Pajiba

"we get to have Disney pictures make a film spouting the hacker ethos of information needing to be free even while Mickey stays out of the public domain until the sun burns to a cinder"

I lol'd at this. We're up for another copyright extension pretty soon but as long as Disney lobbyists are around, Steamboat Willie will never enter the public domain.

Now* I'm vacillating. Ugh.

I just watched the original Tron this past weekend again. I forgot how bad it actually was. With that fresh in my mind to compare to, Tron: Legacy will be amazing.

"The director apparently told Jeff Bridges to channel The Dude in any scene where actual exposition takes place."
I'm totally ok with that. The review is spot on but my contention would be that the second half of the movie functions pretty well as a long chase scene. I don't think that anyone will be disappointed if they see the movie. Its entertaining.

Watched the original and the new Tron back to back last night. The original was TERRIBLE and yes that made the new Tron look so much better.

Honestly, the new Tron is not that bad, sure the plot is simplistic, but it's mostly a popcorn movie anyway. Were you expecting Philip K. Dick? I think not. So just enjoy the graphics eyegasm and Daft Punk, it's not like you'll be paying much attention to anything else.

The only reason for the second review of this in the local free paper was that the second reviewer didn't think the first reviewer's abysmal review was vicious enough.

Goddamn it. Storytelling isn't that hard.

eh, it just does what Avatar did last year: create a visually soaring, cripple scripted amalgam of technology and humanity. I thought it was pretty and the 3D was actually successful. Not over used and not horrible to the eyes. There are a few scenes where they play with the idea of video game physics, as opposed to real world, that are pretty fucking awesome. The light vehicles (bikes, planes) are honestly the tits. Also, Olivia Wilde makes my wangwang go bing bong.

Goddamn it. Storytelling isn't that hard.

Posted by: twig at December 17, 2010 2:22 PM

And... now I can discount every one of your posts in the future. Thanks!

This exactly reflects my own feelings. For the first twenty minutes or so I was enjoying it, it was quite sweet and nostalgic with lots of nods to the first film and then as soon as theyr'e on the grid I completely lost interest. It's sooooo dull. All the characters just spout weird technobabble at each other which no amount of pretty can make up for. Michael Sheen is only there for about 5 minutes (booo) and the only actor who emerges relatively unscathed is surprisingly Olivia Wilde who is actually charming. Garrett Hedlund is easy on the eye but his character just walks around spewing cliches. I was fighting to stay awake and considering I watched The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest right after -which is almost 3 hours long and in swedish- and managed to not only stay awake but enjoy the heck out of it I can only blame Tron. Also why is it even called Tron? Surely it should be Flynn or The Grid? You might as well watch Binary code for two hours.

Yes. Yes you are.

Yeah, how could you not mention that Michael Sheen has some sort of camptastic role? I saw him on Craig Ferguson and they showed a clip from Tron that MS was actually IN, and it was... bizarre. I think he was channeling Mugatu or something.

Also, yes, Olivia Wilde is in this, but this fucker's rated PG. PG, full stop. No titz. Not even "sexual situations". {sad trombones}

Er. SOUND like an asshat.

Sorry, didn't mean to call you a name directly. Just indirectly.

story... there was a story?
sorry, but it was seriously one of the most visually beautiful things I have seen for a while (yes, prettier then Avatar). I imagine that every sci fi/fantasy artist will add some sort reference for this movie, for at least a few weeks now.
the soundtrack is excellent as well.

the story was sort of rewritten Matrix (aka Matrix with Neon's), serviceable, decent nothing exiting, but certainly better then a hell of a lot of movies I've seen lately.

All you haters saying the first Tron was terrible and didn't have a story either, can eat a dumpster full of sweaty digital dicks.

Tron was awesome.

...No. I haven't actually watched it in the last ten years or so. What's your point?

there’s plenty of things happening on the screen (one can tell because there are faux-pixellated explosions and very much serious seriousness on the part of the actors)

Wooooo! I'm there. I don't need a bunch of amateur philosophical shit. Sometimes you just have to get your dad out of a computer program and that's all there is to it.

