First, you don't really need to have seen the original Tron, in order to "follow" the sequel. If you know nothing more than its IMDB synopsis, the opening of Legacy does a great job of providing enough backstory to get you going.
I should say that I didn't care that much for the original Tron. It was trying to do something unique, but the VFX technology wasn't quite where it needed to be, in order to support that effort, and there are times that, to be blunt, I thought the characters were just a bit to "squirrelly". I like my SciFi (and/or fantasy) when things are a bit more tense/serious, and Tron didn't seem to express that feeling.
What makes Legacy work for me is that it sets a completely different tone, from the outset. It's a much more emotionally darker film, and the main characters are pretty much in peril, throughout the whole film. It has two things going for it, from the beginning. It has a good storyline, built around a son, trying to understand what happened to his father years ago; and today's VFX are up to the task of providing a strikingly different digital world, as compared to the original.
But there's also a "third rail" that adds an unexpected boost to the film, and that's the Daft Punk soundtrack, which continuously drives the "feeling" of the film. That's even more true, if you have a subwoofer-laden sound system that can fully "express" DP's bass-infused score. Put simply, there's a lot of the film that you can simply "feel in your bones", which adds a whole other layer to what you see on the screen.
The IMDB synopsis, and minimal plot detail above, is enough to know going in. Providing more detail would just be spoilers.
In summary, there is a solid, deeply personal story arc, intermixed with some great action sequences, all supported by an especially engrossing soundtrack that compliments the story perfectly.
(For anyone still lucky enough to have a 3D set, the 3D blu-ray version is worth the money. The flim is 2D, for the short period that it is in the real world, but the 3D kicks in when Sam is transported into the digital world, i.e. "the grid", which serves to give it a far more unique appearance, to set it apart from reality.)
I should say that I didn't care that much for the original Tron. It was trying to do something unique, but the VFX technology wasn't quite where it needed to be, in order to support that effort, and there are times that, to be blunt, I thought the characters were just a bit to "squirrelly". I like my SciFi (and/or fantasy) when things are a bit more tense/serious, and Tron didn't seem to express that feeling.
What makes Legacy work for me is that it sets a completely different tone, from the outset. It's a much more emotionally darker film, and the main characters are pretty much in peril, throughout the whole film. It has two things going for it, from the beginning. It has a good storyline, built around a son, trying to understand what happened to his father years ago; and today's VFX are up to the task of providing a strikingly different digital world, as compared to the original.
But there's also a "third rail" that adds an unexpected boost to the film, and that's the Daft Punk soundtrack, which continuously drives the "feeling" of the film. That's even more true, if you have a subwoofer-laden sound system that can fully "express" DP's bass-infused score. Put simply, there's a lot of the film that you can simply "feel in your bones", which adds a whole other layer to what you see on the screen.
The IMDB synopsis, and minimal plot detail above, is enough to know going in. Providing more detail would just be spoilers.
In summary, there is a solid, deeply personal story arc, intermixed with some great action sequences, all supported by an especially engrossing soundtrack that compliments the story perfectly.
(For anyone still lucky enough to have a 3D set, the 3D blu-ray version is worth the money. The flim is 2D, for the short period that it is in the real world, but the 3D kicks in when Sam is transported into the digital world, i.e. "the grid", which serves to give it a far more unique appearance, to set it apart from reality.)