TRON: Legacy (4K UHD Review)
Director
Joseph KosinskiRelease Date(s)
2010 (September 16, 2025)Studio(s)
Sean Mailey Productions/Walt Disney Pictures (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)- Film/Program Grade: B-
- Video Grade: A-
- Audio Grade: A+
- Extras Grade: C-
Review
In the wake of the events of Steve Lisberger’s TRON (1983), Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) took over as CEO of ENCOM and sought to remake the existing Grid into a perfect utopia, with the help of TRON and CLU. In the real world, he had a son named Sam, while in the virtual one children of another sort appeared. But then one day and without warning, Flynn simply disappeared.
Now twenty years have passed. Sam (Garrett Hedlund) has become a loner, believing his father abandoned him. And his lack of interest in ENCOM, despite being its largest shareholder, has effectively ceded control of the industry’s biggest tech company to its board, despite the best efforts of Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) to keep the original spirit of the company alive.
But when Alan gets a mysterious text that was sent from Flynn’s arcade, he convinces Sam to investigate. And what Sam finds when he traces his father’s footsteps is beyond his wildest dreams: The Grid has indeed been remade. CLU (also Bridges) has taken over, and may be responsible for his father’s disappearance. And the key to unlocking the truth lies with a mysterious young woman named Quorra (Olivia Wilde, Rush, Don’t Worry Darling).
The first feature directed by Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick, F1), TRON: Legacy has long gotten something of a bad wrap. It’s not that the film itself is bad—it isn’t. The problem is that it failed to live up to the hype that preceded its release. The film’s viral marketing campaign began with a teaser at Comic-Con 2008, followed by an online and real world hunt for clues that led to a recreation of Flynn’s Arcade at Comic-Con 2009. Finally, the cast and director debuted the trailer at Comic-Con 2010, where Disney held an elaborate End of Line Club event for fans. But after all that build up, the film itself felt underwhelming.
The reality however, is that TRON: Legacy is really no better or worse than the original film storywise. While the cast here may be marginally less compelling, the film’s graphics are stunningly beautiful. TRON: Legacy is a big improvement on the original in sheer cinematic terms: Shots are more stylishly framed, there’s a good deal more movement within the frame and of the camera itself. The virtual world of the updated Grid is far more interesting and exquisitely designed. And let’s face it: The Daft Punk score is not only the best thing about this film, it’s one of the best film scores of the 21st century to date.
But the de-aging of Jeff Bridges as CLU is… well, it’s the very definition of “uncanny valley.” And after a promising start, the film’s pacing becomes just as glacial as its predecessor. A dinner scene between Sam, Quorra, and a much-aged Flynn has all the energy and emotion of the elderly Dave Bowman eating soup alone at the end of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Not even a visit to the End of Line Club, featuring a campy turn by Michael Sheen (Good Omens), can restore the film’s energy. This despite the fact that Bridges, Hedlund, and Wilde all give decent performances. And the ending of the film plays out like a video game—by design to be sure, but it means the emotional stakes never feel real.
Ultimately though, the real problem with TRON: Legacy is the same one that plagued the Star Wars Prequels and the more recent Disney+ Star Wars series too (apart from Andor): The more you film your actors in a virtual volume or in front of a green screen, the less your characters feel connected to the world they’re in, real or otherwise. And if you’re not very careful and/or very experienced at your filmmaking craft, the result can just seem lifeless.
TRON: Legacy was captured digitally by cinematographer Claudio Miranda (Top Gun: Maverick, F1) in the Redcode RAW codec at 1080p/24 resolution on HDCAM SR tape using Phantom HD, Red Custom Tron V-Raptor XL, and Sony CineAlta F35 cameras with Arri DNA and Zeiss Master Prime lenses. (Footage was also shot in 3D using the Fusion Camera System.) The film was finished as a 2K Digital Intermediate in a variable aspect ratio that shifts between 2.35:1 and 1.78:1 for select IMAX scenes (which this 4K disc preserves). For its release on Ultra HD, that 2K source was upsampled to 4K (possibly using AI) and graded for high dynamic range (compatible with both Dolby Vision and HDR10) in a process managed by The Walt Disney Film Restoration team with the supervision of Kosinski. It’s been encoded for release on a 66GB disc (though data rates vary wildly—probably not unexpected given the 1080p source).
