LEGacy needs two legs to stand
Jan. 8th, 2011 06:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kukla_tkoI saw Tron: Legacy today with my S.O. at the Mills.
I'm very glad that I went and saw it on the big screen. It really is a "big-screen experience". I could be persuaded to see it again in 3D, if someone wants to organize a group.
However, for my full opinion, peek behind the cut. (I have no desire to spew spoilers.)
I'm going to have to start by telling you that the original "Tron" was... just a movie. I do not feel any kind of passion for the film. I've seen it a few times, and it strikes me as the kind of thing that's cool to have running on the monitors at a busy dance club, or as video wallpaper with the sound turned off and music playing. The original movie had serious pacing problems and the story wears pretty thin at parts. It's a cool concept and I had a lot of fun playing with my ripcord-powered light cycle with my brother.
I didn't have ANY emotional investment in the characters, though. Well, maybe Tron, a little bit. But mostly it was a long and boring music video.
I mostly liked it because it made many of my fannish friends happy. It was a guilty pleasure and mild obsession for people who are important to me, so I enjoy it mostly on their behalf.
And it looked REALLY cool.
So now they've created a next-generation sequel, and it also looks REALLY cool.
Here's the thing though; I know the middle of the story when I see it. I have a special place in my heart for "middle of the story" installments. I'm an Empire Strikes Back kind of girl, you know.
And this film is certainly NOT a sequel. This is a shot at a serial adventure. Trilogy, minimum.
See. the film ended... by ending the film. I didn't feel that the story was over, and I don't think that we tied up enough loose ends for a proper "ending".
So yeah, I left feeling a little unsatisfied, because if this really is the end of the story, Disney did a hack job. But Disney is too smart for this much of a hacked-off ending, so I'm betting that they're going to watch the numbers and release Tron: Chapter Three either in theaters or direct-to-video.
"But you said you were glad to see it on the big screen? You said you'd see it again in 3D?"
Yep, I said that. Why?
Just to LISTEN to the damn thing again. And ogle "Thirteen". Er. I mean, Qxuora or however you spell "Cora". Hell, I'm pretty sure I'm going to watch Cowboys and Aliens just to see her, and Harrison Ford.
Also: Lightcycles OMG.
And Zeus, that guy who isn't Simon Peg but might as well be.
But oh.... Daft Punk, you crazy geniuses. Om nom nom nom! Keep your eyes peeled for their cameo, too.
One more nit to pick.
The technology is still not quite there to do the things with "Young Jeff Bridges" that were attempted in this film. CLUE is fine. I like him this way, uncanny but not actually realistic. They should not have tried to do so much with the flashback sequences, though. And our current Jeff Bridges does NOT sound exactly like he did 20+ years ago, either. (Need a reminder? Go watch The Last Unicorn again. Bwa ha ha.) His new gruffness was disconcerting coming out of his younger plastic face. Bleah.
So all in all, I call it a win. I'm certainly waiting for the third installment, though.
I'm very glad that I went and saw it on the big screen. It really is a "big-screen experience". I could be persuaded to see it again in 3D, if someone wants to organize a group.
However, for my full opinion, peek behind the cut. (I have no desire to spew spoilers.)
I'm going to have to start by telling you that the original "Tron" was... just a movie. I do not feel any kind of passion for the film. I've seen it a few times, and it strikes me as the kind of thing that's cool to have running on the monitors at a busy dance club, or as video wallpaper with the sound turned off and music playing. The original movie had serious pacing problems and the story wears pretty thin at parts. It's a cool concept and I had a lot of fun playing with my ripcord-powered light cycle with my brother.
I didn't have ANY emotional investment in the characters, though. Well, maybe Tron, a little bit. But mostly it was a long and boring music video.
I mostly liked it because it made many of my fannish friends happy. It was a guilty pleasure and mild obsession for people who are important to me, so I enjoy it mostly on their behalf.
And it looked REALLY cool.
So now they've created a next-generation sequel, and it also looks REALLY cool.
