‘Tron: Legacy’ – 28 years later, grid glory finally achieved

The 1982 video game film “Tron” was decades ahead of its time. It just wasn’t very good.

So its belated sequel has to do more than entertain us. It must retain the original’s premise while proving the story was worth continuing into the 21st century.

“Tron: Legacy” does both while raising the bar on special effect features – again. “Legacy” serves up a startling new realm unlike any seen on screen before. Add Jeff Bridges – and his computerized doppelganger – and you have a sequel that not only trumps the original but gives a sense of purpose to the franchise.

It’s also sloppy and hell bent on borrowing moments from other sci-fi franchises, but computer programs often have a glitch or two.

“Tron: Legacy” starts in 1989, the year video game guru Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) went missing. His son Sam (played as an adult by Garrett Hedlund) goes on to inherit poppa’s Encom company but takes no pleasure in the gig.

His wanderlust – and a mysterious page – lures him back in Flynn’s Arcade where he’s accidentally zapped into the video game landscape known as the grid. It’s a small alternate universe after all, as Kevin is reunited with his father. Kevin Flynn has been living in the grid for decades, acting as a counterbalance against his evil twin, Clu – voiced by Bridges but brought to life by computer animation.

Father and son now must find a way to go back home without letting Clu follow their trail. His growing army could spell trouble back on Earth.

“Tron: Legacy” delivers the light cycle races and disk battles longtime fans demand, but it’s the strength of the performers that grounds the dizzying visuals. Bridges lapses into Dude-speak far too often, and the script doesn’t really establish his Zen-like bona fides. But he’s a compelling presence all the same, one a film top-heavy with scientific mumbo jumbo needs. Hedlund can be too headstrong at times, but he’s mostly a charismatic upgrade over lookalike Sam Worthington.

And the luminous Olivia Wilde turns a potentially throwaway role, that of the intriguing Quorra, into a character who becomes far more than just a grrl power distraction. Quorra isn’t a love interest, nor a child-like figure to Kevin. She’s her own woman, a fierce warrior who also serves as an all too human element in a film often lacking heart. She’s like Data from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and Pinocchio, a creature who longs to be more human and can think of nothing better than seeing a sunrise for the first time.

Like other quality sci-fi tales, “Tron: Legacy” brims with big ideas you’ll mull over long after the theater lights fade. Notions of intellectual property, the free and open exchange of ideas and responsibility weave their way into the narrative in a mostly satisfying way. The meaty themes often get bumped aside by the dialogue, so tin eared it’s as if George Lucas swiped the screenplay and took a Sharpie to it.

“Legacy” even offers up a dose of camp, courtesy of a bar owner named Castor (Michael Sheen) who looks suspiciously like Ziggy Stardust. It’s a throwaway role, but the comic relief proves invaluable. Heady sci-fi can be too serious for its own good.

Perhaps the biggest risk in “Tron: Legacy” involves the computer simulated Clu, which depicts the 30-something version of Bridges film fans knew from projects like “Starman” and the original “Tron.” The visuals aren’t perfect – at times you can feel how inauthentic Clu’s behavior really is. But it’s darn close, and a sign that we’ll be seeing life like digital humans on screen sooner than later.

“Tron: Legacy” isn’t a great science fiction feature. The film’s narrative isn’t clear-eyed, and that dialogue stops the story in its tracks a time or two. But it proves the concepts behind the original “Tron” deserved further fleshing out, and that some mediocre movies can yield satisfying sequels.

(Photo: Garrett Hedlund stars as the son of video game guru Kevin Flynn in “Tron: Legacy,” the belated sequel to the 1982 cult film. Disney)