Well, I saw it. Glad I saw it. Not really glad of what it was, but here I go.
The Good
• Jeff Bridges. CGI or not, he is still one of the most watchable actors ever no matter what role he plays, and I liked him a lot in this film.
• Father/Son dynamic. Thank GOD this was not a Steven Spielberg type of family drama. That would have made this film unwatchable.
• Olivia Wilde's character Quorra. Probably the best character in the film only because she's so consistent as a character while everyone else suffers from the story's plot holes. Olivia's acting, looks and style were all great and It was nice she wasn't bound as the romantic interest role and was treated like a person that actually mattered. No on-screen kiss got a little cheer from me.
• The Light Jets. Don't know what to say other than that was a pretty awesome sequence. I actually shouted "OH!" when Quorra delivered a head shot to one of the bad guys.
• No over the top shaky cameras. While there might have been some instances of this in some of the more fast paced action scenes, every thing else was very focused and tight which in today's world is a breath of fresh air.
• Sam. He wasn't an a&$hole. I kind of liked him as a character.
• Bruce Boxleitner. I would declare it wouldn't be a Tron movie without him even more so than Jeff Bridges.
• fantastic score by Daft Punk. I was so pleasantly surprised by the job they did that I immediately bought the soundtrack. I've never really done that for a modern movie in quite some time.
The Bad
• The story is inconsistent as fudge. The whole "Who paged?" plot point was confusing and really had a lot of contradictions. I think the ISOs could have been given a more broader role than simply being "They appeared, they were awesome, they are gone, and that's that.". And how exactly would Clu do damage in a world where he would have no powers of any kind?
• TRON himself. You spend all this time, effort and money making Jeff Bridges passable in a younger form, but all you did for TRON, the title character of the series is put him behind a gawddang helmet the entire time?! He looked great in the flashback, but putting him in that helmet even when he turned good was just a cop out. Also, his turning back could have been handled a lot better than just happening out of the blue. Did the writers forget about how Kevin brought Yori back when she almost faded out?
• The women. Despite the really good Quorra character, every female character in this film kind of gets the shaft the shaft at some point or another. Sam's mother dies, his grandparents die, Quorra *almost* dies, Gem gets detonated, and where the @%#$ is Yori?! I know she wasn't that much of a character in the original, but I still liked her a lot. What happened to her? Didn't she and Tron have a thing? What happened? I cared about these characters Tron: Legacy! I did! What happened?!
• The design. While I will give the real grid costume designs and color use a pass, a lot of the costumes and vehicle designs just bothered me. They were... how do I say this? Too practical. I miss how the Recognizers were made up of very sharp shapes that were never truly connected to one another. The new recognizers here just don't seem as menacing especially when they have rocket sounds instead of the very digital "rbrbbrbr" noise they used to make. Oh, jackets with one light stripe is CHEAP. Never do that again!
• No programs that resemble the MCP. I've got to admit, the only thing for me that was cooler than light cycles AND recognizers from the original Tron was the MCP. I loved his digital face and his very menacing voice. I was stunned when there was not one single entity in the Grid that looked remotely like the MCP. It was the epidemy of digital looking!
• No reference to the old Clu. One of my theories as to why this new Clu was the bad guy in Tron: Legacy was because he somehow found out that the old Clu from the first film was de-rezzed by the MCP because Flynn sent him on a suicide mission. So as the story went on and Flynn started doing much broader things, this new Clu didn't want to be another one of Flynn's expendable programs waiting to be de-rezzed. I liked that idea a lot more than what we got. Phft. Making the perfect world.
• Ok, I'll just come up and say it. I miss the animated spider drones during the light sailor from the original film. I would have put them scattered all about in the rocky canyon like areas in a heart beat.
The Awkward
• From the very first trailer, I knew without a doubt that this movie was an alternate take on the video game TRON 2.0, a game I LOVED despite it's mediocre presence. It pretty much lifts everything from one of the main characters having a son (instead of Alan it's Flynn), the son getting zapped into the computer world, the son being forced to fight in light cycle races, the son being rescued by the female program DURING the light cycle game, the female program being taken out of the story part way, the son's dad finding a way to bring the female program back ect, ect. There are a lot of numerous story points that I just cried foul on because they all happened in Tron 2.0 and it was done a lot better in that game. It broke my heart that they didn't include the game as canon.
• Ok, I know there was a little nod to the Tron theme in the opening by Flynn, but it would have been so great to have heard Daft Punk pay some sort of homage to some of Wendy Carlos' music in some way shape or form that fitted with the score. Ever since Star Trek, I can't help but feel that modern movie composers are actually trying to not include a franchise's signature theme when they're composing a film unless it's at the very end credits when the movie is over. Tron Legacy didn't even have that.
• This had me laughing more than anything else because I could not take it seriously even in the context of the film. Our hero puts out Encom's new OS free online against the company's plan because they want to make a profit out of it. Nothing wrong with making a profit on a product even if it's nothing new. But here, Sam's actions of posting it free online is portrayed in a good light. Do Disney writers work in an irony free zone? Open sourcing your products in a DISNEY MOVIE?!
