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Blu-ray Review: Tron: Legacy
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Tron Legacy blu-rayTron: Legacy/Tron: The Original Classic
5-Disc Blu-ray | 4-Disc Blu-ray | 2-Disc Blu-ray | DVD
Directed by Joseph Kosinski/Steven Lisberger
Starring Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, Garrett Hedlund, Bruce Boxleitner
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Released date: April 5, 2011

If you want to see my opinion of Tron: Legacy, go ahead and check out my original review of the film’s theatrical release. My opinion of the movie hasn’t really changed since I originally wrote the review. To sum up, it is a fun and visually amazing movie, but it is not as good as it could have been. However, now I’m here to talk about the Blu-ray version of Tron: Legacy, in all its five discs of glory, and I can’t recommend it enough because it looks great at home, and because it includes the Blu-ray version of Tron: The Original Classic. The transfer on both of the Blu-rays look amazing, and if you’ve got a high end system, this is going to be a disc that will show it off. The movie is shown in its IMAX aspect ratio, so it doesn’t quite fill a standard screen, but that doesn’t take anything away. I was blown away by how great Tron: Legacy looked at home. Unfortunately, I am not set up for home 3D yet, so I can’t speak to what that looks like, but I have to assume that this is going to be a film that takes full advantage of that technology.

I do wish there were a few more extras on the disc, but I’m rarely satisfied with extras (I’m greedy like that). There’s no directors’ commentary, and not a lot of in depth info about the special effects. There’s one short feature about the cast, and another about the making of Tron: Legacy, but it’s mostly surface information. I knew that the suits they used to make the movie were supposed to be kind of high tech, but they only give a little bit of info about it. There’s also a short preview of the Tron: Uprising animated series (coming to Disney XD, and it looks kind of cool); a music video for “Derezzed,” one of the Daft Punk songs on the soundtrack; and then a short bit about the recording of the crowd noises at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con. There’s a whole world of information that could be shown, and the disc just feels a little light.

The coolest special feature is the Disney Second Screen. Second Screen is basically just what it sounds like. By installing an app on your laptop or iPad, the viewer is able to see behind the scenes footage and production artwork and stuff like that as the movie plays. It’s a whole picture-in-picture kind of thing, that is a bit distracting, but if you’re into this kind of look into the making of the film, it’ll be worth the effort. There are a few cool bits throughout, and it makes up for the lack of content on the disc.

The last special feature on the disc is a short titled “The Next Day: Flynn Lives.” This acts as a kind of second ending to Tron: Legacy, but doesn’t necessarily set up a sequel any more than the film already does. It’s more of a fun Easter Egg for fans of the original Tron, as there’s nothing that is impactful on either Tron: Legacy or any possible sequel that may be coming. There’s one line in it that sets up Cillian Murphy as a possible villain for a possible (or likely at this point) sequel, but that’s about it. It’s not as big a deal as the commercials would lead you to believe.

If you’re looking for any reason to pick up this set, look no further than the Blu-ray version of Tron: The Original Classic. The first Tron still holds up to the term classic, as it was way ahead of its time, perhaps too far ahead of its time. With the Blu-ray transfer, Tron has never looked better. Yes, the computer graphics are very much of their time, but they have never looked as crisp as they do here. Fans of Tron are going to be blown away by how good the movie looks. I’m very impressed with the job that Disney has done in cleaning up Tron for this release. Even if you didn’t like Tron: Legacy that much, you can still find the classic Tron on a separate Blu-ray.

The extras for the Tron Blu-ray are basically the same as the DVD release, and they are completely satisfying. You get a director’s commentary, and loads of behind the scenes info on the development of Tron from storyboards and production art to the finished product. There is a ton of information here and it is great for fans of Tron. There are a couple of new features that were not on the DVD. One is a short titled “The Tron Phenomenon” that looks at how the movie affected a generation. The second feature is called “Photo Tronology,” and has the director of Tron, Steven Lisberger, and his son going into the Disney archives to look through photos taken during the original production, and it is a charming collection of anecdotes and remembrances.

The thing to look at when buying Tron and Tron: Legacy for home viewing is the sheer number of options that are available. I’m looking at Amazon, and there are no less than 7 different versions available, between DVD or Blu-ray, with or without the original Tron, original Tron by itself, or fancy schmancy collectors editions. There are a lot of options out there, so choose wisely. If you have Blu-ray, I could recommend the 5-disc version I got to review, which has Tron: Legacy in both the standard Blu-ray and 3D Blu-ray, as well as a DVD copy for watching in the car, the Blu-ray of the first Tron, and finally a digital copy to watch on your iPod/iPad. However, it’s actually cheaper right now to buy the 4-disc version of Tron: Legacy, and then buy the Tron Blu-ray separately. So check out all your options and figure out which works best for you.

As a complete package, the 5-disc Blu-ray edition of Tron: Legacy is well worth the price of purchase; however you decide to buy it, there’s a lot to watch and the picture quality on these discs really shows of the technology. I do wish Tron: Legacy was a better movie, but the inclusion of the original makes up for any of its short comings. I think this is a must buy, and I’m giving it a 5 out of 5. Now it’s time for me to get back into the grid. See you there.

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