Tron has always been a childhood favorite, visually, stylistically, and idea wise - it was an amazing film but after watching it again as an adult, I realize it had some problems as well - mainly some weak plot development and character arcs.
Tron Legacy, in this regard, follows it predecessors exactly in both it's accomplishments and snafus.
The film opens solidly with Sam Flynn (Flynn's son) dealing with the loss of his long gone father and running off with Encom's Operating system - making it open source for all to use. Against the wishes the corporate board. A few nods are made to the original here - (we briefly meet Dillinger's son and see he has some part seemingly in the company's power structure, and the BIG DOOR makes a cameo appearance - you know the one.)
Sam eventually makes it onto a new computerized grid (albeit with less flash than Flynn did in the original)in the back of his father's abandoned arcade. This new grid is dark and beautiful all at once. From there he is captured, forced to play the games - though cool to watch, seem to stand out less to me than the first time around, and meets Clu 2.0. Our antagonist. He eventually escapes and meets up with Flynn, and the two, with the help of some weird half program/lifeform (who takes the shape of a hot woman) journey towards the portal out in the far wastelands of the grid, chased of course by Clu and it turns out Clu's henchman - Tron (who was reprogrammed). At the end, Tron has a sudden change of heart, Flynn kills himself to take out Clu and Sam and robo girl escape back into the real world. Sam decides to take his position as head of the company and he and digi chick ride off into the sunset.
Now that I've condensed the film into a few paragraphs let me encode to you it's pluses and minuses.
Positives: Visually beautiful film, Some of the story subplots are very interesting, and the action is a lot of fun to watch.
Negatives: The story starts a bunch of subplots that never really develop:
First they bring in Dillinger's son, he seemingly has some power in the company, but nothing ever happens with him and he never is referenced again.
Tron has a great subplot - he was repurposed to be Clu's evil right hand hatchet man but he suddenly has a change of heart in the last few minutes of the film (literally within ten seconds by voicing some old dialouge from the last film, tries to stop Clu and dies). He's amazing to watch when he fights - it's a huge twist in the story and he gets very little screen time to develop his arc. Almost none. So in the end the Titular character has a somewhat brief appearance and his motivations remain vague.
Flynn's motivations also seem a little weak but even more than that Flynn apparently has God-like powers in this new grid - which are never discussed or shown in any way that makes sense, so when he sacrifices himself and throws his digital magic around, it feels a little too deus ex machina...but then again that's exactly what he is, so maybe I'm just being a little too anal about that one.
The new life forms on the grid (I forget the bizarre name they give) that look like programs, act like programs, bleed like programs but aren't programs..entirely, are not really developed much - except that Clu tried to wipe them all out..for some vague reason and the only one that remains is Sam's new digital girlfriend. Apparently these beings will "change everything" but how exactly they'll do that is never talked about. This subplot really felt unneeded to me. Clu own agenda of invading with a digital army of his own into the real world is enough of a threat (albeit kind of a lame one).
Finally all the weird inconsistencies with how the digital world works leaks through the fabric of the film's beautifual visual style...i.e. why is there real food in the grid? How can a digital program have a real body in the real world? How is Sam's girlfriend suddenly outside and in physical form at the end of the film?
And why exactly did Flynn repurposing Clu at the end, and killing himself in the process for some reason, destroy or knock out the grid? What the hell did Sam save to his little zip disk at the end? WHAT THE HECK WAS THE POINT OF ANY OF IT?
The answer: A thrown together script, a lotta hype, and lots of pretty cgi.
Tron Legacy may someday stack up in cult circles like it's father did, and it may even get a sequel but the filmmakers need to remember it's not the dollars spent on cgi bits and bytes that count, it's the hours spent writing cohesive arcs and plots.
Tron Legacy, in this regard, follows it predecessors exactly in both it's accomplishments and snafus.
The film opens solidly with Sam Flynn (Flynn's son) dealing with the loss of his long gone father and running off with Encom's Operating system - making it open source for all to use. Against the wishes the corporate board. A few nods are made to the original here - (we briefly meet Dillinger's son and see he has some part seemingly in the company's power structure, and the BIG DOOR makes a cameo appearance - you know the one.)
Sam eventually makes it onto a new computerized grid (albeit with less flash than Flynn did in the original)in the back of his father's abandoned arcade. This new grid is dark and beautiful all at once. From there he is captured, forced to play the games - though cool to watch, seem to stand out less to me than the first time around, and meets Clu 2.0. Our antagonist. He eventually escapes and meets up with Flynn, and the two, with the help of some weird half program/lifeform (who takes the shape of a hot woman) journey towards the portal out in the far wastelands of the grid, chased of course by Clu and it turns out Clu's henchman - Tron (who was reprogrammed). At the end, Tron has a sudden change of heart, Flynn kills himself to take out Clu and Sam and robo girl escape back into the real world. Sam decides to take his position as head of the company and he and digi chick ride off into the sunset.
Now that I've condensed the film into a few paragraphs let me encode to you it's pluses and minuses.
Positives: Visually beautiful film, Some of the story subplots are very interesting, and the action is a lot of fun to watch.
Negatives: The story starts a bunch of subplots that never really develop:
First they bring in Dillinger's son, he seemingly has some power in the company, but nothing ever happens with him and he never is referenced again.
Tron has a great subplot - he was repurposed to be Clu's evil right hand hatchet man but he suddenly has a change of heart in the last few minutes of the film (literally within ten seconds by voicing some old dialouge from the last film, tries to stop Clu and dies). He's amazing to watch when he fights - it's a huge twist in the story and he gets very little screen time to develop his arc. Almost none. So in the end the Titular character has a somewhat brief appearance and his motivations remain vague.
Flynn's motivations also seem a little weak but even more than that Flynn apparently has God-like powers in this new grid - which are never discussed or shown in any way that makes sense, so when he sacrifices himself and throws his digital magic around, it feels a little too deus ex machina...but then again that's exactly what he is, so maybe I'm just being a little too anal about that one.
The new life forms on the grid (I forget the bizarre name they give) that look like programs, act like programs, bleed like programs but aren't programs..entirely, are not really developed much - except that Clu tried to wipe them all out..for some vague reason and the only one that remains is Sam's new digital girlfriend. Apparently these beings will "change everything" but how exactly they'll do that is never talked about. This subplot really felt unneeded to me. Clu own agenda of invading with a digital army of his own into the real world is enough of a threat (albeit kind of a lame one).
Finally all the weird inconsistencies with how the digital world works leaks through the fabric of the film's beautifual visual style...i.e. why is there real food in the grid? How can a digital program have a real body in the real world? How is Sam's girlfriend suddenly outside and in physical form at the end of the film?
And why exactly did Flynn repurposing Clu at the end, and killing himself in the process for some reason, destroy or knock out the grid? What the hell did Sam save to his little zip disk at the end? WHAT THE HECK WAS THE POINT OF ANY OF IT?
The answer: A thrown together script, a lotta hype, and lots of pretty cgi.
Tron Legacy may someday stack up in cult circles like it's father did, and it may even get a sequel but the filmmakers need to remember it's not the dollars spent on cgi bits and bytes that count, it's the hours spent writing cohesive arcs and plots.
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