The movie was pushing the limits of current naturalistic CG so it definitely wasn't a budget issue. People who guess that Tron wasn't a star due to CG face issues (one guy at a time) are dead on.
Essentially, Tron Legacy, emphasis on the legacy part, is the end of Flynn's story that we never got to see. This is why, on a conceptual level, I'm a big fan of the movie. I felt it did something a lot more clever than may be apparent on the surface.
Essentially, at the end of Tron, we see the potential for a greater adventure. This hotshot young technologist, a budding idealist who dislikes corporate power games, has been given a mega corporation, the world's most advanced (and evidently secret) technology, and has just learned that another dimension exists. One created by, and powered by, human technology. There's no way that Flynn would have just settled in as the big boss, drew paychecks, and enjoy cocktails. Flynn was destined to start some serious shit.
In Legacy, we see what is effectively the actual "Tron 2" in the flashbacks. A complex history of Flynn's adventures was mapped out before Tron Legacy even began shooting. The crazy stuff Flynn got up to is assumed to have all happened, years worth of it, through the rest of the 1980s. But then, Flynn suddenly vanishes and it all went off the rails.
In a symbolic sense, it feels as if it mirrors Tron as a series, and how after a unique and promising beginning, Tron was buried, hardly referenced again for decades. Only a few hardcore faithful remembered the film, as well as people who pushed the edge of technology in real life. Tron was something lost to mainstream awareness, yet had deep and ongoing effect on the shape of the future. Computer animation, design; even the concept of what "cyberspace" was and looked like all came from Tron.
Likewise, in Legacy, we see that an underground movement kept the memory of Flynn alive, obsessed with his book and projections about how technology would change the future.
As a film, Legacy is the coda to all this. We find out what happened to Flynn, and his personal story comes to a conclusion. His creation, CLU 2, represents himself - the part of himself that we might have seen as his flawed side had we been there all along in the 80s to see further films or stories told. Legacy hinges on Flynn literally facing his other half in a showdown and settling the past.
In the Legacy short film that follows the next day and gives hints about where the story is going, there's a line from a member of the "Flynn lives" movement: "Then something amazing happened. Flynn came back. He was just a little younger."
This is obviously referring to Sam, who has inherited his father's distrust of authority and anarchistic, technological space cowboy streak. There's all sorts of potential for a Tron 3. Naturally, with Flynn's story at an end, nothing (including budget) is in the way of Tron himself returning in a starring role (alongside Sam and Quorra, of course).
Even if the technology for de-aging Bruce is only on the level of Legacy, I think it's acceptable considering the goal and what's being achieved. But with the way the science of computer imaging progresses, any CG-enabled Tron would probably be another degree more naturalistic than young Flynn and CLU in Legacy.
FYI, one technological reason for the limits in CLU 2's face in Legacy is that some CG de-aging techniques involve a CG matte super-imposed over the actor's actual face. This blends the real and effect together. Unfortunately, Jeff Bridges could not use this technique in Legacy for CLU or his younger self, because 1: he no longer has the build of his 1989 body, and 2: CLU was required to perform a number of acrobatic actions with his face clearly visible. So Bridges uses the facial motion capture technology as seen in Avatar to record lines and expressions, and his data was imposed over a stand-in stunt actor who portrayed young Flynn and CLU from the neck down.
Essentially, Tron Legacy, emphasis on the legacy part, is the end of Flynn's story that we never got to see. This is why, on a conceptual level, I'm a big fan of the movie. I felt it did something a lot more clever than may be apparent on the surface.
Essentially, at the end of Tron, we see the potential for a greater adventure. This hotshot young technologist, a budding idealist who dislikes corporate power games, has been given a mega corporation, the world's most advanced (and evidently secret) technology, and has just learned that another dimension exists. One created by, and powered by, human technology. There's no way that Flynn would have just settled in as the big boss, drew paychecks, and enjoy cocktails. Flynn was destined to start some serious shit.
In Legacy, we see what is effectively the actual "Tron 2" in the flashbacks. A complex history of Flynn's adventures was mapped out before Tron Legacy even began shooting. The crazy stuff Flynn got up to is assumed to have all happened, years worth of it, through the rest of the 1980s. But then, Flynn suddenly vanishes and it all went off the rails.
In a symbolic sense, it feels as if it mirrors Tron as a series, and how after a unique and promising beginning, Tron was buried, hardly referenced again for decades. Only a few hardcore faithful remembered the film, as well as people who pushed the edge of technology in real life. Tron was something lost to mainstream awareness, yet had deep and ongoing effect on the shape of the future. Computer animation, design; even the concept of what "cyberspace" was and looked like all came from Tron.
Likewise, in Legacy, we see that an underground movement kept the memory of Flynn alive, obsessed with his book and projections about how technology would change the future.
As a film, Legacy is the coda to all this. We find out what happened to Flynn, and his personal story comes to a conclusion. His creation, CLU 2, represents himself - the part of himself that we might have seen as his flawed side had we been there all along in the 80s to see further films or stories told. Legacy hinges on Flynn literally facing his other half in a showdown and settling the past.
In the Legacy short film that follows the next day and gives hints about where the story is going, there's a line from a member of the "Flynn lives" movement: "Then something amazing happened. Flynn came back. He was just a little younger."
This is obviously referring to Sam, who has inherited his father's distrust of authority and anarchistic, technological space cowboy streak. There's all sorts of potential for a Tron 3. Naturally, with Flynn's story at an end, nothing (including budget) is in the way of Tron himself returning in a starring role (alongside Sam and Quorra, of course).
Even if the technology for de-aging Bruce is only on the level of Legacy, I think it's acceptable considering the goal and what's being achieved. But with the way the science of computer imaging progresses, any CG-enabled Tron would probably be another degree more naturalistic than young Flynn and CLU in Legacy.
FYI, one technological reason for the limits in CLU 2's face in Legacy is that some CG de-aging techniques involve a CG matte super-imposed over the actor's actual face. This blends the real and effect together. Unfortunately, Jeff Bridges could not use this technique in Legacy for CLU or his younger self, because 1: he no longer has the build of his 1989 body, and 2: CLU was required to perform a number of acrobatic actions with his face clearly visible. So Bridges uses the facial motion capture technology as seen in Avatar to record lines and expressions, and his data was imposed over a stand-in stunt actor who portrayed young Flynn and CLU from the neck down.