Tron Legacy Movie Review

Me too. I expect to read a lot more criticisms that I fully agree with - I do agree with almost all of those expressed so far - and STILL keep loving it. Things can be flawed and yet be grand.
 
In our international friends' defense, of course, movies are marketed with all sorts of titles. Even here, I just saw an ad on the Discovery Channel for it that just called it TRON. So who knows why they do what they do. Me? I fight... for the USERS!
 
I have no idea who Daft Punk is but I am looking forward to seeing the movie tomorrow. Remember the 1st wasn't a blockbuster either.
 
Remember the 1st wasn't a blockbuster either.

I always love this statement. 17 mil (rumored) budget and 33 mil take. Nowadays, that'd be considered a base hit. You'd definitely get a direct to DVD sequel starring Christian Slater and Lou Diamond Phillips.
 
Heh.

Larry, yeah, and for some reason you guys have some name of your own for Mad Max II. :p
 
Saw it tonight. LOVED IT. Would have like to see more of the tanks. Can't wait for it to come out on DVD.

I think there is going to be a sequel. small hints like - Dillinger's son having a hand in the new software (is ther a new SARK or MCP?), TRON turn back to the good side, AND my big question (that was not answered in the movie) who page Alan?( Both Flynn and CLU seemed to be surpise but the information.).
 
Next time I create a virtual world into which I can transport myself, I should make it a point to PROGRAM AN EXIT DOOR, OR AT LEAST PROGRAM A DOOR STOP!

Still and all, I enjoyed the film. And when they flashed back to CLU's betrayal and attacking Tron, I knew he was Darth Maul.
 
It actually isn't. It's JUST called TRON. Interesting that, I thought.
I noticed that.. doesn't say "Legacy" anywhere in the title.

Overall, I enjoyed it. The one major plot hole for me is Quorra at the end. Even given the apparent "transporter system" (for lack of a better comparison), you can't create something from nothing. Quorra is just a program. A unique and special program, sure.. but it's not the same type of data used to create a person. After seeing how this sort of thing works on Star Trek for twenty years, you kinda get a handle on how it works. Not like it does here.

Other nitpicks, mostly agreeing with others:

Flynn's lightcycle - Agreed, totally wasted. Fastest thing on the Grid? I wanted to see this thing kick some ass! Nope, he just rides in it, then gets out. It's like the Caretaker "ride" at the end of Ghost Rider.

Lightcycles - I kept waiting for a 90-degree zip-turn like in the original. Otherwise, the sequence totally rocked.

Tron - I knew it was him, I saw his chest pattern in the trailers. It's never explained what happened to him, what turned him, what turned him back, etc. Like others have mentioned, it's not even a big reveal.. "Oh, look.. it's Tron.. whaddaya know... Moving on." And despite his heroic actions, he got a b**ch-death. I'm sorry, but there it is. Even if he's not dead (which is likely, we see him go blue), he still went out badly. The movie is called TRON, after all.. and he ends up a throwaway character. Hell, even though Flynn was the "hero" of the first film, Tron himself was a major character. Here, he's barely mentioned.

Young Jeff Bridges - They totally dropped the ball with this one. Sure, he looks good, right up until the point he begins to move or talk. Especially talk. It's not like we don't have the capability of getting real emotion and realistic facial animation out of digital characters. Hell, Gollum did it years ago, and Avatar sure as hell did it last year. I don't know why they didn't go with one of those tried-and-true methods.. instead they went with ten-year-old hand animation, and it sucked. Badly. I'm not against the idea of what they did.. in fact, the idea was brilliant, to have two versions of the actor, one from twenty years ago.. but the execution was very poor.

Users - Users are gods inside. They touched on this too briefly, and only with Kevin.. it seems that Sam had no special powers at all.

All in all, though, I enjoyed it. Absolutely a visual feast.. I'll be picking this one up day-one on Blu-ray.
 
man i loved this movie. the best part is going in expecting nothing and coming out really appreciating all the movie with its flaws and all. i loved it, the pacing was solid and the action was tight. plot eh but still overall i give it a solid 8.

Im just glad my Nokia n8 phone makes several cameos in the film lol. I totally whiped it out in the theater to show people hahahhaa
 
Saw it tonight and loved it. It's a fun movie, just don't start asking too many questions.:lol Young Jeff Bridges was my biggest disappointment, mouth looked terrible, but considering the rest of the movie looked killer........:thumbsup
 
Just got back from seeing it on IMAX 3D, and I loved it.

It's far from perfect, and that's a shame for I felt like all the pieces are there.

My biggest gripe would be that everything and everyone seem underutilized. So much design went into everything, and every character, yet the film never spends any time with that.

Regardless, this oversight doesn't take away from my enjoyment of what is on screen. If anything I would like to see more!
 
Just got back from seeing it on IMAX 3D, and I loved it.

It's far from perfect, and that's a shame for I felt like all the pieces are there.

