 sci-fi cult classic and its high-tech, 3-D update. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigDec 16, 2010
For those in the audience, it's best to just sit back, drink in its virtual dazzle and not ask questions. The story is beside the point in this sleek-looking reboot. It's all about the whiz-bang special effects and the return of Jeff Bridges - always the coolest guy in any space, cyber or otherwise. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyDec 16, 2010
New players, a new story line, a new director and nearly three decades of improved technology including all the whiz-bang-wow the latest 3-D has to offer. Unfortunately, there's not nearly enough new life. Read full review
50
TimeMary PolsDec 16, 2010
Tron: Legacy is not good, but it is amiable. While it seems less like a parody than the original, it is also silly in a not unpleasing way. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyDec 16, 2010
Legacy is a two-hour light show with a lot of flash, a little style, and not one byte of narrative originality. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisDec 16, 2010
Tron: Legacy gives us a dud stud named Garrett Hedlund as Sam Flynn, the hero of this petrified sequel to 1982's "Tron." None of what he sees impresses. The feeling is mutual. Read full review
50
MovielineStephanie ZacharekDec 16, 2010
An ungodly mess that's great fun to look at for about 15 minutes and exhausting the rest of the time. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezDec 16, 2010
Curiously, TRON: Legacy makes the same mistake the original did: All the best stuff comes in the first act. The rest of the movie is as exciting as an overnight round of computer coding. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanDec 16, 2010
A movie's in trouble when neither the hero nor the villain has charisma, and Clu is a dull dog. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 15, 2010
The results impart that "trapped" feeling all too well. It's a sullen affair, dominated by a grim visual palette that intrigues for about 30 minutes. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 15, 2010
TRON: Legacy may well satisfy the fanboys who have waited almost three decades for its appearance. Enjoy. Who knows, maybe one day if you wait long enough they'll make a "Super Mario Bros." sequel, too. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyDec 6, 2010
It all ends up being a half-hour too much of a just okay thing. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 17, 2010
Ought to have been state of the art. But there's not a whole lot of artistry to be found in this movie. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 16, 2010
A sequel with far less color and cinematic imagination, and many more bells and whistles, including a freakishly special-effected Mr. Bridges going mano a mano in cyberspace with the grizzled real deal. Twice as much Jeff Bridges does not necessarily mean twice as much entertainment - bummer. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 13, 2010
With a million times more computing power at its disposal than its 1982 predecessor, Tron: Legacy still looks like Disco Night at the jai alai fronton. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasDec 16, 2010
Disney has once again constructed a digital environment out of cutting-edge special effects, only this time, it isn't merely silly; it's as dry and talky as a PBS panel show. Read full review
30
SlateDana StevensDec 16, 2010
Tron: Legacy is the kind of sensory-onslaught blockbuster that tends to put me to sleep, the way babies will nap to block out overwhelming stimuli. I confess I may have snoozed through one or two climactic battles only to be startled awake by an incoming neon Frisbee. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 16, 2010
It's dispiriting to see how little attention the filmmakers have paid to the dramatic - read human - possibilities of the original, or how much they've been overwhelmed by technology's demands. It's as though rogue programs took over the production. Read full review
20
SalonAndrew O'HehirDec 17, 2010
That's the culture we live in, where the once-proscribed Pleasure Principle has become iron law and where the recycled, bloated, fish-belly emptiness of something like TRON: Legacy carries boredom to extravagant new heights. Read full review
12
PremiereJohn DeVoreDec 17, 2010
Tron: Legacy will only be enjoyed by men in their thirties and early forties searching for a Proustian moment. Read full review
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