I’m not sure you could do 70s TRON style today without making it too much like an acid trip by mistake. Late 70s/80s had a weird earnestness.
If there’s one thing I’ll give you, Andy Bates, it’s that when you pick your battles, you sure pick your battles. :)
-Tom
I’m right with you @Andy_Bates. There is a lot about Legacy that is flawed, or unmemorable. But it has style.
Visually, audibly, it leaves a strong impression. I don’t even like Daft Punk, but they used the sound to great effect.
But ask me to sketch out the plot? Or name any characters?
Thank you! I am impressed with how accurately you’ve captured my personality. Well done.
If you like, I can even defend the line, “Biodigital jazz, man!”
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This thread is making about as much sense as the Tron reboot!
-Tom
I LOVED how Tron:Legacy looked - It was one of my favorite movies for a long time, due to both the art direction, but also because of the music - The plot wasn’t much of interest, but as Meatloaf liked to say - Two out of three, aint bad.
Which relative of Muad’Dib is Jared Leto?
This is weaksauce apologist nonsense. The Kevin Flynn as presented in the film looked and acted like someone who’d been locked away for no longer than the real-world time since the first movie. There was no subtext that he’d been in there for a millenia. You don’t introduce a detail like that and then do absolutely nothing with it. At the very least it should have been a minor plot point—how would that much time passing change a person? Would they forget everyone they knew? Forget themselves? Go mad? Maybe they’d store backup copies of themselves. Maybe they’d change their appearance. Maybe they’d intentionally put themselves to sleep for years or decades at a time. There’s all sorts of things they could have done to explore the possibilities of being a digitized person trapped inside a computer simulation. Now that I think about it, the Amazon show “Upload” did a better job of this, and that’s a half-hour comedy series!
Instead we got Kevin just immediately recognizing his son (inexplicably, since his son was a child the last time Kevin saw him, and the whole it’s been a millenia thing), followed by a throwaway “Long time.” “You have no idea.” exchange to jettison the notion that they’re going to do anything interesting with this. And then they ate a pig.
One more wasted opportunity in a film full of wasted opportunities.
The original TRON fascinated 10-year-old me. The idea that this strange and hauntingly beautiful world existed behind those soulless beige boxes with monochrome displays was really cool. TRON sparked my interest in computers, which in turn led me to computer gaming, and in the end was a big reason I have a career in tech today. I’m obviously not the only one, as I’m willing to bet a big part of the aesthetics of computer design today (LEDs everywhere, backlit everything) was influenced by the imagery of TRON.
Legacy was an audio visual masterpiece in search of the most basic plot. Trying to remake the visuals from the original movie (in the way Rogue One did successfully with the original Star Wars) would have looked ridiculous, so instead Legacy featured sleeker, more updated interpretations of the original designs, and for the most part it worked perfectly. When combined with excellent sound effects work and a fantastic soundtrack, it’s almost enough to carry the movie on it’s own. But that plot…holy shit, even the Disney TRON cartoon had a better, more cohesive plotline than the Legacy movie did.
I’d like to see Disney try again, once more with the same eye to capturing the look and feel (and sound) of Legacy, but this time with a team of writers who know what they’re doing.
Don’t knock it 'til you try it.
Here’s how I would expect someone to react who’d been locked away for 20 years:
“Sam?! SAM! Wow I can’t believe you’re here! Let me look at you…you’ve grown up so much! I can’t even begin to…how did you get here?? Wait, back up: I know you have questions, and I want to answer all of them. Let’s sit down and I will tell you everything… I still can’t believe you’re actually here! Okay, so here’s what happened…”
But here’s what actually happened in the movie:
“Page… Oh, the page…of course… Dinner soon…we’ll talk then.”
Besides the initial shock of emotion, there was no outpouring of information, no questions, no long explanations. Just lots of two-word responses, and Flynn spending a lot of time processing. Instead of catching up with Sam, he goes off to meditate. That strikes me as someone who has spend so much time alone with his thoughts, anticipating every possible variable, that he needs to process any new information that comes in instead of reacting as a normal person would.
They did address it, and it was a major plot point: He had become mentally atrophied. He was stuck in a stalemate with Clu, where he couldn’t act without exposing his location. Without any viable options, he spent his time meditating, because he decided that the only way to avoid making the wrong decision was complete inaction.
No. No. No. This wasn’t even anything remotely suggested by the first movie, so I don’t know why it would even come up. Maybe he did change his appearance, but it’s not really relevant to the plot. And he probably wouldn’t put himself to sleep for years or decades, since he was responsible for protecting Quorra.
Yes, I’m sure there are lots of possibilities that the show Upload could mine for wacky comedy hijinks and visual gags. That’s not what Legacy is about. The movie is not about exploring the possibilities of being a digitized person trapped inside a computer simulation; it’s about a father who was so focused on finding perfection that he missed the beauty that was right in front of him.
Children are generally recognizable as adults, especially your own children. Also, Flynn is smart enough to deduce the narrow possibilities of who might unexpectely show up. And the rest of it–the complete unwillingness to make a decision, focusing on perfection at the expense of reality–is addressed in the remainder of the movie.
And this is where I get off the @Andy_Bates is right about Tron train, and get on the @SlainteMhath one :)
I’m really talking more about themes than execution. Garrett Hedlund doesn’t make a compelling performance, but I think the movie has more depth than people give it credit for.
But that Daft Punk soundtrack, amirite???
Don’t let him on your train, Slainte! He doesn’t even like Daft Punk!!!
-Tom
The Around the World music video is pretty mesmerizing. Otherwise I’m not especially familiar with them.
Daft Punk are awesome. I really like the Giorgio Moroder interview they did on their last album.
Joachim Rønning (“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”) will direct the film from a script by Jesse Wigutow. Production is set for August (an actors strike notwithstanding).
So is Disney trying to bankrupt itself? More mediocre to bad movies than you can shake a stick at and they’re still pushing to make another sequel to a series that no one really cares about and didn’t break records previously anyway?