The great surprise here is that the upsampled 4K image is almost shockingly good. Now, given that this film takes place in a largely virtual and digital environment, which is sleek and glossy by design, really the only chance for organic looking detail is in skin, hair, and costume textures. But those are impressive—a tad edgy at times perhaps, but any edge-enhancement that was baked into the original master has been well managed here. And as you’d expect, the real showstopper in this image is the HDR grading. Despite the 1080p/24 source, the good news is that HDCAM SR actually offers true 10-bit color (with 4:4:4 chroma subsampling), thus allowing the HDR grade to make more of a difference. The Grid has a strikingly monotone palette, but the expanded gamut renders many more different shades of black, blue-black, and gray. Shadows are deep indeed, with inky blacks, yet retain detail—Quorra’s hair is a prime example. But when the color pops, it really pops. And again, that glowing, luminous electrical energy effect is perfectly suited to HDR enhancement. No one should call this upsampled 4K image reference quality, but TRON: Legacy looks far better here than it has any damn right to.
[Editor’s Note: There were rumors prior to the disc’s release that the CLU de-aging effects in this film had either been redone, touched up, or otherwise improved during the remastering process. But after close comparison I see no evidence of it. If any such work has been done, it’s incredibly subtle. The uncanny valley remains.]
As with the original TRON (reviewed here in Ultra HD), this 4K disc includes its primary audio in a new English Dolby Atmos mix created by Audio Mechanics (from the previous sound files) that’s simply fantastic from start to finish. The soundstage is huge and highly immersive—big and wide up front, with aggressive use of the height and surround channels for music, sound effects, and atmospherics. Dialogue is crisp and clean. Bass is a bit more muscular this time. Staging is magnificent, with smooth and natural panning, nearly constant movement, and excellent depth in the imaging. So many things are impressive here! When Sam is prepared by the Sirens for his combat on the game Grid, you can hear the clicking of their heels approaching from the four corners of the sound field. Recognizers rumble overhead, light cycles surge up, down, and around as they change levels. The Daft Punk score has never sounded better, and it makes use of every single speaker in your system. This is a great Atmos mix. Additional audio options include English 2.0 Descriptive Audio, French, German, and Japanese 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, and Quebec French, Spanish, Castilian Spanish, Italian, Czech, and Polish 5.1 Dolby Digital. Subtitles are available in English for the Hearing Impaired, French, Quebec French, Latin Spanish, Castilian Spanish, German, Italian, Czech, Polish, Japanese, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish.
Disney and Sony’s new Ultra HD release is a 2-disc set, including the remastered film in 4K on UHD and also unremastered 1080p HD on Blu-ray (this is the exact same Blu-ray released by Disney in 2011). There are no extras on the 4K disc, but the Blu-ray includes the following:
- The Next Day: Flynn Lives Revealed (HD – 10:26)
- The Next Day Interactive Bonus Clips (HD – 9 clips – 11:40 in all)
- Easter Egg: The Dillinger Chat (HD – :40)
- Disney Second Screen Viewing Option
- What Is Disney Second Screen? (HD – :40)
- First Look at TRON: Uprising, the Disney XD Animated Series (HD – 1:15)
- Launching the Legacy (HD – 10:20)
- Visualizing TRON (HD – 11:46)
- Installing the Cast (HD – 12:04)
- Disc Roars (HD – 3:00)
- Daft Punk: Derezzed Music Video (HD – 2:58)
The Next Day: Flynn Lives Revealed short is worth viewing, as it gives you a taste of what comes next after the end of the film. When you get to the end of it, you’re shown an arcade “high scores” screen and have the option to enter various initials from the list shown. Doing so allows you to see additional bonus clips, including a significant Easter egg moment. (Enter DJR to watch that, or ALL to see all of the clips in sequence.) The rest of the extras are decent and worth watching, but don’t really amount to much. An audio commentary would have been appreciated at least, but there’s not one included. Nor is the previous Blu-ray 3D disc included, so be sure to hang onto that if you wish to keep it. You do at least get a Movies Anywhere Digital code on a paper insert in the Steelbook packaging. (Standard Amaray/Elite packaging is also available in the UK only.)
TRON: Legacy may not have been the box office success Disney hoped, nor was it the sequel some fans imagined. But while the original film has become a cult classic, this was never exactly blockbuster franchise material (though that hasn’t stopped Disney from trying to build one with a new sequel, Joachim Rønning’s TRON: Ares, which arrives in theaters next month). I must say though, rewatching the film for this review, I found myself enjoying Legacy more than I did the first time I experienced it back in 2010. It’s better than people give it credit for, and I hope its 4K Ultra HD release will allow fans to reappraise and appreciate it more with fresh eyes.
-Bill Hunt
(You can follow Bill on social media on Twitter, BlueSky, and Facebook, and also here on Patreon)