With just under two months to go, Disney is facing a somewhat difficult marketing process with this December’s Tron Legacy.  How do you promote a sequel to a film like Tron that is 28 years old, and at best, is considered a cult classic?  Well, it seems they stole from the best, and re-purposed Fox’s Avatar Day idea of screening 20+ minutes of footage for free, and called it appropriately enough - Tron Night.

Heading into the local AMC Theater in White Marsh, home to an IMAX 3D theater, the audience turn out wasn’t quite what I expected, but stronger than what was seen at Avatar Day, a theater that was roughly 3/4ths full.  But no matter the turn out, once the glasses were on and the lights went down one thing was for sure - the buzz from these screenings were going to be overwhelmingly positive.

Starting with a 2D sequence in the real world, where Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) is discussing the possible fate of his long missing father with Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner, reprising his role from the original Tron), we are quickly thrown into the world of the Grid, and things have changed significantly since we last saw it in 1982.

Without going into deep spoiler territory, the next twenty minutes were absolutely riveting.  Mixing light cycle races, an exciting chase sequence with an all terrain vehicle called a Light Runner, disc battles, the fate of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) and Olivia Wilde being somehow even more attractive as freedom fighter Quorra, it was an extraordinary display of genre-pushing filmmaking.

Far too often in movies, when you look at the concept art, you feel the disconnect of what the creators envisioned and what makes the screen, but if these 23 minutes were any indication, there was little to no compromise, and it’s an absolute joy to look at.  The sound too was particularly impressive, with powerful bass indicating the oncoming Recognizers and hints of the stunning score from Daft Punk.

If I had to pinpoint the weaknesses, it seems Hedlund is a bit wooden as the lead, playing a little too grim and gritty for his age.  Plus, as someone who has rarely been impressed with 3D, this was another instance where I was left wondering when a live action film would live up to the bar set by Avatar.

Either way, at the end of the day, one thing was true - I cannot WAIT to see Tron Legacy. The trailers had me hooked, but this footage confirmed it, I’ll be there for the midnight show.