Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 13 years and 4 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

Ever since I saw the first trailer back in July of 2009 I’ve been waiting for this weekend. Last night, my daughter and I watched the original “TRON” together and then caught the matinee of “TRON Legacy” this afternoon.

I wasn’t sure how the original 1982 movie would play for her. She likes playing video games and enjoyed the “Star Wars” movies so I figured TRON was worth a shot (I will admit I had the ulterior motive of hoping she would like it so I wouldn’t have to go to the new movie alone). It took some explaining that this was taking place inside a computer but she took to it pretty quickly. It had been a long time since I had watched it myself (probably around 2002 when the 20th anniversary DVD was released). I spotted a Pac Man easter egg I had never seen before and my daughter spotted a Hidden Mickey!

Watching the original the night before was a good idea as it really had us tuned into the sequel in terms of the backstory and characters.

I spotted a lot of nods to the original in “Legacy”:

• “Now that’s a big door.”
• Sam’s home had a shipping container with “Dumont” written on it
• Flynn’s old handheld electronic game was still on his sofa at the arcade
• Dillinger’s old touchscreen desktop was in the basement of the arcade
• “Greetings, programs!”
• the computer voice explaining the identity disc reads the same instructions as Sark’s speech in the original
• the Bit tchotchkes on Flynn’s mantle
• Clu’s warship closely resembled Sark’s carrier
• the trip to the portal on the “train” looked like the Solar Sailer sequence
• “I fight for the users!”
• I’m sure there were plenty more I missed …

I loved the action sequences and the effects … really fantastic stuff! The new light cycle battle was probably my favorite part of the movie not only because of the visual FX but also thanks to Daft Punk’s amazing soundtrack (they had a cameo in the End of Line Club, by the way). There were tons of great vehicles in the movie too: the classic Recognizers and light cycles (but not enough tanks!) and then the new stuff like Quorra’s “all-terrain car” and the light jets (another cool sequence).

But in between all of that action were a lot of slow scenes. I didn’t really care for the story much (but I won’t get into that here). There were also too many similarities to other movies that took me out of the whole thing (beware, possible spoilers below!):

• Flynn’s control of the Grid and “Creator” status reminded me of Neo in “The Matrix”
• lots of Matrix-like “bullet time” sequences
• Clu’s army of programs looked like a scene from “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones”
• another Star Wars reference: as the Flynn’s and Quorra escape in the light jet and are pursued by Clu’s light jets, Quorra says “here they come!” and Sam goes to a gun turret for the ensuing battle. This is just like the Millennium Falcon’s escape from the Death Star in “Star Wars” when Leia warns of the incoming TIE fighters and Luke and Han man the turrets.
• Rinzler‘s/Tron’s overcoming Clu’s brainwashing to save the Flynns at the end reminded me of Darth Vader’s change of heart at the end of “Return of the Jedi” when he kills the emperor to save his son
• Kevin Flynn acted a lot like one of Jeff Bridges’ other characters, The Dude from “The Big Lebowski” (“bio-digital jazz, man!”)

I dunno … I wanted to love it (I’ve been waiting for so long) but ended up just liking it. There were enough loose ends to suggest a possible TRON 3. Knowing Disney, if “Legacy” does well enough I’m sure they’ll take another dip in the well and not wait 28 years this time.

My daughter enjoyed it, though, and that’s more important to me (she was the only girl in the theater!). Maybe she’ll have some of the same fond memories of seeing it in the theater with me as I do of seeing “TRON” in the theater with my dad back in ’82. Her favorite character? Quorra, of course.

End of line.