By Peter Covino

Entertainment Editor

Game over.

Tilt.

Give me back me token.

Anyway you look at it (and that includes IMAX and 3D) Tron: Legacy is a disappointing endeavor.

What was supremely cool in the early 1980s, looks like more of the same in 2010, even with a jazzed up soundtrack by Daft Punk and state of the art special effects.

No, not even two Jeff Bridges are worth the price of an IMAX admission in one of the bigger disappointments of the holiday season.

Yes, there are moments when Tron Legacy does amaze. But then we get to see a what amounts to a replay of the same moments.

But that is not Tron Legacy's biggest problem. Somewhere along the way in the creation of this mega-monster budgeted film from Disney, they neglected to come up with a satisfying plot. Great effects aside, Tron: Legacy is pretty much one big  bore.

There is a story here, but director Joseph Kosinski and everyone else involved figured they would just dazzle us with special effects instead.

With many references to the original film, the most accessible part of Tron: Legacy is in its first chapters. Sam Flynn (son of Kevin Flynn/Jeff Bridges) hasn't seen his dad in years. Kevin Flynn, a Bill Gates of 1982, used to disappear for many a night mixing it up with that Tron game. But than one night he never game back. But his corporation lives on.

Flash forward to 2010, and the grown up Sam, who never had much use for the family business, discovers a secret passageway in his dad's old arcade business, right behind the Tron game, and faster than you can say, Uno!, he stumbles into a portal that takes him into the game world. (And like The Wizard of Oz, went from black and white to color, Tron goes from seemingly one dimensional to 3D at this point).

Sam is soon in the grid, doing battle in the virtual world  with Clu (the program who trapped his dad, and also played by Bridges in younger CGI form). He also finally is reunited with his dad, who looks from all appearances, like he has been on a zen holiday.

The rest of the film is occupied by father and son trying to find a way back to reality, before the portal closes and while Clu pursues Kevin, trying to get his “life disc” so he too can escape to the real world and with an army of rogue programs. And one ring will  rule them all. Whoops. Wrong movie.

It is really hard to find any kind of lasting connection with Tron: Legacy, but if  bright lights and set pieces, set against a very good soundtrack is all you need in a movie, you could do a lot worse.

Critic's ratiing; D

Rated: PG