One of our age’s problems with technology has been the difficulty of finding a suitable philosophy for the ownership and distribution of digital property. If you’re a traditionalist, you worry about keeping such property guarded against piracy and, thus, free distribution. If you’re a freedom-of-information subscriber, you advocate the open distribution of such property, arguing that its historically limited distribution is the result of outdated business practice. TRON: Legacy, a highly stylized action/adventure film, is a metaphorical celebration of the possibilities offered by a fully utilized, fully open digital world, and a bemoaning of the artificial limiting of information. As such, it advocates the free flow of information with the strength of some of our most powerful filmmaking technology, but its action-oriented and visual elements are so enthralling as to distract from the fact that many of those watching (and many more behind the production and distribution of the film) would likely balk at its ideas if it stated in clear terms.

The film is, of course, the sequel to the technically groundbreaking TRON, which came out in 1982. In that film, a computer programmer named Kevin Flynn found himself zapped into a computer system and made to fight gladiatorial games against computer programs personified as human characters while he attempted to escape back to the real world. In TRON: Legacy the idea is much the same. Kevin, now grown and with a son, suddenly disappears one day. His son, Sam, a brilliant but unmotivated programmer, years later unknowingly finds himself at the seat from which his father was first lasered into the system, known as “the Grid.” Sam is then pulled into the same computer world and discovers that his dad has been trapped inside the system, which is now run by a program called “Clu.” Clu, in an attempt to create the perfect system, has established a tyrannical state of order over the other programs and even eradicated many of them. Sam now has to fight in the contests for which the Grid seems to have such a proclivity while he attempts to free himself and Kevin back into the real world once again.

Almost immediately upon entering the Grid, Sam is thrown into the trademark contests of TRON. In one such contest, he faces off against opponents in a one-on-one dodgeball-like game played with deadly flying discs. In another, he is pitted against others in an arena in which contestants drive motorcycles that leave a wall of light in their trail. You crash into an opponent’s light wall, you die. The idea behind these scenes is that in modern society, man proves his superiority not through physical fitness but through his prowess in video game-like settings.

Legacy does not simply allow this video game concept to play out literally; it also provides such an awesome feel to the contests that it evokes a sense of greatness from those who participate and win. In the disc game, participants twirl through the air, bounce their weapons off walls, and run on ceilings to best their opponents. In the light cycle contest, they demonstrate a near supernatural ability to turn at an instant and to anticipate their opponents’ moves even while moving at blurring speeds. Many of these scenes occur near the beginning of the film, so it’s a given that Sam is going to come out on top. They are filmed with such intensity, however, that our certainty of his victory does not detract from the thrill of watching him play, and the fact that these are games does nothing to diminish their urgency.

The “freedom of information” idea first surfaces during the film’s real-world opening, when we see greedy executives at ENCOM, the software company of which Kevin was previously the CEO, boasting amongst themselves about the closed and secure nature of their recent software release, a philosophy directly opposed to that of Kevin. When Sam meets up with is father in the Grid, the latter bemoans the state of the system, explaining that it used to be “open, free” but that now, thanks to Clu, it has devolved into a wasteland in which programs are kept under strict rule and vast possibilities go unrealized. As much as this setup serves as a way to present the Flynns with a peril to escape, it is also a metaphor for a world in which information is locked away by any means -- economically, legally, or otherwise. The result is emptiness where there could be prosperity.

This concept is further explored through the film’s analysis of Clu. When Kevin created Clu, he assigned him one directive: to make the system perfect. With this programming, Clu suddenly began to transform the Grid into its current state. All programs -- all information -- are kept in prison-like order, and nothing with any ability beyond Clu’s comprehension is allowed to live. The underlying problem that caused Clu’s destructive approach to handling the Grid was his very directive: the attempt to make it perfect. The world is an imperfect place, and, as Kevin discovers, we don’t know what perfect is. We have never seen perfection. Therefore, any attempt to create a perfect world, whether within a computer or through attempts to restrict the flow of information, results in a calculated lockdown of activity. There may be uncertainty in a world of fully free information, but when we attempt to control its flow, Legacy posits, we succeed only in enforcing a type of tyranny that disallows the world to see its full potential. With the movie’s uncannily coincidental timing of release in the midst of the Julian Assange / Wikileaks debacle, I’m surprised it hasn’t stirred more controversy in this regard.

Visually, Legacy is every bit as stunning as its marketing hyped it to be. Though it remains true to the characteristically ‘eighties neon-on-black aesthetic of the original TRON, the film also somehow manages to look modern. The design of the costumes, vehicles, technology, and architecture in the Grid is techno-sheik, and the world’s neon/black color scheme creates an effect similar to that of watching fireworks. The visual appeal is triple-fold: we are entertained by the visuals for what they signify to the plot, for the physical designs with which they are imbued, and for their sheer dynamics of color and brightness. Even during the weaker points of the story, practically every image can still be appreciated on the surface.

The weak points are found almost exclusively during roughly the middle third of the film, the majority of Sam and Kevin’s attempt to escape after Sam has competed in several games. During this portion of the movie, the story descends into exposition mode, in which Kevin seems to spend all of his screen time explaining to Sam the workings, rules, and history of the Grid. Occasionally Sam will interact with other characters and encounter a few plot twists, but none of the twists affect our understanding of the film and its world. They simply provide more obstacles for Sam and Kevin to overcome. There are, however, frequent action sequences even during this stretch of time. With that action and the consistency of the visuals, there is no point at which Legacy becomes dull.

Garrett Hedlund does not have a difficult task as the actor playing Sam, as the character does not require depth. This is not a criticism of the writing; the psychology and nuances of the character are simply not vital to Legacy’s story. He does, however, handle the role well, with a never-flinching attitude, taking on challenges with the same confidence he has when hacking in the real world. Olivia Wilde plays the part of Quorra, a program that lives with Kevin and is eager to learn about the outside world. Though the character is somewhat simplistic, Wilde perfectly delivers a perpetual hint of childlike ignorance and fascination without ever falling into cliché naïveté. She is not, as can reasonably be expected, a mere pretty face.

It is Jeff Bridges, though, who delivers the standout performance. Bridges played Kevin in the first TRON, and here he picks up the role of the now-aged character as if he actually had been living in the Grid for the past twenty-eight years. He seamlessly combines a zen-like acceptance of his entrapment in the system with a passionately held desire for its potential to be realized in the way he had originally intended. His affection for Sam is simultaneously protective and encouraging, realistic and hopeful. Brilliantly, he adds the touch of ending many of his lines addressing Sam with “Man,” which (partially by reminding us of the actor’s roles in both TRON and The Big Lebowski) reveals a specific cool, one that Kevin retained from his younger years and that he seems to have been cultivating in more subdued tones ever since.

As laudable as the first TRON is for its technical achievements and originality of ideas, even its most ardent fans cannot deny that its story is frequently weak. With that foundation, director Joseph Kosinski had to figure out a way to make TRON: Legacy relevant and fun, knowing that there are some shortcomings built into its story. He went for the obvious route -- astounding special effects -- but he also updated the original’s imagining of the nature of the digital world. Made in a time when man’s triumph is directly correlated with his ability to work within and advance the capabilities of technology, this film is a high-energy argument for the freedom of that which empowers us more than anything else: information. Since the world can’t be perfect, it’s best to make it open.

… and it also doesn't hurt to be futuristically styled.