Tron: Legacy
So I went to see Tron: Legacy recently, the release day in fact but, well we know how my posting can be right? I started this draft on Jan 3 apparently >_>.
I was fairly stoked to start with and decided to create an open FB event for my friends to join. I set it as open so that rather than send a salvo of event updates to everyone on my list, many of whom would have looked on it with the same disinterest and mild annoyance that such actions deserve, I could instead broadcast into the status update space. People would still see it as they casually scrolled down the feed but they wouldn’t get annoying email notifications and the like. I also decided I wanted to do things up right and included an open invitation for people to come by the apartment before the movie for a reviewing of the first Tron so that it would be fresh for those who hadn’t seen it in a while and so those who had never gotten to it could go into the new one with all the back story. Pizza and soda were of course also to be provided. Subsequently dealing a heavy blow to the theater’s bottom line I am sure.
So what did I think? In a word, … excellent.
Even at this later stage I won’t spoil things but its got a good story, is visually fantastic, and has plenty of call backs to the original for the fans. The acting, in my opinion, is quite good and its great seeing Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner return to their original roles, even if they had to cg Jeff’s face some for the scenes of the past and his part as CLU. And I have to say, well beyond her inherent attractiveness, Olivia Wilde did an excellent job in the part of Quorra.
One thing I would like to address are some of the complaints I’ve heard. One was a matter of personalities and places within a computer system, such as the End of Line Club and the appearance of homosexual programs. Its shown programs have functions but at the same time this grid and its populace are not simply the metaphysical manifestation of an companies existing system as is the case in the first movie, they were all made for the purpose of creating a whole new world within the computer as such there are going to be otherwise…unnatural elements and traits to the system and its programs that make it more closely reflect the normal world. Besides which I imagine gender in representing programs is going to tend toward the arbitrary and differently programs sync and interact with each other in different ways all the time. There was also an issue of how there was a place that was supposed to be hard to get to but then they took a train there. There are two problems with this complaint; 1) The train didn’t actually go to the hard to reach location, it went to a station closer to but not at the destination. From the station they flew. 2) The base it reached wasn’t even supposed to be there. Why take the train then? Two options off the top of my head. Either they were going on the fact that trains/solar sailor type craft of Tron tend to travel in straight lines, if it was pointing in the general direction then it was a good way to get out of the city and away from their pursuers while also getting closer to their destination. Or, Flynn planned to or thought he already had to some degree, hacked the navigation to get them going in the right direction.
Ultimately though, who knows but the writers. As is often the case for anyone, I inherently like the movie so when these kinds of issues are brought up I become an apologist. If I hadn’t liked it I’d probably be picking it apart to no end like other.
Also, slightly off topic but related. By vote we ended up seeing the 3D version. I’m happy we did as it had been a long time since I’d seen something in 3D and this was subsequently a good refresher on where the tech currently stands. Having said that, I don’t plan on going to any other 3D movies soon. Legacy did a good job with the 3D, they used it well and without any of the gimmicky “Whoo 3D, look at this thing sticking out at you!” kind of nonsense. Nonetheless maybe its just from playing games and watching tv all the time but I feel like I do a fine job perceiving virtual depth on my own so that I don’t really feel the “need” for 3D and as the technology currently stands I feel like you loose a decent amount of picture clarity in exchange for the effect. There is a kind of fuzziness there for me that isn’t there when I watch normal 2D. Accepting my lack of felt need, this becomes an undesirable trade off.
So in short, if you are a fan of the original or like computers or scifi or better yet both then see it. See the original first to refresh yourself or get the backstory for the first time but see Tron: Legacy.