TR Review: The Art of Tron Legacy
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?This may come as a shock to you people, but I’m a little excited about this Tron: Legacy movie. I know, I’ve been hiding it pretty well. So when I was offered a chance to review The Art of Tron: Legacy book, I took it — less to inform you readers about the merits of the book, and more to get my grubby monkey paws on it. I’m sure you understand.
Happily, there’s not really a conflict of interest because the book is awesome, and you should know this. I’m not just saying that because I’m a Tron-obsessed fanboy; I mean, the book includes pictures of Tron: Legacy and I like Tron: Legacy, so certainly the odds of me liking it are pretty decent. But the art — from the concept art, to the original Tron designs that inspired them, to the computer designs, to stills from the movie — are presented large and beautifully. The books covers the sets, the vehicles, the characters and more. The art is gorgeous, at least if you like Tron. Hell, I think it’s worth it for one particular shot of Jeff Bridges and Clu — I know some of the trailer footage of young CG Jeff Bridges has looked less than perfect, but this picture of the two literally made me gasp.
The book also talks about the making of the look of the movie, and it’s really well done in giving cool tidbits that aren’t obvious — like that Syd Mead’s original design for the lightcycles actually had the riders exposed, so the Legacy lightcycles are close to how the original Tron filmmakers wanted them to look. There’s a lot more cool details like that (I don’t want to spoil them).
But speaking of, the book has a few spoilers in terms of when certain scenes take place in the movie, as well as showing off a few vehicles that haven’t shown up in the trailers, but nothing too crazy. It has nothing about the plot of the ending, definitely. If you want to wait until after you see the movie, I understand. But if you enjoy Tron: Legacy even half as much as I do — and I know that’s still a lot — definitely check it out, either now or later. It’s only $26 right now at Amazon.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.