I fight... for the users!
Hey I know I haven't posted in forever but figure I might as well cross-post this since I already wrote it. Also trying out Facebook. Which is weird and I think I like LJ more. Except that everyone is on Facebook now. Sigh.
Anyway. My job is awesome! They had a showing of Tron at work yesterday, then rented out an entire IMAX 3D theatre today for Tron: Legacy. It's a documentary after all. So. Thoughts.
Tron: Objectively, not a good movie, but watchable enough. The graphics aren't actually what feels dated; it's more the plotting. Modern movies would never assume audiences are as patient as they have to be for this movie - thirty minutes of it would have ended up on the cutting room floor. The character of Yori also kind of had nothing to do - Ram the actuarial program gets a lot more screentime and lines.
TRON: Legacy was, shockingly, good. Really. Go see it, preferably with IMAX / 3D. It's fun! Art style is unique and cool. And it has a really good Daft Punk soundtrack ( http://www.myspace.com/hollywoodrecords/music/songs/tron-legacy-soundtrack-preview-77189122?ap=1 ) I mean, it's absolutely nitpickable, but it definitely tries harder to be a coherent movie and artfully not talking too much about some of the more ridiculous assumptions that needs be made for the concept to work.
It also took its sequel status more seriously than I expected. I knew they brought back the same actors (wow The Dude and Commander Sheridan are old these days) but they have the Arcade from the original looking exactly like before, even with a sofa in the same place in the office. Some of the transport videos are taken from the evil letter Ms of the original. And obviously the clothing for the programs was inspired by the original (but actually looking decent rather than mental patient-y). The plot feels less like a video game as well (it's not "defeat the guardian of the crazed final boss then use the special artifact to attack past the gaps in his wall") which is probably a good thing. Lots of cute hacker references too that actually vaguely make sense - as in, they're using real Unix commands like kill -9 and grep in the real world rather than usual MovieOS.
If I did have to nitpick, the two parts of the film that I'd most want to redo: Okay the whole Zeus / (Jam? The random hot chick from the weapons room) plotline goes basically nowhere and is an excuse for a fight on a dance floor with Daft Punk DJing it up. The movie also builds Zeus up to be this master manipulator / shadow dealer who is supercool and up to something, then has him dancing like an idiot during the fighting (more shots of fighting please, less of crazed dancing) and then getting punked by Clu uselessly. They needed to either chop like 10 minutes off, make Zeus a side character, and have him just killed near-immediately by Clu to prove he's an effective bastard, or, if they wanted to keep Zeus in the game, figure out some kind of more interesting plot for there to be between him & Clu then "begs for his life for 2 minutes then gets blowed up."
Secondly. They blew Tron himself. First half of the movie was well-done, though I guessed what was up - nearly silent helmeted badass, presence points, formidable opponent, good. Then The Dude suddenly yells "Tron!" for no reason when Cora is captured, which is basically a half-reveal right there. But they wait until the fighter plane battle to finish the reveal, and it's not done very stylishly - "Tron, what have they done to you?!" Then for no apparent reason Tron remembers his original programming! And... does something! Not shoot them down, I guess. And no dropping away of the mask to show Commander Sheridan! Come on. Masked characters must have a dramatic reveal of their face, just like Clu got earlier. They needed to do the Tron showdown in mano-a-mano laser frisbee combat where you can see faces and make the fight very clear. Plus they even could have used the "reprogramming" excuse like Flynn pulled on the guard as for why Tron would be back, rather then him just shifting for no reason. It'd also give pro-User Tron some time to do something epic, even if it was just to quickly heroically sacrifice himself - as it stands non-brainwashed Tron doesn't really get to do anything at all.
Also. So I lied, three things, I'll mention this one just because fixing it would have been so easy. Why does Clu spare Cora when she's captured? Didn't he want to eliminate the isos? They just kinda totally skim this. Give Clu one creepy line about how "Good news! I've decided to hold you for... analysis, so that your bugs don't infest the rest of the system ever again. We will be taking you apart piece by piece." and problem solved.
