TRON Legacy Preview Night Review

10-29-2010

I had the good fortune tonight to take part in Tron Night, in anticipation of the release of Tron: Legacy on December 17, 2010. Much like “Avatar Day” last year, this was an opportunity to see several minutes (in this case, 23!) of Tron: Legacy before its theatrical release. And just like Avatar Day last year, tickets sold out for this very quickly. If you read my San Diego Comic Con wrap up article, then you already know how impressed I was with the footage shown. As a special bonus, the screenwriters Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis were on hand in my theatre to briefly talk about their labor of love to bring this long gestating idea to the big screen. “It all goes back to the fan response from the test footage shown at San Diego Comic Con three years ago!” One could tell that they were definitely fanboys of Tron and that their love of the original helped inspire their work on the sequel. They didn’t take questions but did toss out a few hats to the crowd (which actually light up!) and then presented the footage.

The opening was a brief onscreen typed thank you from director Joseph Kosinski. Then the music built up. Then my mind melted, once again. I’ll keep this as spoiler free as possible but what we saw were several completed scenes in sequence. The first scene was in Sam Flynn’s apartment where he gets a visit from (name withheld) who gives Sam the key to his father’s office at the old arcade. He then goes there and he…..(like I’m gonna tell you!)

The next scene is a rehash of when Sam if first captured and assigned to “games”. This scene has been leaked over the web and is the same scene I saw in San Diego, so I won’t rehash it here. After that, we get a scene of Disk Wars. This is the scene where the 3D really pays off as the discs are flying around the screen at such high speeds that you’d think the disks were going to ricochet and fly out at you.

Of course, what is Tron without the obligatory Light Cycle scene? This particular scene involves Sam escaping from the games and also introduces him to a new character which leads to a major discovery.