My biggest gripe would be that everything and everyone seem underutilized. So much design went into everything, and every character, yet the film never spends any time with that.

Regardless, this oversight doesn't take away from my enjoyment of what is on screen. If anything I would like to see more!

The way in which they used Cillian Murphy (usually an A lister, of late) as such a quick 3 minute role, and as Dillinger's son no less, AND THEN not showing him at all for the rest of the movie totally makes me smell sequel. They wouldn't do that and not have him be the main bad guy in a second film down the road. That's just basic marketing and strategy.

I'm hoping that because of that tille hint that there'll be more time to go into that kind of stuff in the second film. At least if this one fails, and there is no sequel, Disney loses little because they made this film more or less stand alone, but gave bits and pieces that can totally be integrated later on down the line.

So no worries, I think we'll se another one beft the end of 2014 :lol
 
Alright, I just read through all of this and feel like adding my 3 ( because this will be long and drawn out ) cents. ***spoilers below ***

As someone who has never seen the first one and knew barely anything about it other than it's people going into computers with lots of glowy lights, the trailers still suckered me into being ridiculously excited. So I've very much accepted the fact that my expectations were probably just too high. But for a movie so technologically advanced and with so much imagination, I didn't think there was a way it couldn't meet what I had in mind.

Sadly, the whole time I was waiting and waiting and waiting for something epic to happen and it just never did.

But starting at the very beginning, here are my thoughts.

As soon as I saw the lovely little note at the beginning..." Some parts are in 2d, they were filmed that way and are supposed to be that way. Just leave your glasses on the whole time and we hope you dont notice how little is actually in 3D and we're just throwing bits in to get some more money kthxbai " I was disappointed. I knew it was going to be a visual feast regardless, but right away I knew it was already falling short of what I thought it was going to be. And of course I was going to cheat, and I did. Lifting my glasses throughout, it seemed like most of the film was 2D with a little bit of depth layering here and there. I dunno about most, but I prefer my 3D to surround me rather than just look like the background is a bit deeper. I guess I'm a sucker for gimmicky stuff, but with something as simple as different camera angles, I feel like this could have been a way more immersive experience. There was so much opportunity with the discs, ribbon from the light cycles, Castors gun, explosions and the flying/shooting/game scenes... and none of it utilized the 3D to a successful extent. And that's a total shame 'cause it would have been WICKED. Actually, I think the most prominent 3D was all of the elevator scenes. -_-

Now the film itself... basically is an incredibly fine thread of a story decorated by a few grand events along the way.
- Way too much time wasted before entering the grid. Flynn/Sams story could have been told a lot quicker. Sam's introductory shenanigans were pretty funny but again, could've been done in a lot less time.
- I was totally disappointed with the transportation into the grid. Another opportunity for awesome and it was just a blink of nothing.
-The sirens were cool and then completely forgotten about. And what was the point of them being locked into the wall when they could just roam the streets and hang out at bars? Was that their job or something? Shift work? LOL
- There could have been a way better story based around or even just build up to Sam finding Flynn...not meeting Clu and then being brought to Flynn immediately after. And then Flynn being overwhelmed to see his son, and then not really caring right after. "SO EXCITED... k whatev, see you at dinner." I get he was upset about the page but...really? They didn't talk like father/son until near the end.
- Not that the talking mattered because it was very boring. The script was basically just filler between the actually visually interesting bits. It hardly added to the movie and wasn't remotely interesting. As a Tron n00b, I also felt that the flashbacks were unnecessary and too drawn out with too little impact. Another time waster that could've been summed up neatly and left more room for the fun stuff.
- The interaction between Sam and Jem was some of the very little chemistry I felt between any of the actors... and then they 'removed her from the equation'. And she didn't even have a reaction to that.
- For computer programs, too many people in there were too dumb. Really? Creator of the world and you just need a bungee cord to steal your disc? ( And he goes from " HE CAN NOT HAVE MY DISC! " to " well ok he has it so let's just leave before him " ) And to steal it back you just beat up some guys (behind closed doors) and grab it again? More opportunities for epic battle/reaction scenes that never happened.
- The whole real conflict ( Clu is building an army to take over the real world ), resolution ( we'll just take Flynns disc back and leave first ), anti-climatic-climax ( Tron randomly saving the day ) and ending ( Flynn staying behind ) were done in a very boring 20 minute span right at the end.
and finally...

You do not get a girlfriend by beating a video game. :LOL

Overall, a visual feast ( that could probably be enjoyed and followed just as well with only the music track ) that's overfilled with many interesting and temporarily engaging characters that never develop and completely devoid of a good script or story... you know, the stuff that actually makes the difference between a bad movie and a good movie. Or more particularly, in this case, an average movie and an epic movie.

BUT, Quorra was cute ( although I felt no chemistry between her and Sam at all...) and I still want my light suit. Oh, and though the neon was all cool and pretty and that, I felt like the low light filming that was needed was sometimes frustrating and a bit straining on the eyes. That could totally just be me, though.

edit: Chronos, just read your post and .. yes. Exactly.
 