I'm actually old enough to have seen the first "Tron" in the theaters. I was 12, and based on the commercials leading up to the release, just knew it would be the COOLEST THING IN THE WORLD. But even at 12 years old, I realized that it pretty much just sucked. I'm going to let this be one of the rare times I learn from my younger self and pass on the sequel.

So, if I read this right, 18 years after the original, plus a TV it-girl in skintight whatever and Son of Tron ain't half as good as Reboot?

someone forgot to tell the screenwriters the definition of a program: it’s computer code that does something.

I won't defend a movie I haven't seen yet, but you missed a basic point - a program is something that does something - but only ONE thing - and it does it over and over again, boringly. So giving an accounting program (original Tron) a personality was actually a mistake by those screenwriters. Only the elite programs should show signs of "life".

Michael Sheen is only there for about 5 minutes

Well that's all I really wanted to know.

I watched Tron for the first time a couple days ago, and thought it was hilariously awful. Suffice it to say the sequel was never really intended for me.

@jesuschrysler, @someprogrammer

Are you referring to the CGI type cartoon ...

Yep, ReBoot. I saw somewhere that you could get it on DVD, finally. Some endless kerfuffle about ownership, rooted in a complex production history held it up. Anywho, it made me laugh out loud. Plus, "Fax Modem and Data Nully" - genius.

With Reboot and Max Headroom both available now, plus the Matrix movie, the bar is pretty damn high for any cyber-world.

This Son of Tron, sounds like I picked the wrong movie to quit self-medicating.

I've avoided pretty much every scrap of news about Tron 2. I've seen the original, and it's not for everyone, but I enjoyed it, however nothing could've lived up to the expectations going in if you were a fan. It's the Phantom Menace rule, the more you hype yourself up, the greater the downfall you'll experience.

I've already had to deal with that emotion repeatedly after every Final Fantasy game made since the Squaresoft-Enix merger sucked ass despite each game being in development for several centuries. I don't need a reminder, yet every year millions of people hype themselves up for the next big thing, be it a new Star Wars movie, a new Indiana Jones movie, a new superhero movie, or a new movie starring a former indie darling. Each time they walk out in utter shock that something could suck that badly.

The lesson, expect nothing.

Second on the Bob crush from Reboot....It was the only English show on tv overseas growing up and I swear it was my first real tv show I watched regularly...that and Beast Wars....

Oh but I really liked the movie. I liked it heaps.

Agreed with what Zedd posted up there,, sounds exactly like the first one. I'll see it out of loyalty to The Dude.

Twig, I won't call you names, but crafting a good story is complex and difficult. Fan fic writers don't have to build the world in which they write, so it's easier to move around in and play with. I have a lot of friends who do that, and even they will tell you that writing original fiction is scary and hard. When it's done, it's not even done, because you have to edit, rewrite, and polish until it's the best damned story you can tell.* At least you do if you aren't Stephenie fucking Meyer. Otherwise, you end up blowing up your own mythology and the reader can't trust you or your story anymore.

That being said, the script writers didn't have to come up with a whole new world, because this is a sequel - albeit one a hell of a long time in the making. If the story is boring, it really is because they didn't take the time to craft it well.

*Some fan fic writers do this, but they are rare.

So okay, I went to see this and I must strongly disagree with our dear reviewer, it was neither boring nor was it lacking in story, seemed pretty clear cut to me, in fact The Matrix wishes it had such a clear vision and motivation. At least that's what I got out of it. The visuals were nothing short of spectacular. And yes, Bridges was channeling The Dude all through the film which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

I suggest folks go see for themselves.

/fuck this review

And the fact that no one mentioned the music?? FUCK YOU. It made the movie. It was amazing.

Why is no one mentioning Cillian Murphy's extremely bizarre cameo? Was that NOT Cillian Murphy? I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS!

Posted by: coveredinbees at December 18, 2010 8:44 AM

I can neither confirm nor deny that you're taking crazy pills, but you are absolutely right: creepy Cillian has an uncredited cameo in the movie as the son of the original villain (Dillinger). Apparently the producers were setting him up as the villain for (another) sequel. Maybe that'll still happen in another 28 years.

