{"id":6096,"date":"2010-12-17T18:21:04","date_gmt":"2010-12-17T22:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.regrettablesincerity.com\/?p=6096"},"modified":"2010-12-18T01:40:57","modified_gmt":"2010-12-18T05:40:57","slug":"tron-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/?p=6096","title":{"rendered":"Tron: Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>My first memory of seeing a movie in the theater was when I was 4 years old. The movie was Steven Lisberger\u2019s Tron<\/em> and though I can\u2019t recall my initial reaction to the film, I\u2019d assume that I enjoyed it, seeing as that\u2019s the level the movie is pitched at. I didn\u2019t see the movie again until college, on a grainy, cropped VHS, and it went beyond the feeling of nostalgia, almost to the point of legitimate entertainment. Don\u2019t get me wrong, the movie was still corny and the effects amusingly antiquated, but the constant panning and scanning of the image lent the film a real feeling of watching a primitive video game.<\/p>\n

When I saw Tron<\/em> on DVD, cleaned up and in widescreen, it looked wrong. The format was simply too good for the movie, as the limitations of VHS had worked along with the limitations of the film. Every awkward bit of dialogue that was sort of charming on tape, clunked when presented with crystal clear audio.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Such a reaction tempered any excitement I had for a sequel to Tron<\/em>, Joseph Kosinski\u2019s Tron: Legacy<\/em>. How could a sequel benefit from hype and enormous amounts of money ($200 million) thrown at the movie and especially the marketing? Not to mention that it was to be shown in 3D, a format currently in vogue, but death to the consistency of image quality. The darkening of the look of the film caused by the 3D could only hurt what might generously be considered a very expensive planetarium laser light show. In the original film, the sequences inside the video game that bitter and betrayed computer programmer Kevin Flynn is sucked into (and fights against the very programs he designed), were shot in black and white and the colored uniforms were added in post-production. It gave the film an eerie, otherworldly quality, like the color was fighting a losing battle against a black and white world (a fitting metaphor for the simplicity of the screenplay, and a precursor to Pleasantville<\/em>).<\/p>\n

In Kosinski\u2019s film, that subtext is missing, because technology has caught up to the original ideas and the black and white is no longer necessary as the entire film can be created on a computer combined with green screen footage. Kosinski, making his feature debut, was probably so excited about getting the opportunity to attach his name to something he enjoyed as a kid, he forgot that the original film is infantile, a show-off for early CGI, and that trying to take infantilism seriously is a major mistake.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tron: Legac<\/em>y is so concerned with filling in backstory that the opening narration is combined with several different levels of exposition, from TV imagery that fills in the blanks, flashbacks, news reports, board meetings, that the entire opening act is a throwaway for anyone familiar with the first film. Simply, Flynn had a son, and when the kid, Sam, was still in grade school, he disappeared, leaving the corporation he built behind to be taken away by vultures who only want to exploit the public with its computer software.<\/p>\n

