I shouldn’t have to remind you of my geekness. It should go without saying that I’m one of those guys who really loved TRON back in the 80’s. I actually owned a TRON action figure and a light-cycle! And I loved it despite the weak story line, the laughable (even for the 80’s) black-light special effects, and the critical and box office beatings it took. But, guess what. Geeks like me are in charge now. Take that you sappy, 80’s, Hollywood establishment that tried ever so hard to keep sci-fi geeks in the corner for years before finally making a fortune from us. Yeah. So there. (Hrmm.)

Anyway, my wonderful and loving wife does recognize my geekness and as such volunteered to suffer through TRON’s reboot with me on opening night. There was no long line of guys in throw-back costumes made of Under Armor and Christmas lights (thank God), but the theater was full of pudgy 30-something nerds who gushed and pumped their thumb-tucked fists every time some homage was paid to the original (which was about every five minutes).

Much like the original, the story line is not going to win any praise. There’s some attempt in the preamble to set up the back story, but it’s executed about as well as a middle school creative writing essay.

Also in the first five minutes, we are introduced to George Lucas’ dream of live-action CGI characters with a 1982 rendering of Jeff Bridges playing opposite a very human 10-year-old. Ten years ago, I would have been completely blown away by it, but here in post-Avatar 2010, it’s just not ready for prime time. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a technological marvel, but as my computer animation professor taught me back in the mid-90’s, CGI can not compete with reality because your viewers have had their whole life to learn how a human looks and moves. This is why motion capture CGI looks “right” when fully animated CGI looks like a cartoon. In this case, the CGI Bridges was more of a distraction than a stand-in actor with clever editing would have been.

Obviously, the real bread and butter of any movie in this genre is the action, and this movie nails it. The disc battles, the light-cycle duels, even some nifty, Matrix-esque, hand-to-hand combat all comes off great, if a little over the top.

And, naturally, there is the hot girl in tights who can kick butt, which also was pretty well done. Rest assured, the next ComiCon will be flooded with TRON girls sporting their glowing jumpsuits and crooked hair. Several times during the movie, I thought, “Aw jeez. That whole ‘my stylist was high on coke at my last appointment’ page-boy-with-crooked-bangs look is really going to catch on, isn’t it?”

There’s something else this movie has that seems have become a requirement for the genre. A sequel. Now, I don’t have any Hollywood insider news, but there were so many intentionally loose ends in this script, they may as well have set up a booth in the lobby to sell tickets to the sequel. And, if I’m honest, I’d probably buy a pair.

To me, though, the weakest point of the whole film is Jeff Bridges. And seeing how he is two main characters and the strongest tie-back to the original, that’s pretty bad. The aforementioned CGI face aside, the performance just wasn’t convincing. The “old guy” Bridges seems to be shooting for that wise, old, Obi-Wan character, but he completely misses it and comes off more like the Big Lebowski on Medicare. He’s got this whole “touch the sky,” Hindu thing going, and actually says, “Dude,” enough times that I fully expected to see John Goodman pull up in an beat-up Torino and smashing stuff with a crowbar.

So, to the real question I must answer for this to be as titled: a review. Is it good? Well, kinda. It’s a fun ride, stuffed with nostalgia. It’s pretty brainless and completely predictable. But if you’re in the mood for some good ol’ geek fun, yeah, you should see it. In other words, 3 grins.