The sky above Leicester Square was bathed in a dazzling neon blue light display last Sunday evening as The Empire played host to the premiere of the eagerly anticipated state-of-the-art geek-tastic blockbuster Tron: Legacy.
The film (which opens on 17 December) is the follow-up to Disney’s then ground-breaking sc-fi adventure from 1982. The original wasn’t a huge box office success upon release, but has since garnered a strong cult following, which was enough to convince the studio that their property may be worth revisiting.
The sequel begins a number of years after the original, where 7 year-old Sam Flynn is visited by father Kevin (Jeff Bridges), a video games wizard and creator of the original virtual reality world from the first film. Little Sam awakes the next morning to discover his father has seemingly vanished off the face of the earth.
The action then takes us to 20 years after the disappearance, where Sam (Garret Hedlund), now in his late twenties and something of a technical genius himself, receives word of a mysterious pager message, the source of which appears to have come from his father’s old videogame arcade. Soon Sam himself is plunged into the same digital universe his Dad has been enslaved in for decades.
Music-wise, the makers of Tron: Legacy have managed to score somewhat of a coup by procuring the talents of French electro duo Daft Punk to produce the soundtrack, and it was their pulsating retro-sounding beeps and beats which greeted me as I made my way up the appropriately blue-covered carpet, where the stars of the film (Jeff Bridges and Olivia Wilde) and director Joseph Kosinski were being interviewed and addressing the fans who’d braved the cold to show up. The sub-zero temperature even failed to discourage singer Alison Goldfrapp who decided to sport a white leotard for the occasion. Rather you than me Alison!
Inside the cinema foyer, guests were eager to rub shoulders with the near legendary Bridges, and a number of yells proclaiming “look, it’s The Dude!” (in reference to his role in the classic Coen brothers comedy noir The Big Lebowski) only added to the excitement that we were in the company of such a huge and well-respected Hollywood star.
Due to the number of guests, the premiere was split between two cinemas and although I didn’t have the opportunity to be in the screening where the stars and director were in attendance, seated three rows from the front, I had the chance to be fully immersed in the film’s impressively-realised digital netherworld (named The Grid). Even as the film began and the 3D digitised make-over of the iconic Disney Magic Kingdom logo flashed up, I realised that this was a new and exciting era for a studio whose live action product usually involves some kind of against-all-odds yarn, set within a real or fictitious sports story.
It may have been a cold night outside, but I had a warm feeling from the fun, popcorn escapism the evening offered.
Catch the Tron: Legacy Special on Sky Movies Modern Greats HD at 5:50pm on the 16 December.