Here's the thing though; I know the middle of the story when I see it. I have a special place in my heart for "middle of the story" installments. I'm an Empire Strikes Back kind of girl, you know.
And this film is certainly NOT a sequel. This is a shot at a serial adventure. Trilogy, minimum.
See. the film ended... by ending the film. I didn't feel that the story was over, and I don't think that we tied up enough loose ends for a proper "ending".
So yeah, I left feeling a little unsatisfied, because if this really is the end of the story, Disney did a hack job. But Disney is too smart for this much of a hacked-off ending, so I'm betting that they're going to watch the numbers and release Tron: Chapter Three either in theaters or direct-to-video.
"But you said you were glad to see it on the big screen? You said you'd see it again in 3D?"
Yep, I said that. Why?
Just to LISTEN to the damn thing again. And ogle "Thirteen". Er. I mean, Qxuora or however you spell "Cora". Hell, I'm pretty sure I'm going to watch Cowboys and Aliens just to see her, and Harrison Ford.
Also: Lightcycles OMG.
And Zeus, that guy who isn't Simon Peg but might as well be.
But oh.... Daft Punk, you crazy geniuses. Om nom nom nom! Keep your eyes peeled for their cameo, too.
One more nit to pick.
The technology is still not quite there to do the things with "Young Jeff Bridges" that were attempted in this film. CLUE is fine. I like him this way, uncanny but not actually realistic. They should not have tried to do so much with the flashback sequences, though. And our current Jeff Bridges does NOT sound exactly like he did 20+ years ago, either. (Need a reminder? Go watch The Last Unicorn again. Bwa ha ha.) His new gruffness was disconcerting coming out of his younger plastic face. Bleah.
So all in all, I call it a win. I'm certainly waiting for the third installment, though.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-01-09 01:09 am (UTC)I loved Tron back in the day but unlike ungoth I have not seen it in decades. But man did I love it.
My brain did a wierd jump about young Jeff Bridges. I went to Starman in 1984. Much closer to the date they were aging him back to then Last Unicorn which came out a year after Tron. And as he did not quite look real in Starman either my mind was not as bugged by it as other people are. His voice was also a bit more gruff after ony a few years. He was smoking heavy back then. Yeah I kind of know my Jeff Bridges:)But some things he said were almost like they were digitally pieced... and badly. The tone and inflection changes in mid sentence when saying a few phrases.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-09 01:50 am (UTC)He didn't look real in Starman because of his specific performance choices. I remember a wonderful interview with him (a few years after Starman) and he was asked about it. He explained about the mind-state that he used to play an alien character. Then, on camera during an interview, he "did" Starman. No dialog or anything, he just "did" it, and it was still eerie.
No, I was distracted by the not-quite-there rendering. Oddly, I suspect that this will translate better on the small screen, much the way that Dragonheart did 15 years ago. (On the big screen, the effects were glaringly obvious. On TV, the seams didn't show so badly.) 80's era Flynn was... close, but still in the "uncanny" range. As CLU, it works well. I wish they'd spent more time and effort adding realism to the 80's Flynn, or not tried so hard to show him so often.
The Last Unicorn came out the following year, but keep in mind that he likely recorded his voice tracks for it BEFORE they animated it, which would put it closer to Tron than one might think.
And he's not gruff in it, either, at least not gruff like he is today.
And yeah, if they spent all that time making the whole film sound so amazing, why didn't they work more with Bridges' vocal track, which is all over the place.
See, I know my Bridges, too. :D He lost me with The Dude, though.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-10 02:26 am (UTC)I certainly walked away with questions. Was the entire digital map wiped when Flynn re-integrated? What is Quora's status in our world: digital or has she become corporeal? Did TRON die or did he pull a Spock when he fell in the Sea of Simulation and Flynn did the big zap (see Star Trek: III)?
What of the Isos? I actually want to see a MIDDLE story here.
And if/when we DO make it back to the digital world, what will it look like now and how will we get there? WHY will we go back there?
So, yes, many many questions.
But I like a movie that does these two things: It leaves me with questions by not feeding me simple answers and it asks me to think about what I've seen and how it relates to my existence.