TRON: Legacy 2/3rds
TRON: Legacy is my new #10 for the year, clearing my threshold of awesome by a couple of pixels. This means I liked it more than Iron Man 2, but not quite as much as Alice in Wonderland.
Its position between those films is particularly apt. We have a trip through a looking-glass, of sorts, into a virtual wonderland. And we have a protagonist who is the primary shareholder in a company created by his father, and who ends up flying around with glowing lights on his chest and hands (and back, and knees, and pretty much everywhere.)
None of that occurred to me while I was watching the movie, mind you. The movie was a lot of fun, and the soundtrack I shouted about last week was put to excellent use.
The 3D was a little disappointing, because it wasn't used throughout the whole film (where it WAS used it was put to good effect.) There was a little disclaimer at the beginning that said portions of the film are presented in 2D, and yes, that's what the filmmakers intended. Yes, the 3D is only used in the virtual world of The Grid, and yes, it felt a little strange for The Grid to have more depth and dimension than the real world. If there was an Important Message in there somewhere, it would have been completely absent without the 2D/3D contrast, so no, we're not being pummeled with Deeper Meaning.
I don't want to say too much about why this isn't my favorite film of the year, other than to say that with the right set of surprising-yet-inevitable plot twists, it could have been. It was certainly enjoyable, and I think it's a MUCH better expenditure of your movie-and-popcorn money than Harry & Hermione's Magically Boring Tent.
And for the record, the Daft Punk cameo in the movie (look for guys in motorcycle helmets who are very obviously in control of music) was pretty much the perfect cameo: in-world, in-character, in-story perfect.