ALL SCI-FI Forum Index ALL SCI-FI
The place to “find your people”.
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

Tron Legacy (2010)
Goto page 1, 2  Next
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    ALL SCI-FI Forum Index -> Sci-Fi Movies from 2001 to 2010
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17016
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Sat Jun 27, 2015 9:01 pm    Post subject: Tron Legacy (2010) Reply with quote




For all its faults, the original movie had a very straightforward plot: the Master Control Program (MCP) wanted to rule over the cyber world, and David Warner had the same ambitions in the real world.

This movie goes plum nuts with a complex plot and a trainload of cyberspace characters with ridiculous names. I've seen the movie and I've read the Wikipedia summary of the plot. And yet I still don't know what it's about -- except that an evil computer program wants to take over the real world.

Oh my goodness. Somebody actually thought that was a good idea. (Well, maybe I should watch it again before saying things like that.)

It made a ton of money (budget of $170 million and a box office take of $400 million), so lots of folks liked it better than I did.

For years the Disney people have been diddling around with ideas for a sequel, even stating they planned a trilogy of sequels, but the whole thing seems to have stalled out, and Wikipedia states that the deal fell through because "Tomorrowland" didn't do as well as expected.

Wow, the inner workings of Hollywood are more complex than the cyber world of "Tron"!
Shocked
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Thu Dec 21, 2023 3:37 pm; edited 5 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Pow
Galactic Ambassador


Joined: 27 Sep 2014
Posts: 3400
Location: New York

PostPosted: Sun Jun 28, 2015 4:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Both movies are a visual splendor to behold.

The plots stink on ice.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
alltare
Quantum Engineer


Joined: 17 Jul 2015
Posts: 351

PostPosted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 11:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Even after all these years, I still don't know much about Tron Legacy, mainly because I can't stay awake through the entire movie.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Pow
Galactic Ambassador


Joined: 27 Sep 2014
Posts: 3400
Location: New York

PostPosted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 12:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The original Tron movie plot was pedestrian.
Tron Legacy convoluted.

The next film requires a plot that is clever in its inception without being bogged down by a confusing & overly complex story line.

The visuals on both films are stunning to behold.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Maurice
Mission Specialist


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 460
Location: 3rd Rock

PostPosted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 3:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wrote this review on my old blog back when I saw a preview screening at the Stag Theater at Skywalker Ranch, which was attended by the director Joseph Kosinski, who did a Q&A afterwards.

Original review here:
https://mmolyneaux.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/the-legacy-of-tron/

------

the legacy of tron



Is this the computer world or Darth Vader's Apple Store?

TRON: LEGACY is title of the sequel to 1982's Tron, and in a way the title is apt, because the new film has so much in common with the original, being a flashy and visually striking film with a number of exciting action sequences that ultimately ends up being about nothing much at all.

Where Legacy succeeds is visually. The world inside the computer is stark, simple, and often stunning: if a tad too black. The 3D is used well, switching on only when we enter the digital realm, and generally avoiding the 3D film cliches: the dimensionality is played behind the screen, rarely poking out in front of it. The action scenes are generally well-done and exhilarating.

If the film were a story told in pictures this would be fine. If it were showing us stuff we've never seen before or so graphically interesting that story didn't matter it would also succeed. Heck if, it was really fun it'd be great. But it's none of those things, and as such must rely on primarily on story and character.

But the problem with the story is that there isn't much of one. Sam Flynn is sucked into the computer world and forced to play games by a sapient program named Clu, who was created by and is the spitting image and creation of Sam's long-lost father, Kevin Flynn. A program named Quorra spirits Sam from the "Game Grid" and takes him to meet his real dad, who's been trapped in the computer for decades. There's a limited amount of time in which to escape, and the race is on to get to the "portal" that will let Sam and his father out. Of course, the baddie Clu wants information dear old dad has that will let him invade the real world. Sam must escape, dad must stop Clu, and Quorra is the love interest.so you know what her function is. That's pretty much it. Oh, there's some mumbo jumbo about life forms generated spontaneously in the computer and about changing the world and about the corporation that Sam Flynn is ignoring even though he owns a majority holding, but as none of those amount to a hill of bits they're not worth discussing.

The second problem is with the characters. Sam Flynn is just another generic bad-boy good guy. He's daring, smart, sexy, the hero, with nothing much of interest to say and about as much charisma as a computer program. His dad, Kevin (Jeff Bridges) seems like a high-tech version of "The Dude" (from The Big Lebowski), and speaks most in platitudes. Quorra a is just a wide-eyed neophyte who's a badass fighter, albeit she has a few mildly endearing moments. Clu is just evil with a capital EEEEEV.



