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Author Topic: TRON: Legacy (2010) Stu Jamieson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 524 From: Buccan, Qld, Australia Registered: Jan 2008 posted 12-18-2010 10:41 PM                     TRON was made in a time (1982) when the burgeoning personal computer industry was new and exciting and video games were just finding their feet. Humanising our digital alter egos as Roman-style combatants in a vast digital arena was a new idea and helped to over come the fact that game graphics at the time were really not very good. The film allowed us to visualise these simplistic games in a new and exciting unattainable dimension via a film making process that was equally ground-breaking and exciting. TRON: Legacy, by contrast, is bereft of any new ideas, and this is its central failing. It's remarkable that in a film founded on video games that we don't actually see a video game in the 'real' world of TRON: Legacy with the exception of the old, obsolete coin-op machines in Flynn's arcade (which, remarkably, still exists and still has the power connected). This is a strange decision on the part of the film makers and is symptomatic of the film as a whole. It seems that in the realm of Tron, the world has stood still when the reality couldn't be more different. 30 years after the original film and the combatants are still tearing around the Grid on light cycles and flinging frisbees at each other, it's as if there's been no advances in gameplay for a generation. Cut to reality and nothing could be further from the truth. Video games such as Surround/Blockade and Pong have long been relegated to the electronic dark ages, to be replaced by FPS's, RTS's, RPG's and sims. The question left unanswered by TRON: Legacy is what must these games look like at the quantum level? If Surround is actually humanoid programs murdering each other on phosphorescent motorcyles what must World of Warcraft look like? I guess we'll never know. What made TRON an interesting concept was that it re-rendered popular games of the time as epic struggles of life and death within the digital realm. Electronic life forms were laying their lives on the line for the purposes of our entertainment. The player as a god controlling the destinies of hapless minions played nicely to the overt theological overtones of the original film and, to it's credit, TRON v2.0 continues this legacy with the Cain and Abel story, represented by Clu and Tron respectively. It's not quite as elegant, however, with it's disingenuous mash-up of creation and evolution. The film relies far to heavily on the digitally realised Flynn/Clu. The inability of the computer model to convey real human emotions isn't quite there yet. The facade holds up as long as he is limited to short takes, but when the camera lingers on Clu's face, the deceit is obvious. It's possible to explain away Clu's phoniness by the fact that he is, indeed, a phony but in the high tech world being presented here, we'd expect Clu to be photographically perfect. Furthermore, Clu's very existence is not entirely satisfactorily explained considering the character was "de-rezzed" in the original film. The new "Clu" is some kind of digital clone of Flynn but that means that he's not Clu from the original film, so why make the inference? It seems that Clu, like Tron, is merely present as a means to link this film to the previous one. The core sin of TRON: Legacy is that it lacks imagination; something which its predecessor had in spades. It's largely a rehash of the action sequences from original film with an updated graphics engine and a revised plot filling the slow moments in between. It falls into stereotypical mediocre sequel territory - it's entertaining enough to watch but the nostalgia trip gets old quickly in the absence of anything new. Considering the considerable advances that have been made in the games industry in the intervening years, the scope for innovation was huge but TRON: Legacy is a mighty opportunity lost. END OF LINE. 6.5 out of 10.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 12-19-2010 01:46 AM                     ...when Bally/Midway released the coin-op "TRON" game later that year of 1982, it was rather a confusing game to figure out. But as vidgame junkies go, it didn't take long to get the high score..and I loved playing this game in local video arcades.. ..and it was a nifty treat to hear the '80's tunes of Journey and others ... along with seeing the classic video games.. ..but agree with what Stu posted above ... "TRON:L" fell into the evil "sequel syndrome" of the lack of imagination and originality to match the original. Technical note: TRON is a BASIC command (TRaceOn) when running a line program, the user presses F7 to run this command to see which line is doing the operation. He presses F8 to (TraceOFF)  |  IP: Logged Kurt Zupin Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 989 From: Maricopa, Arizona Registered: Oct 2004 posted 12-19-2010 12:26 PM                     quote: Tom Petrov Is it actually showing in film based IMAX? Yes, unless what I built and saw and run every day is an illusian.  |  IP: Logged Sean Weitzel Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 619 From: Vacaville, CA (1790 miles west of Rockwall) Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-19-2010 02:10 PM                     We saw it yesterday at the Regal Hacienda Crossings 21 in Dublin, CA in 15/70mm. Not much else to say that hasn't already been said. The story was weak, but the visual and sound made up for it. The presentation was perfect. I quite enjoyed it and will probably see it again a few times more.  |  IP: Logged Paul Gordon Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 580 From: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Registered: Aug 2005 posted 12-19-2010 02:14 PM                        Star City Hull, Real D 3d Show. Total piece of crap.... weak 3d, no new ideas... with all the new computer terms, devices, Wi-fi, the INTERNET how could they not make a good film. My 8 year old niece saw this with me... here is her review: Why were the boring parts so long, and what was with Flynn's out fit, baggy pants, cloaks etc.. all they did was talk. sad.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 12-19-2010 02:54 PM                    quote: Tom Petrov Is it actually showing in film based IMAX? IMAX is film based. I don't know what you call that digital crap, but it's not IMAX.  