TRON Legacy

Sharing my opinions of Tron: Legacy. No spoilers specifically, but don't read ahead if you haven't seen it yet.

Just saw the midnight showing in LA, and in my opinion the movie is mediocre at best. I thought the action sequences were cool, and in some instances spectacular, but honestly I couldn't stand the story and performances. I could have cared less about the characters, and even Jeff Bridges was a little bit of a let down. The trailer really portrayed the film as an epic story of sacrifice and trust between a father and his son in the grand scale of a sci-fi epic but it was anything but. Corny dialogue, uni-dimensional characters, a totally unbearable villain, and a poor story line really, REALLY bog down the awesome action scenes and Olivia Wilde's supreme hotness.
 
Finnegan said:
Sharing my opinions of Tron: Legacy. No spoilers specifically, but don't read ahead if you haven't seen it yet.

Just saw the midnight showing in LA, and in my opinion the movie is mediocre at best. I thought the action sequences were cool, and in some instances spectacular, but honestly I couldn't stand the story and performances. I could have cared less about the characters, and even Jeff Bridges was a little bit of a let down. The trailer really portrayed the film as an epic story of sacrifice and trust between a father and his son in the grand scale of a sci-fi epic but it was anything but. Corny dialogue, uni-dimensional characters, a totally unbearable villain, and a poor story line really, REALLY bog down the awesome action scenes and Olivia Wilde's supreme hotness.
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Seems to be the general consensus...but in all seriousness, the first movie wasn't that well constructed either. TRON has a reputation that far exceeds its actual quality as a story, primarily memorable for having really innovative visual design and effects, and a good cast. Sounds like more of the same here.
 
I saw this four hours ago and I've already forgotten it. A pretty disposable film. Nothing about it is very terrible. But nothing much is very good, either. While the production design was technically attractive, I found it didn't ring true. The original with its lo-fi textures was somehow more plausible as being the 'world inside a computer', which is a pretty dopey notion to begin with but hey, I won't scrutinize that and ruin the fun. Garrett Hedlund couldn't have been more generic an action hero if they slapped a white label on him. Almost every line of his dialogue was some hoary cliche. Jeff Bridges was amusing as The Dude...er, I mean, Flynn. Somewhere between the original film and this one he turned into a parody of Jeff Bridges. Michael Sheen seemed like he got cast because they couldn't get David Bowie. Cillian Murphy blew a fart and left, never to return. Only Olivia Wilde rose to the occasion and delivered a seemingly dimensional character...and looked hot while doing it. My least favorite part was when they fled in the Millenium Falcon and Luke manned the turrent guns to fend off the pursuing Tie Fighters. Okay...this movie gets worse the more I think about it. I think I'll stop now.
 
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Batutta said:
My least favorite part was when they fled in the Millenium Falcon and Luke manned the turrent guns to fend off the pursuing Tie Fighters. Okay...this movie gets worse the more I think about it. I think I'll stop now.
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Wait, wait, wait, wait...does that actually happen? And if so, why? Or is it just your way of saying the film is derivative?

My friends hated this movie, and I've never seen the first Tron, so I'll probably continue to not see this movie.
 
I saw this last night (after about 40 mins. of trailers) in IMAX 3D. While it didn't have the same impact on me as other recent sci-fi films like Avatar, District 9, or Inception, I enjoyed the film.

Blade Borge said:
it was Skittles for my eyes, fun ride
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I think this is a good way to describe what I also got from Tron Legacy. It wasn't a perfect film, or a really deep film (compared to say other AI and VR-themed films like The Matrix), and some of the new Tron "mythology" seemed a bit of a reach, but overall none of the major criticisms it is receiving were as big of a deal for me in the overall fun and enjoyment of the film.

The director did a pretty solid job on his narrative feature directing debut. I give the dude some major credit for being able to not only update a nearly 30 year old retro-tinged cult classic film, but to also make it fun and able to stand apart on its own. I also really liked that it wasn't shaky cam overload and the cuts weren't too fast but still kept an exciting pace. Basically, unlike a lot of contemporary films, I could sit and soak up the scenery, the characters faces during dialogue scenes, and just marvel at all the awesome lights and super-futuristic Syd Meade influenced architecture of the grid.

I've heard a lot of criticisms of the film having too much exposition. Call me crazy, but as a big fan of science fiction, I like it when science fiction movies actually talk about some of the more far out concepts that the film is built around. Even though some of the stuff in Tron Legacy was a bit too far out, it was interesting stuff.

The score was awesome as well.
 
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Batutta said:
Yes, it's derivative. There is a scene that is SO obviously copying that scene in Star Wars I had to mention it.
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I saw that as an homage more than anything.
Like how every single sci-fi action film since Star Wars has to have the line "Here they come!" in it.

Besides, I don't think Tron Legacy is much more derivative than The Matrix.
 