Hoodies...of the digital world!

The poor story and underdeveloped characters result in the entire film being little more than a flashy 3D chase movie with about as much dimension as a computer screen (despite its being filmed in 3D).

Neophyte feature director Joseph Kosinski's insistence on real sets and self-lit costumes seems queerly at odds with the film's subject matter. If ever a film should revel in its artificiality, a Tron film should be it. Instead, by insisting on real/functional costumes and real sets where possible, the film's design and look becomes shackled to practical concerns. The costumes look like clothing, complete with wrinkles. Skin looks like skin. Makeup looks like makeup. As such, the world ends up looking like a bunch of fancy nightclubs and Apple Stores populated by clubbers in form fitting vinyl with glowy appliques. Even when there are visual effects generated backgrounds and settings the film frequently fails to stylize the environment. Mist and cloud look like just that. It does not compute.

As technically awkward as the original Tron looks in hindsight, its world generally looks more alien and unworldly than most of Legacy. The film escapes these limitations occasionally, as the Game Grid with its disk games set in floating glass boxes and lightcycle battles on a multi-leveled glass arena with curving ramps are wonderfully unreal. There's some real excitement to these sequences, but they're neither so dazzling nor numerous enough to carry the film.

Surprisingly, given the ubiquity of digital technology today, the film is incredibly naive or flat out ignorant about computers. For instance, Kevin Flynn says that Clu can only repurpose (brainwash) programs but not create them, which is completely at odds with the electronic world we all know where viruses make copies of themselves into new systems and where every copy is a perfect reproduction with no loss in quality.



Does this look like the digital realm to you?

And that's what's particularly sad about Legacy: not only is the story trite, but it's really got nothing to do with computers and the digital realm that's part and parcel of our modern age. We live in a world where our lives are increasingly spent interacting with computers and where even our friends and friendships are conducted in a large part digitally. Our relationship status, interests, medical information, and legal misbehavior are all in that computer world, and there's plenty of opportunity to make a story about the conflict between the "real world" you and the digital ones. But Legacy doesn't talk about any of that. South Park's episode "You Have 0 Friends" has a hundred times more to say about our relationship to computers than Tron: Legacy. It's too bad the filmmakers chose the easy path of flash minus substance when they could just as easily have opted to have all that sound and fury signify something.

So, In the end, Tron: Legacy is just a roller-coaster ride through a cool looking world absent anything really to say about computers and how they effect the human condition. In that way, it's just like the orginal Tron, which is why "legacy" is the perfect summation of Trons past and present.

END OF LINE

_________________
* * *
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles


Last edited by Maurice on Sat Nov 18, 2023 10:50 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17016
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Sun May 15, 2022 1:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________________________________________________

Bless my soul, Maurice! I read your superb review five years ago, but I didn't reply right away because I wanted to take my time and do your post justice. Very Happy

Unfortunately I got lost in the cyber-world All Sci-Fi and my brain came down with a nasty of case of "corrupted database" which made me forget about the post! Shocked

Geez, don't you just hate it when that happens? Rolling Eyes

Anyway, this modest little board is starving for more quality reviews like yours, so I hope you have a few more in your memory banks that you could share us.

I promise not to let half-a-decade go by again before giving you what you richly deserved; praise and adoration! Cool

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Nov 19, 2023 12:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Maurice
Mission Specialist


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 460
Location: 3rd Rock

PostPosted: Sat Nov 18, 2023 10:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
_________________________________________________

Bless my soul, Maurice! I read your superb review five years ago, but I didn't reply right away because I wanted to take my time and do your post justice. Very Happy

Unfortunately I got lost in the cyber-world All Sci-Fi and my brain came down with a nasty of case of "corrupted database" which made forget about the post! Shocked

Geez, don't you just hate it when that happens? Rolling Eyes

Anyway, this modest little board is starving for more quality reviews like yours, so I hope you have a few more in your memory banks that you could share us.

I promise not to let half-a-decade go by again before giving you what you richly deserved; praise and adoration! Cool

Hey bud, I decided to put the images that were in my blog reviews here, but, like the Logan's Run one that was too big and you fixed, one of the images here is similarly ginormous. I'm guessing there are no display size tags here?
_________________
* * *
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17016
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2023 1:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maurice wrote:
I'm guessing there are no display size tags here?

I apologize for the fact that All Sci-Fi's beloved-by-antiquated software doesn't provide a way to resize images, the way other boards do. Sad

However, I'm happy to provide that service to members like yourself, using Paint.net (<— link), a free award-winning imaging application you might wish to try.
Cool
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
tmlindsey
Mission Specialist


Joined: 18 Jul 2022
Posts: 409
Location: NW Florida

PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2023 1:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Still haven't seen this one. Is it worth even a look?