The Good
• Jeff Bridges. CGI or not, he is still one of the most watchable actors ever no matter what role he plays, and I liked him a lot in this film.
• Father/Son dynamic. Thank GOD this was not a Steven Spielberg type of family drama. That would have made this film unwatchable.
• Olivia Wilde's character Quorra. Probably the best character in the film only because she's so consistent as a character while everyone else suffers from the story's plot holes. Olivia's acting, looks and style were all great and It was nice she wasn't bound as the romantic interest role and was treated like a person that actually mattered. No on-screen kiss got a little cheer from me.
• The Light Jets. Don't know what to say other than that was a pretty awesome sequence. I actually shouted "OH!" when Quorra delivered a head shot to one of the bad guys.
• No over the top shaky cameras. While there might have been some instances of this in some of the more fast paced action scenes, every thing else was very focused and tight which in today's world is a breath of fresh air.
• Sam. He wasn't an a&$hole. I kind of liked him as a character.
• Bruce Boxleitner. I would declare it wouldn't be a Tron movie without him even more so than Jeff Bridges.
• fantastic score by Daft Punk. I was so pleasantly surprised by the job they did that I immediately bought the soundtrack. I've never really done that for a modern movie in quite some time.
The Bad
• The story is inconsistent as fudge. The whole "Who paged?" plot point was confusing and really had a lot of contradictions. I think the ISOs could have been given a more broader role than simply being "They appeared, they were awesome, they are gone, and that's that.". And how exactly would Clu do damage in a world where he would have no powers of any kind?
• TRON himself. You spend all this time, effort and money making Jeff Bridges passable in a younger form, but all you did for TRON, the title character of the series is put him behind a gawddang helmet the entire time?! He looked great in the flashback, but putting him in that helmet even when he turned good was just a cop out. Also, his turning back could have been handled a lot better than just happening out of the blue. Did the writers forget about how Kevin brought Yori back when she almost faded out?
• The women. Despite the really good Quorra character, every female character in this film kind of gets the shaft the shaft at some point or another. Sam's mother dies, his grandparents die, Quorra *almost* dies, Gem gets detonated, and where the @%#$ is Yori?! I know she wasn't that much of a character in the original, but I still liked her a lot. What happened to her? Didn't she and Tron have a thing? What happened? I cared about these characters Tron: Legacy! I did! What happened?!
• The design. While I will give the real grid costume designs and color use a pass, a lot of the costumes and vehicle designs just bothered me. They were... how do I say this? Too practical. I miss how the Recognizers were made up of very sharp shapes that were never truly connected to one another. The new recognizers here just don't seem as menacing especially when they have rocket sounds instead of the very digital "rbrbbrbr" noise they used to make. Oh, jackets with one light stripe is CHEAP. Never do that again!
• No programs that resemble the MCP. I've got to admit, the only thing for me that was cooler than light cycles AND recognizers from the original Tron was the MCP. I loved his digital face and his very menacing voice. I was stunned when there was not one single entity in the Grid that looked remotely like the MCP. It was the epidemy of digital looking!
• No reference to the old Clu. One of my theories as to why this new Clu was the bad guy in Tron: Legacy was because he somehow found out that the old Clu from the first film was de-rezzed by the MCP because Flynn sent him on a suicide mission. So as the story went on and Flynn started doing much broader things, this new Clu didn't want to be another one of Flynn's expendable programs waiting to be de-rezzed. I liked that idea a lot more than what we got. Phft. Making the perfect world.
• Ok, I'll just come up and say it. I miss the animated spider drones during the light sailor from the original film. I would have put them scattered all about in the rocky canyon like areas in a heart beat.
The Awkward
• From the very first trailer, I knew without a doubt that this movie was an alternate take on the video game TRON 2.0, a game I LOVED despite it's mediocre presence. It pretty much lifts everything from one of the main characters having a son (instead of Alan it's Flynn), the son getting zapped into the computer world, the son being forced to fight in light cycle races, the son being rescued by the female program DURING the light cycle game, the female program being taken out of the story part way, the son's dad finding a way to bring the female program back ect, ect. There are a lot of numerous story points that I just cried foul on because they all happened in Tron 2.0 and it was done a lot better in that game. It broke my heart that they didn't include the game as canon.
• Ok, I know there was a little nod to the Tron theme in the opening by Flynn, but it would have been so great to have heard Daft Punk pay some sort of homage to some of Wendy Carlos' music in some way shape or form that fitted with the score. Ever since Star Trek, I can't help but feel that modern movie composers are actually trying to not include a franchise's signature theme when they're composing a film unless it's at the very end credits when the movie is over. Tron Legacy didn't even have that.
• This had me laughing more than anything else because I could not take it seriously even in the context of the film. Our hero puts out Encom's new OS free online against the company's plan because they want to make a profit out of it. Nothing wrong with making a profit on a product even if it's nothing new. But here, Sam's actions of posting it free online is portrayed in a good light. Do Disney writers work in an irony free zone? Open sourcing your products in a DISNEY MOVIE?!