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But overall, thumbs up. Even if you hate the plot it's a visual treat, so good times.
Anyway. My job is awesome! They had a showing of Tron at work yesterday, then rented out an entire IMAX 3D theatre today for Tron: Legacy. It's a documentary after all. So. Thoughts.
Tron: Objectively, not a good movie, but watchable enough. The graphics aren't actually what feels dated; it's more the plotting. Modern movies would never assume audiences are as patient as they have to be for this movie - thirty minutes of it would have ended up on the cutting room floor. The character of Yori also kind of had nothing to do - Ram the actuarial program gets a lot more screentime and lines.
TRON: Legacy was, shockingly, good. Really. Go see it, preferably with IMAX / 3D. It's fun! Art style is unique and cool. And it has a really good Daft Punk soundtrack ( http://www.myspace.com/hollywoodrecords/music/songs/tron-legacy-soundtrack-preview-77189122?ap=1 ) I mean, it's absolutely nitpickable, but it definitely tries harder to be a coherent movie and artfully not talking too much about some of the more ridiculous assumptions that needs be made for the concept to work.
It also took its sequel status more seriously than I expected. I knew they brought back the same actors (wow The Dude and Commander Sheridan are old these days) but they have the Arcade from the original looking exactly like before, even with a sofa in the same place in the office. Some of the transport videos are taken from the evil letter Ms of the original. And obviously the clothing for the programs was inspired by the original (but actually looking decent rather than mental patient-y). The plot feels less like a video game as well (it's not "defeat the guardian of the crazed final boss then use the special artifact to attack past the gaps in his wall") which is probably a good thing. Lots of cute hacker references too that actually vaguely make sense - as in, they're using real Unix commands like kill -9 and grep in the real world rather than usual MovieOS.
If I did have to nitpick, the two parts of the film that I'd most want to redo: Okay the whole Zeus / (Jam? The random hot chick from the weapons room) plotline goes basically nowhere and is an excuse for a fight on a dance floor with Daft Punk DJing it up. The movie also builds Zeus up to be this master manipulator / shadow dealer who is supercool and up to something, then has him dancing like an idiot during the fighting (more shots of fighting please, less of crazed dancing) and then getting punked by Clu uselessly. They needed to either chop like 10 minutes off, make Zeus a side character, and have him just killed near-immediately by Clu to prove he's an effective bastard, or, if they wanted to keep Zeus in the game, figure out some kind of more interesting plot for there to be between him & Clu then "begs for his life for 2 minutes then gets blowed up."
Secondly. They blew Tron himself. First half of the movie was well-done, though I guessed what was up - nearly silent helmeted badass, presence points, formidable opponent, good. Then The Dude suddenly yells "Tron!" for no reason when Cora is captured, which is basically a half-reveal right there. But they wait until the fighter plane battle to finish the reveal, and it's not done very stylishly - "Tron, what have they done to you?!" Then for no apparent reason Tron remembers his original programming! And... does something! Not shoot them down, I guess. And no dropping away of the mask to show Commander Sheridan! Come on. Masked characters must have a dramatic reveal of their face, just like Clu got earlier. They needed to do the Tron showdown in mano-a-mano laser frisbee combat where you can see faces and make the fight very clear. Plus they even could have used the "reprogramming" excuse like Flynn pulled on the guard as for why Tron would be back, rather then him just shifting for no reason. It'd also give pro-User Tron some time to do something epic, even if it was just to quickly heroically sacrifice himself - as it stands non-brainwashed Tron doesn't really get to do anything at all.
Also. So I lied, three things, I'll mention this one just because fixing it would have been so easy. Why does Clu spare Cora when she's captured? Didn't he want to eliminate the isos? They just kinda totally skim this. Give Clu one creepy line about how "Good news! I've decided to hold you for... analysis, so that your bugs don't infest the rest of the system ever again. We will be taking you apart piece by piece." and problem solved.
---
But overall, thumbs up. Even if you hate the plot it's a visual treat, so good times.