I liked the original well enough, but it was more about taking in and appreciating the (then) cutting edge CGI visuals than having to focus on a complex plot as well.

Since CGI is EVERYWHERE now, I imagine the makers of the sequel realized that CGI is so unremarkable now that they had to try to get audiences into the story. It sounds like they didn't succeed.

I think the main reason for this movie's success is more to do with nostalgia viewing than the movie actually being good. Tron managed to gain a cult audience with the kids of the 80s & 90s and they seem ravenously hungry for anything that digs up the things from their childhoods; whether good or bad in its execution.

_________________
"Have you never wondered what it would be like to walk between the ticks and tocks of Time?"
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17016
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2023 3:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

tmlindsey wrote:
Tron managed to gain a cult audience with the kids of the 80s & 90s and they seem ravenously hungry for anything that digs up the things from their childhoods; whether good or bad in its execution.

I agree, Tim.

In fact, I think part of the reason some folks hate CGI alterations in productions like TOS is because any visible change to the fondly remembered originals just doesn't succeed in taking them back to their youth.
Sad
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Maurice
Mission Specialist


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 460
Location: 3rd Rock

PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2023 4:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
Maurice wrote:
I'm guessing there are no display size tags here?

I apologize for the fact that All Sci-Fi's beloved-by-antiquated software doesn't provide a way to resize images, the way other boards do. Sad

However, I'm happy to provide that service to members like yourself, using Paint.net (<— link), a free award-winning imaging application you might wish to try.
Cool

Thanks. I know how to scale images. Smile I just don't have a site to host the results at the moment since my old flickr page is basically full, so I was pointing to the images on my old blog.
_________________
* * *
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
tmlindsey
Mission Specialist


Joined: 18 Jul 2022
Posts: 409
Location: NW Florida

PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2023 4:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
In fact, I think part of the reason some folks hate CGI alterations in productions like TOS is because any visible change to the fondly remembered originals just doesn't succeed in taking them back to their youth.

I don't mind the "updated FX" in shows if they're done right and as long as they still provide the unaltered version for those who want it.

What I DON'T like is that flaws are visible now that were not prior to digital "clean-up" and enhancement. Several wires and seams are visible in shows and movies now that were hidden by the film grain when they were made. Filmmakers knew what they could get away with that, due to the limited resolutions.

Digitizing it all screws that up and makes things look worse than they did at the time, which makes it ripe for undeserved mocking (looking at millennials). If someone is going to enhance the picture and reveal previously hidden flaws, I think they should go back and clean them up so it is more like the intended version.

_________________
"Have you never wondered what it would be like to walk between the ticks and tocks of Time?"
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17016
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2023 6:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maurice wrote:
Thanks. I know how to scale images. Smile I just don't have a site to host the results at the moment since my old flickr page is basically full, so I was pointing to the images on my old blog.

I use imgur to host my images — which is free and has no limit on the number of images. Smile

But I'm not very happy with the organization of the website and the unfortunate changes they've made over the years. Sad

So, I'm not actually recommending it. However, with over 30,000 images on All Sci-Fi hosted by them . . . I'm kinda stuck with 'em! Sad
Rolling Eyes
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Maurice
Mission Specialist


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 460
Location: 3rd Rock

PostPosted: Mon Nov 20, 2023 9:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
Maurice wrote:
Thanks. I know how to scale images. Smile I just don't have a site to host the results at the moment since my old flickr page is basically full, so I was pointing to the images on my old blog.

I use imgur to host my images — which is free and has no limit on the number of images. Smile

But I'm not very happy with the organization of the website and the unfortunate changes they've made over the years. Sad

So, I'm not actually recommending it. However, with over 30,000 images on All Sci-Fi hosted by them . . . I'm kinda stuck with 'em! Sad
Rolling Eyes

Are you "enhancing" the images I shared? Because the whites are blown out now, and the dynamic range is gone.
_________________
* * *
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
tmlindsey
Mission Specialist


Joined: 18 Jul 2022
Posts: 409
Location: NW Florida

PostPosted: Tue Nov 21, 2023 6:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Aaaaaaand they just announced filming will start on another sequel: https://collider.com/tron-3-ares-filming/
_________________
"Have you never wondered what it would be like to walk between the ticks and tocks of Time?"
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    ALL SCI-FI Forum Index -> Sci-Fi Movies from 2001 to 2010 All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2  Next
Page 1 of 2

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group