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Goeldner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1360 From: Washington, District of Columbia Registered: Jun 2008 posted 12-20-2010 08:58 PM                     ummmm.... the story was kind of blah, but as others have pointed out the visuals and the soundmix were great - Daft Punk's music integrated with the visual effects was alot better than just listening to the CD album. I can't really make a concise opinion of the image since one of the projector's was on the fritz, the Uptown debutted it's new Christie dual projector 3D2P system - it looked much better than past 35mm prints, the white's didn't bloom, and the blacks were inky and dark - but the image was still on the dark side - once the projector is fixed the brightness and odd fish eye curving near the edges of the screens will be fixed. Uptown Theater (Washington DC) - DLP (REAL-D 3D)  |  IP: Logged Kori Marvin Film Handler Posts: 7 From: Cadillac, MI, USA Registered: Jun 2010 posted 12-22-2010 11:35 PM                     Watched Tron Legacy in 2D and thought it was great! The plot was "ok" but the visuals and the score by Daft Punk was outstanding in my opinion. Everything was great...I felt like I was in the world of Tron. I really cant wait to see it in 3D though! Very Entertaining! Also I thought Zeus was a great character and the two songs in his club were majestic!  |  IP: Logged Tom Petrov Five Guys Lover Posts: 1121 From: El Paso, TX Registered: Jan 2003 posted 12-23-2010 04:45 AM                    quote: I really cant wait to see it in 3D though! How come you didn't just see in 3D from the get-go? I saw it first day in the afternoon and loved it!  |  IP: Logged Kurt Zupin Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 989 From: Maricopa, Arizona Registered: Oct 2004 posted 12-23-2010 10:32 AM                     My guess would be that the Cadillac 5 got Yogi in 3D instead of Tron and that is why Kori watched Tron in 2D. The closest 3D screen that was playing it was probably in Traverse City and thats an hour away. Just my guess though..  |  IP: Logged Kori Marvin Film Handler Posts: 7 From: Cadillac, MI, USA Registered: Jun 2010 posted 12-23-2010 11:40 PM                     Kurt, you are close! Actually our theater doesn't have 3D yet and yes I would have to take a 45 min trip north to Traverse City to see it...which I intend on doing soon  |  IP: Logged John Davey Film Handler Posts: 16 From: Chesterton, Indiana, USA Registered: Jun 2008 posted 12-25-2010 01:59 AM                     Joe Redifer said "What is a Daft Punk?" Daft Punk is a seminal electronic/techno/house/dance music act. They came to prominence in the late 1990's with songs such as "Around The World" and "One More Time", both songs using heavy funk/disco influences. Their style is hihgly regarded by electronic/dance music enthusiasts.  |  IP: Logged Thomas Pitt Master Film Handler Posts: 266 From: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK Registered: May 2007 posted 12-25-2010 06:25 PM                     I too was intrigued by the "Some scenes are 2D" message at the beginning. It also instructed viewers to put the 3D glasses on and leave them on for the full duration of the film. However, from what I can see, the first 25 minutes is in 2D only with no 3D effects at all (except for the TRON Disney logo). It only goes into 3D when Flynn gets inside the computer system, and then drops back to 2D when he escapes back to the real world. I'd have done it with "GLASSES ON" and "GLASSES OFF" cues (like Spy Kids 3D), rather than having to wear the glasses throughout all the 2D scenes. I also would have liked to see it in IMAX, but didn't fancy sitting through 2 hours of movie in the really uncomfortable seats they have at my nearest IMAX...  |  IP: Logged Sam Graham AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues. Posts: 1431 From: Waukee, IA Registered: Dec 2004 posted 12-27-2010 04:11 PM                        CINEMA: 21st St Warren, Wichita, KS AUDITORIUM: Warren "World Class IMAX" PRESENTATION: LiEmax Digital 3-D PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: I've seen better quality streaming video RATING: Two and one half stars (out of four) You know how Cinemark's original Tinseltowns had a huge main auditorium with a curved screen and stadium seating that was elevated from the front row back...you actually had to climb stairs to access the front row, and the handicap seating was on the floor looking straight up? This new auditorium (a ground-up build) feels a lot like those rooms, save for the entrance being three rows up from the front (which is probably STILL too close for the handicap seating). And it has a Warren decor package. With leather seats. The screen is curtained before the show, of course, and is lit in blue by a row of LED lamps across the top and bottom. In a display of showmanship bordering on the ridiculous, they play the 2001 theme just before they raise the curtain and alternate different color LED's against it to the tympani beat. Yes, it's every bit as silly as it sounds. Yes, it received a round of applause. A manager came out before the dramatic curtain rising with a live microphone to brag a bit about his new cash cow. He claimed the screen was actually BIGGER than IMAX specifications (because the digital picture wouldn't look ridiculous enough, I guess), and that this room was the top grossing TRON auditorium nationally. I guess...$12 per ticket on a Monday afternoon and it was sold out. The bathrooms on the new wing aren't even remotely close to adequate for this room. I was in the third row in the lower tier. Parts of the screen were actually outside the borders of my 3-D glasses. Screen door effect was obvious through the feature and trailers when I was lucky. When I wasn't lucky, the image looked like an extremely digitally zoomed JPEG. The 3-D effect largely didn't work for anything I wasn't looking directly at...it just looked like a double image. This was just godawful bad. The sound was good. Serious subwoofer. THE PLOT: An open-source universe is corrupted. That THAT open-source hippies! Wackiness ensues. I saw the original "Tron" in its theatrical release and can barely remember anything about it save for the existence of Flynn's Arcade, a Journey song, and the light cycles. I remember being sort of confused after watching it. So here, Flynn's Arcade is back, a Journey song is playing, and there's light cycles. And discs. And a really silly fucking script. Yay. I felt two things really needed to happen at the end of this movie for me to give it a better rating, and neither one did. Whatever.  |  IP: Logged William Del Valle Film Handler Posts: 7 From: Houston,Texas ,United States Registered: Jan 2006 posted 01-02-2011 08:16 PM                     Went to see It on opening midnight show. But first had to pull and view my print of Tron. Good thing, So much of LEGACY refers to the original. They never explain, Figuring you already know. The story was weak, but like the original the CG is groundbreaking.  |  IP: Logged

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