Jawa Ex Machina said:
I saw that as an homage more than anything.
Like how every single sci-fi action film since Star Wars has to have the line "Here they come!" in it.
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It's one thing to echo a line of dialogue...quite another to lift a whole scene. I just found it lazy...So much of this movie doesn't stand up to ANY kind of scrutiny. Skittles for the eyes?...Well, I hate Skittles. And I also saw it in Imax 3D. I found some of the action to be difficult to follow, not the speed, more the geography and the costumes which were sometimes hard to separate. Even the production and costume design didn't do much for me. Too much of it was kind of mundane. Every outfit was just some motorcycle suit accented with neon. I don't know. I'm finding I like this movie less and less with each passing second.
 
Batutta said:
It's one thing to echo a line of dialogue...quite another to lift a whole scene.
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Yeah but The Matrix has TONS of not just scenes but characters and names, lines of dialogue and everything lifted from other works and put together in the Hero's Journey format.

I'm not saying The Matrix is bad, I love it just as much as the next guy. I even like the sequels.
I'm saying being derivative is not bad just in and of itself.
 
Jawa Ex Machina said:
Yeah but The Matrix has TONS of not just scenes but characters and names, lines of dialogue and everything lifted from other works and put together in the Hero's Journey format.
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Perhaps, but the Matrix wasn't so transparent about it. BTW, I thought TRON ripped off the Matrix with the way Flynn killed Clu in almost the exact same way Neo killed Mr. Smith.
 
Blade Borge said:
Every movie doesn't have to for it to be unoriginal concept. I remember seeing the absorbing enemy/explosion motif since I was 11 watching Ronin Warriors.
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Your point is moot, because if it was unoriginal when they made The Matrix, that makes it even more unoriginal in Tron: Legacy.
 
So The Matrix and Tron both use a similar unoriginal motif, therefor my point that the Matrix were not the starters of the motif is moot? Uhhh...okay then? You win this debate.

Anyways, really glad I saw this in 3D, feel kinda sad for those that will watch for the first time on SD tv.
 
Blade Borge said:
So The Matrix and Tron both use a similar unoriginal motif, therefor my point that the Matrix were not the starters of the motif is moot? Uhhh...okay then? You win this debate.
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Just saying it's not any kind of defense of its use in Tron.
 
Batutta said:
Perhaps, but the Matrix wasn't so transparent about it. BTW, I thought TRON ripped off the Matrix with the way Flynn killed Clu in almost the exact same way Neo killed Mr. Smith.
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Try reading Neuromancer by William Gibson.
It's about a hacker called Case, who can't access The Matrix anymore, but is given a second chance when a sexy female sunglass-wearing assassin recruits him for a man named Armitage. The part where he introduces them is pretty much exactly like the hotel scene where Neo first meets Morpheus, except they don't leave "reality".
Later on, they enter the orbital city Zion.

I'd say the visual style is a blend of Akira (Akira even have the slow-mo action shots), Ghost in the Shell, The Crow, Dark City and a bunch of classic John Woo and even some Sergio Leone ripoff shots.

The whole thing about waking up from a computer program was used in a Twilight Episode from the 80's starring Meg Foster called DREAMS FOR SALE
And even that wasn't original.

The story is as by-the-numbers Hero's Journey as you could find, and that's what makes it work.

And this is just off the top of my head and I'm far from a sci-fi expert.


Batutta said:
Just saying it's not any kind of defense of its use in Tron.
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So how should it have been done?

Flynn shoots Clu? Cuts him in half? Clu dies from falling from a great height? Electricity? Explosion? Melt him?
How many spectacular ways are there to kill off the main villain, and what is the most suitable way to do it in Tron Legacy?

Maybe I'm being unoriginal here, but I can't think of a single way that hasn't been done plenty of times.
Absorbing his body and blowing him up seems like one of the least overly used ways IMO, and The Matrix is over 10 years old.
I'm fine with it, because it fit the story.
 
Jawa Ex Machina said:
Flynn shoots Clu? Cuts him in half? Clu dies from falling from a great height? Electricity? Explosion? Melt him?
How many spectacular ways are there to kill off the main villain, and what is the most suitable way to do it in Tron Legacy?

Maybe I'm being unoriginal here, but I can't think of a single way that hasn't been done plenty of times.
Absorbing his body and blowing him up seems like one of the least overly used ways IMO, and The Matrix is over 10 years old.
I'm fine with it, because it fit the story.
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I frankly thought it came out of nowhere. Flynn's abilities seemed very amorphous and half thought out. If they had set it up better maybe it wouldn't have felt like such a lazy ripoff. Yes, the Matrix was a pastiche from a lot of different sources, but Tron directly regurgitated a concept and imagery from a high profile work in the same genre, with similar subject matter, with not much variation. They could have chosen a million ways to resolve Clu's storyline, but by this point his story was already stupid. How exactly was he going to get an army into the real world? Through that piddly little laser one at a time? That idea just points up the fact of how dumb the whole Tron concept really is. It flew back in the 80's when people knew almost diddly squat about computers and the concept of virtual reality didn't even exist. But the idea that a person's actual physical body would be transported inside a computer is just stupid. And that body would age. And bleed. I can suspend disbelief up to a point, but the filmmakers did things that just pointed up its idiocy.

Look, I understand why people like the movie. It's shiny and sparkly and moves fast. But there is absolutely NOTHING under the hood.
 
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