Saw it. Liked it. Really striking visuals. Wonderful score (did Disney not give us every bit of Daft Punk goodness in their soundtrack? BASTARDOS!) Olivia Wilde is beautiful. Jeff Bridges abides. THE CGI Bridges was the only weird flaw. The guy playing Sam was OK.

OK, that out of the way, let me postulate something and see whether the Pajibans 1s & 0s think I'm off my rocker or onto something:

There's a reason everyone's comparing this to The Matrix and it's more than just computers and a digital landscape. It's because both are drawing from a similar source: Christian mythology.

You got Kevin Flynn playing the role of God in the Grid. He can make anything happen. The programs see him and kneel at his presence. He even tries to embody a philosophy of peace. However, he's so removed, far and away from the Grid, that programs have stopped believing in him. His only ally is the last of the beings that were born out of the Grid (the "isos"): Quorra. She becomes his messenger and his assistant -- never questioning, always loyal. Like an angel.

Meanwhile, Flynn's creation, Clu, is out there, fulfilling his role as he thinks he is supposed to do. But he can't create. He can only repurpose or destroy. He even takes Flynn's ally, Tron and reprograms him into his own warrior/hunter. And as he is making the world his creator told him to make ("perfect"), he's in constant conflict with Flynn. Even though he commands the Grid, he can't make a move on Flynn's location -- so he comes up with a plan that ends up drawing Sam, the son of the digital deity, into their struggle.

Maybe I'm reaching. It's 3 AM.

Saw Tron at iMax tonight and it was beautiful. The music, the CGI, the glass world... the motorcycles.

Agree completely with Fredo, re: Christian mythology. It was pretty bloody obvious I thought.

Want Cillian to be the baddie next time. He looked lovely with his iPad/desk gadget.

"Tron: The Laggery..."

GoGo, I understand. But I rather how they do it in Tron Legacy than in Narnia because Tron at least follows a video game plan and can hide all of these ideas. Without the Christian imagery, Narnia falls apart.

It is amusing that this is a Disney movie though.

@Fredo

Actually it's more gnostic christian than (modern, orthodox) Christian. Isolated creator god with intervening evil overlord run amok? Check. Humans contain a divine spark, isolated and corrupted by the intervening bad-seed? Check. Redemption through reunion with the creator god through "gnosis" - knowledge? Check. Hottie female principle ("Sophia" - wisdom) active in the world, providing a "gateway" to gnosis? Check.

The "gnostic christian" folks accounted for the ill-tempered old testament god and the redeemer of the new by claiming that the old one was an intervening baddie. "Gnostics" in general shared only two things, really. First, they shared a doctrine of salvation (after a fashion) through direct, personal knowing and the spark of the divine within each person. Second, the more established religions & some governments didn't like them much.

Now that I think about it, a great deal of hero / redeemer sci-fi and fantasy is more gnostic than anything else.

I may have to see this movie. Maybe there's a glyph somewhere, or a map to decode, so you can find their meetings. (If there was a mystery religion out there that didn't want to be found, how would you know?)

BierceAmbrose, I think that's the term I was looking for -- Gnostic. I remembered that the Wachowskis used a lot of it for The Matrix movies but couldn't remember the term.

And GoGo, you're right! They both were. If I didn't know better....

I saw it and liked it more than I thought I would. My mom was the one who suggested it (my mom!! You don't know my mom, but if you did, you'd think it bizarre too. She watched the first one when it came out and liked it) and I thought, why not?

I really dug the group chase scene with the motorbikes. That was really awesome.

But mostly, I think it was the whole... concept? - of it that bothered me. I couldn't stop thinking about how Quorra could be flesh when transmitted out of the Grid. And if so, why can't they remake Jeff Bridges using his disc? Also, why does Clu think he can get out of the Grid and take over Earth? He's a program... I can destroy him by unplugging everything.

I know that the technical stuff is boring and whatever and we're supposed to give a movie like this some suspension of belief, but I was really distracted by it...

Also, 13 was hot in this, but I prefer her as 13. One last thing: The Aliens and Cowboys preview was SO FUCKING COOL!

Hi! Aw, this was a really nice post. In idea I would like to put in writing like this additionally – taking time and actual effort to make a very good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and by no means seem to get something done.