Cathedrals of Light: Tron and Tron: Legacy in 4K Restoration Reviewed

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There are films that are more than just entertainment, but something like the archaeology of the future. Disney's Tron from 1982 and its late, high-gloss sequel Tron: Legacy from 2010 definitely belong to this category. They are less a film series in the classic sense and more a fascinating technical and aesthetic game that, for years, showed us how we dreamed of, or built, the interface between humans and machines.

In this extensive review, we take a closer look at the new 4K restorations that Disney has released as streams and on Ultra HD Blu-ray (UHD). We investigate whether the digital polish has preserved the analog charm of the 1982 classic and how well the revision of the 2010 film, shot with stereoscopic 3D cameras, has succeeded. The English soundtracks of the films have also been remixed in Dolby Atmos. The German soundtracks remain in 5.1. For comparison, we also take a look at the unchanged Blu-ray versions.

Tron (1982) was the founding myth, the avant-garde statement of an industry that was ready to make the image itself an event. Tron: Legacy (2010) is the aesthetic perfection, a film of the senses that stylizes the rules of the original. Both films are indispensable in their own way: one for its soul of light and Kodalith flickers, the other for its muscularity of vectors and synth power. The duel between the organic, analog chemistry-based images of the original and the clinically clean, seemingly plagued by failed de-aging pipeline of the sequel reflects the technical development from the first home computers to the omnipotence fantasies of AI.

Before we get to the technology, we'll first take a look at the history of the two groundbreaking films on the following pages, whose sequel Tron: Ares is currently in theaters. You can find our review of Tron: Ares here.