The Daft Punk cameo was just plain silly.

I thought that part was crap....Hated the Daft Punk Cameo...especially when they kept on cutting back to them....

2 things I hated about the movie: daft punk cameo and Flynn's cgi face and lips movement....

overall, i ENJOYED the film...could have been a little bit better story...
 
Wow... thread blew up. So many points to touch on... but first :

Quote: Originally Posted by clutch
Where was this world?

The same place the bank has your money.

That absolutely cracked me up.

- Tron : the flashback of CLU's betrayal spells it out for you. Tron picks up two discs and takes the stance he used when fighting Sam. That should have been a dead giveaway to anyone who wasn't in the know. The comics and video game are giveaways too, for anyone who read/played either.

My take on why Tron had on a helmet also alludes to the flashback. As CLU brings his disc down, although we don't see it, it would appear that the blow was to TRON's head. If you also notice, TRON has that weird "gurgle/click" sound when on screen. My take is that he took a massive injury that didn't kill him but was bad enough that he needed some "tourniqet" (the helmet) to function. Maybe explains why he turned? Brain dead badass?

- The Grid : this was never really an issue for me. As stated, this was a sandbox environment for Flynn to play around in. After dealing with the MCP, Flynn would know better than to connect his work to the world. Just think of Flynn as playing a really high-tech version of the Sims/Sim City.

- The ISOs : going back to the SimCity analogy above... this makes a little more sense. Flynn had to have created an environment that was self-sustaining... no one else was logged into the Grid, and he could not have created all of those programs, so the Grid had to have been creating new programs on it's own. When the guards grabbed Sam after he arrived, they didn't seem surprised or make a big deal out of him being unknown. They simply said "another unknown program" and threw him on the Recognizer. So... given enough time, maybe the Grid had some borked code (DNA) and mutations appeared : ISOs.

Still, you can't manifest some code into a human being...

- Fan service : Man... I can't say enough about this. There were so many allusions to the original for those die-hard fans. It really did help the movie for me and, at the same time, feel a little sad and nostalgic. I let out a sad sigh when Sam went into Flynn's and flipped the breakers. All those old arcade game sounds and screens... all that time and quarters of my youth... :(

And now for specific points :

Quote: If they are programs, why have limitations like we have in the physical world? Instead of flying a plane, why not just grow wings?

Originally Posted by clutch

Well, they did. Sam did those ladybug wings, in the middle of Act III.
Actually, he stole those off some of the guys he beat up when getting back Flynn's disc.

Numerous arguments about pacing...
Since I've seen it and had a couple of days, I can't help but think this would have been a much tighter movie with a couple of extra cuts and better spacing out of action / plot.

The sirens were cool and then completely forgotten about. And what was the point of them being locked into the wall when they could just roam the streets and hang out at bars? Was that their job or something? Shift work? LOL
Yeah, that was a bit strange... but I can't argue with the logic. Four hot women that scalpel my clothes off and then get put away when done? Where's MY Grid? :lol
 
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I just read through this whole thread, watched the movie earlier tonight. The big thing that people seem to take issue with in the story was Quorra leaving the computer at the end, but they explained it. They said that Flynn's disc had the ability to transfer programs out into the real world. They didn't go into the specifics, but they didn't have to. It was compared to transporters in Star Trek, but there's really no reason to compare that. Transporters moved matter from one place to another, the laser in the original Tron basically destroyed the person and put them inside the computer. It didn't destroy the matter and put it back together, it just destroyed it. But Flynn was able to come back out, meaning the physics of Star Trek have no bearing in this movie. If Flynn was able to come back out of the computer after having been destroyed, his body was created from nothing just like Quorra's was. At least that's how I saw it.

Anyways, loved the movie with a couple of small exceptions. The "I would have thrown it all away for another day with you" line was corny and stupid. The Daft Punk thing was also bad. I love Daft Punk and the soundtrack, but I thought cutting to them doing nothing but bobbing their heads was unnecessary.

Between Cillian Murphy playing Dillinger's son and Tron turning blue at the end and not actually dying, plus the fact that this movie will undoubtedly make bank, I think there will definitely be a sequel.

Young Flynn/CLU: Of all the CGed characters I've seen besides in Avatar, this one was the most lifelike. There were definitely issues and it was obviously fake, but I think it was the best I've seen. I can't really compare it to Avatar because I think I blocked out the memory of that crap-fest.

And in response to Aelynn's points: You should really watch Tron, it makes a difference. And she didn't fall in love with Sam because he beat a video game, it was because (I assume, based on stereotypical crap that happens in other movies) 1. he was a mysterious guy from a land she wanted to see more than anything, and 2. they survived an adventure together. Those two things pretty much account for the majority of on screen romances in a blockbuster or otherwise.
 
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