Hold on. I didn't love Tron: Legacy quite as much as Dirk even though I should have. Jeff Bridges - one of my favorites. Tron - another favorite. Saw it for free (basically) - always starts a movie out on the plus side before it even begins. Movie theater ambience wasn't disturbed by people who don't know how to behave in public - another plus factor.
The special effects weren't that special for the most part. The story was pat and too predictable. The big sacrifice was totally not necessary and, in context with the development of the plot components that came in to play with that big sacrifice, was not even plausible.
Further, Tron came out in the early 1980s. Graphics and game play has much improved since then. True, the characters attempted through dialogue to justify the old graphics style to "The Grid." The characters even attempt to justify the lack of development to the creator's lack of understanding of perfection. However, the creator also states that hours in the cyber world is actually only a few minutes in real time. And, it is made clear that the programs are adept at learning and retaining their knowledge. While the light cycles were visually cool, the design and movement of the overall transport units was not all that exciting after their first apearance. Really? In about 19 years real time and much more in cyber time, that is the best this super smart graphics intensive program for its day could come up with?
The real world drama was pretty lame too. Poor little orphan boy with attitude grows up to have more attitude.
Production values were for the most part good except for the voices. Jeff Bridges sounds like he has marbles in his mouth - even in his younger versions; and the kid that plays his son sounds like he has a very deep voice that has been enhanced to make it deeper. The deep voice is good because I hear the deeper sounds better, but it also sounds unnatural. With all the technology we have available for super graphics, good CGI, and special effects, and because this story should have been overloaded with the super good stuff and it wasn't, the production values get a mediocre mark. Further, while the music was authentic to take us back to a certain time period, there wasn't much of it. And, if they are going to sexy up the women, they need to sexy up the men too. Lastly, Bruce Boxleitner was not put to good use. He may be obviously older than dirt but us old gals still find him sort of a hottie.
So, what was good about this movie? Not much. Sorry. Just a B movie.