The rest of the information, that Sam misses his dad and every year tries to sabotage what\u2019s become of his company*, could have been implied without giving us all the specifics, and then repeating it for \u00bd an hour. The first section is absolutely deadly to a viewer, it has an ugly brown look to it, Sam, played by Garrett Hedlund and looks like Christian Finnegan<\/span><\/a> by way of Sam Worthington<\/span><\/a>, is irritating, and the cartoon villains trying to hi-jack Flynn\u2019s company don\u2019t really rise to the level of hateable, just kind of sniveling and smug. Hedlund is done no favors by the dialogue, he\u2019s an \u201cextreme\u201d guy, seemingly written in the late \u201890s as he does his outrageous stunts like parachuting off of tall buildings and saying, \u201cnow that\u2019s what I\u2019m talkin\u2019 about!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Of course, Sam is going to learn the lessons of humility and love (in the real world, he\u2019s just a poor little rich kid) from his father once he enters \u201cthe grid\u201d of the video game that his dad has been stuck in for the last 20 years. But he mostly behaves like a temperamental monkey, exacerbated by the imagery provided wherein faceless henchmen attack our heroes with the aid of what looks like digital flying monkeys borrowed from the set of The Wizard of Oz<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Kosinski had to have been aware of all of the parallels, the visuals of this particular video game world are clearly inspired by Blade Runner<\/em>, certain images recall Flash Gordon<\/em>, and of course the original film\u2019s reliance on Star Wars<\/em> as a point of reference is driven into the ground here. When Bridges, aged and bearded, shows up to battle under a black hood hiding his face, along with his surfer dialogue, he probably should have just been renamed Obi Wan Lebowski. Even Daft Punk\u2019s pounding score, so loud and dominating that you could feel the floor vibrating in the IMAX theater, is a melding of the scores from Blade Runner<\/em> and The Terminator<\/em>**. The score is relentlessly enthusiastic and moody, and promises a much better movie than Kosinski is able to deliver, especially as Tron: Legacy<\/em> limps through more and more confusing exposition during Sam and Kevin\u2019s reunion. These scenes could have used a lot of clean-up, it\u2019s why this sequel is more than two hours long and never sustains any momentum for more than a few minutes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s only in the mostly wordless third act, an elaborate escape attempt by the Flynns and a program named Quorra (played by the unforgettably high-cheekboned Olivia Wilde*** whose role is used for stem cell research advocacy<\/span><\/a>), where the visuals take over and the newfangled vehicles, including what looks like a stingray spaceship, remind us what the movie should have been. The 3D is not special, there are a few shots here and there (including those featured in the trailer where the \u201clightcycles\u201d fly over the camera) that are impressive, but not enough to justify the squinting and glasses adjustments that a viewer has to go through. And the choice to de-age Bridges to his younger self to also play the villainous Clu was disastrous. The effects are good enough to slightly resemble the young Bridges, but not good enough to fully accept the creepy Polar Express<\/em>-style animation, especially in the way the lips move when Clu talks (which look like video game cut scenes). The CGI either needed to be perfect, or so bad that the scenes become campy that you forgive the chintziness, the almost<\/em> we get doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>That\u2019s really where the finances hurt the film, if something is big, you\u2019re going to notice the eyesore moments even moreso, and it\u2019s another reason why treating infantilism like gospel is so problematic. The scale of Tron: Legacy<\/em> turns the famed lightcycle and Frisbee\/boomerang Coliseum-esque showdowns into completely forgettable scenes, we don\u2019t get much chance to orient ourselves before it\u2019s time to move on to the next stunt or plot point. Tron: Legacy<\/em> has a \u201churry up and wait\u201d feel to it, the elder Bridges is trying to just wait his existence out so Clu can\u2019t take advantage of his energy, and the characters mostly sit around explaining what\u2019s going on to each other and us.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There aren\u2019t characters here, it\u2019s all bloodless and functional, so when Michael Sheen throws in a truly campy performance as Zeus, who runs a high end dance club for programs, it\u2019s a relief, because he brings energy to the role, even if, outside of the context of the movie, he\u2019s pretty embarrassing. He\u2019s a perfect representation of what Tron: Legacy<\/em> should have been, energetic and silly, but embarrassing if you\u2019re in the wrong mood. I\u2019m afraid they only got the second part right.<\/p>\n

* The inherent message being sent by Sam\u2019s actions is that the software Flynn\u2019s company is selling should be open source and free for all, and the board wants to profit by selling the same products every year that are updates only in the sense that the box art has changed. Did the Tron: Legacy<\/em> producers and the distributor Disney not realize the message here? That Sam, the hero, and later Kevin, are advocating piracy of all types, especially when the manufacturers are only offering souped-up versions of previous software, you know, like a bloated and unnecessary sequel?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>** Tron: Legacy<\/em> has a very odd similarity to Terminator 2<\/em>, in that they both open with unruly orphans breaking into secure machines with cobbled together computer code breakers, an ATM in T2<\/em>, a high rise building\u2019s massive bank-vault-style door in Tron: Legacy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

*** Unfortunately, she\u2019s buried beneath a butch-goth haircut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first memory of seeing a movie in the theater was when I was 4 years old. The movie was Steven Lisberger\u2019s Tron and though I can\u2019t recall my initial reaction to the film, I\u2019d assume that I enjoyed it, seeing as that\u2019s the level the movie is pitched at. I didn\u2019t see the movie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[7375,7388,3173,600,130,7374,7384,7383,7381,7378,1104,7377,7387,7385,7379,4017,1074,7376,7382,2062,4593,2511,2338,276,7380,7373,7386,3172,3403,6436,736,4235,2132,7372,2888,4573],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6096"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6096\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regrettablesincerity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}