Vital to the original, Tron himself, now lead henchman to Clu 2, is underused, unexplored and suddenly and unbelievably shifting sides in “Tron: Legacy.”Īnd perhaps, worst of all, the effects used to make Bridges appear almost 30 years younger look terrible and cheap - as though they were a last-minute replacement for a technique that went wrong. Maybe he’s been too long on his own Grid, but Jeff Bridges, who won the Oscar this year for “Crazy Heart,” is more Big Lebowski than big-time computer genius, dropping mumblings of actualization that make you want to take his bong away.Īdd to that thin gruel of a potentially creepy romance between Sam with Quorra, Flynn’s house warrior and sole survivor of a rogue program race that Clu 2, also played by Bridges, wiped out to solidify his evil rule over the Grid, and you are left with characters who seem to do very little. The relationship between the long absent Flynn and his now grown son Sam is a bit too Co-Dependency 101. Tron: Legacy is currently streaming on Disney Plus.Kosinski, a former architecture professor and commercial director, has created a visually arresting digital world but, except for an appearance by Michael Sheen channeling his best Ziggy Stardust and Joel Grey, it lacks heart, stakes and weight.

(Unless it’s Tron 3, of course, which shouldn’t be made without a reunited Daft Punk.) Regardless, I think it illustrates the potential of this type of fusion, and I would be willing to see more of it in films to come. Perhaps it was due to the film’s disappointing financial performance, or just the lightning-in-a-bottle union of styles between the artist and the film, but this instance has not been replicated in recent years.

This is surprising to me, given the overwhelming and almost cult acclaim Daft Punk’s Tron: Legacy soundtrack has accumulated. Daft Punk has since disbanded in the years following Legacy’ s release, and they did not produce music for any other films.Īctually, since Legacy, no film has utilized a popular artist in the same way for an original score. The band’s style blended perfectly with the aesthetic of the film, and they were able to make it sound unique enough from their standalone music to feel natural in the film. Tron: Legacy represented the perfect mash-up of a popular artist with an original film score composition. Much of the positive critical reception the film received was dedicated to the original score, which went on to be nominated at the 2012 Grammy Awards. Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, one-half of the duo, stated at one point that “Tron was cut to the music” from the start. They proved to be a perfect match for the film, especially given their inclination to pair music with visuals. When they agreed to score Tron: Legacy, Daft Punk took a direction that was slightly different then their normal productions by combining their typical electronic sound with that of orchestral music, to provide a more cinematic feel. The pair were chosen specifically because director Joseph Kosinksi wanted to “try something fresh and different,” while still honoring continuity from the synth-filled, futuristic soundtrack of Tron (dir. Joseph Kosinksi, 2010), created by the French electronic duo Daft Punk.

But none of these have struck the same chord of success that was the score of Tron: Legacy (dir. Spike Jonez, 2013), or RZA’s production of the original music for Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (dir. Some examples of this would include Arcade Fire’s composition of the score for Her (dir. Sometimes, the crossover between popular music and film score is less of a career transition for artists and more of a one-off instance.

Tron legacy soundtrack analysis