TRON: Legacy (2010)
March 21, 2016 4:45 PM - Subscribe
The son of a virtual world designer (Jeff Bridges) goes looking for his father and ends up inside the digital world that his father designed. He meets his father's corrupted creation and a unique ally who was born inside the digital world.
This is the one film I've seen in 3-D where I felt the 3-D really, really, REALLY worked. Not just prettied it up like Avatar, or kicked in for one cool scene like in Coraline, but did something the movie was supposed to do: Take you into the computer.
posted by tomboko at 6:29 PM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by tomboko at 6:29 PM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
This is absolutely the movie I'm going to watch if I ever have to take a lot of painkillers for some reason.
posted by Artw at 7:31 PM on March 21, 2016
posted by Artw at 7:31 PM on March 21, 2016
Tron: Legacy looked amazing, and I can watch Jeff Bridges bullshit for hours, but it made no goddamn sense. Soundtrack was pretty great, though. I feel so bad for Disney who has this great IP about the world inside of computers and absolutely no idea how to make any money from it.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 7:49 PM on March 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Elementary Penguin at 7:49 PM on March 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
Oblivion was slightly better, with great visuals and a nearly as good soundtrack and a moderately more engaging script, but I'd be curious to see what Joseph Kosinski could do given something with some actual meat on it.
posted by Artw at 7:55 PM on March 21, 2016
posted by Artw at 7:55 PM on March 21, 2016
It was really shockingly underwritten for something that was supposed to restart a franchise. It seemed like there should have been more plot on the "outside" involving the Cillian Murphy character but whole thread got forgotten.
posted by octothorpe at 7:03 AM on March 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 7:03 AM on March 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
Yeah, it was very pretty, but, man. I'd say that it went off the rails in narrative terms, but that's sort of implying it started off on the rails and I'm not sure that's true.
Oblivion was slightly better but I thought it kept not looking at the interesting questions it was raising. A lot of that was the script, but I think there were ways to look at it from a directorial approach.
posted by rmd1023 at 7:37 AM on March 22, 2016
Oblivion was slightly better but I thought it kept not looking at the interesting questions it was raising. A lot of that was the script, but I think there were ways to look at it from a directorial approach.
posted by rmd1023 at 7:37 AM on March 22, 2016
I have a soft spot in my heart for movies that are all pretty surface and mood (like The Cell) and was the right age to be into Tron when it was in the arcade, and the Tron 2.0 PC game when that came out, and i wanted to like it so so much. Their TV show just went down in flames, too. Maybe they'll take another shot in five years.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 8:05 AM on March 22, 2016
posted by Elementary Penguin at 8:05 AM on March 22, 2016
I did not begrudge my time watching the movie but there sure wasn't much to it, was there? Digitally de-aged Bridges is no David Warner.
posted by phearlez at 8:24 AM on March 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by phearlez at 8:24 AM on March 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
I walked away feeling like I had just sat through a really long music video. Not a terrible thing but not great filmmaking. Huge eyeroll at the whole AI becomes "a real girl."
The soundtrack has the music but I swear the track lengths are shorter than the actual score and that bugs me.
posted by M Edward at 2:41 PM on March 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
The soundtrack has the music but I swear the track lengths are shorter than the actual score and that bugs me.
posted by M Edward at 2:41 PM on March 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Tron is hallowed ground for me, so while it wasn't much, a little more Tron, however it arrives, is good enough for me. I have listened to the soundtrack several times, might watch the movie again if it pops up on NFLX.
This would be a good double-feature with the Wachowskis' "Speed Racer."
posted by rhizome at 3:54 PM on March 22, 2016
This would be a good double-feature with the Wachowskis' "Speed Racer."
posted by rhizome at 3:54 PM on March 22, 2016
Tron was one of the most singular, unique movies ever made. Its aesthetic is instantly recognizable, and it holds everyone who has ever played a game or used a computer and wondered what it's like on the other side of the screen.
So it's really disappointing to see how underbaked this movie is. They're gunning for the people who have spent the last 30 years thinking about Tron, so why do they establish a backstory where Jeff Bridges discovers an amazing computer world and immediately dumps it in favor of a new slick world he built from scratch? Why have a scene where young Sam Flynn is getting blown around by a recognizer when having it float down with only light and sound would've helped establish he's in a different world with different rules? Why is Clu obsessed with the real world? How does he expect to send his army through one decrepit laser scanner? Does he think he'll still have all his cool impossible computer weapons in the real world? Why doesn't Jeff Bridges just say "Sudo stop being an asshole?" Why are the ISOs considered an imperfection of the system when they're the only things not made by imperfect humans? Why didn't Jeff Bridges learn anything about having one dictator program in charge after helping defeat the MCP? Why did they have to push Young Jeff Bridges tech when they could've waited just a couple years and had infinitely less creepy looking results? Why do programs go to bars? Do any of these programs actually do anything other than act like simulated people? Why can Clu only be stopped with a nuclear hug?
But, Daft Punk was awesome and their cameo was perfect. This movie was a hell of a ride.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:06 PM on March 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
So it's really disappointing to see how underbaked this movie is. They're gunning for the people who have spent the last 30 years thinking about Tron, so why do they establish a backstory where Jeff Bridges discovers an amazing computer world and immediately dumps it in favor of a new slick world he built from scratch? Why have a scene where young Sam Flynn is getting blown around by a recognizer when having it float down with only light and sound would've helped establish he's in a different world with different rules? Why is Clu obsessed with the real world? How does he expect to send his army through one decrepit laser scanner? Does he think he'll still have all his cool impossible computer weapons in the real world? Why doesn't Jeff Bridges just say "Sudo stop being an asshole?" Why are the ISOs considered an imperfection of the system when they're the only things not made by imperfect humans? Why didn't Jeff Bridges learn anything about having one dictator program in charge after helping defeat the MCP? Why did they have to push Young Jeff Bridges tech when they could've waited just a couple years and had infinitely less creepy looking results? Why do programs go to bars? Do any of these programs actually do anything other than act like simulated people? Why can Clu only be stopped with a nuclear hug?
But, Daft Punk was awesome and their cameo was perfect. This movie was a hell of a ride.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:06 PM on March 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
I like this movie simply because it looks and sounds amazing. It's a great movie to just turn off your brain and enjoy the spectacle.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 5:46 PM on March 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 5:46 PM on March 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
Oh my God, what a soundtrack. Daft Punk + full reign to make an electronic/orchestral soundtrack = fucking amazing. Probably the only original soundtrack CD I will listen to start to finish and then start it over again. So, so good.
And it looked amazing! Yeah, plot, whatever, it's a film about a laser that puts you inside a computer, what are you expecting?
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:54 AM on March 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
And it looked amazing! Yeah, plot, whatever, it's a film about a laser that puts you inside a computer, what are you expecting?
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:54 AM on March 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Why didn't Jeff Bridges learn anything about [bad design decision]
He's a software dev. Have you read DailyWTF?
Does he think he'll still have all his cool impossible computer weapons in the real world?
Computer soldiers in the real world makes just as much sense as real people in the computer world.
Why is Clu obsessed with the real world?
Real world Jeff Bridges is obsessed with creating and controlling the digital world, so makes sense his digital version is obsessed with controlling the real world.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 5:05 AM on March 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
He's a software dev. Have you read DailyWTF?
Does he think he'll still have all his cool impossible computer weapons in the real world?
Computer soldiers in the real world makes just as much sense as real people in the computer world.
Why is Clu obsessed with the real world?
Real world Jeff Bridges is obsessed with creating and controlling the digital world, so makes sense his digital version is obsessed with controlling the real world.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 5:05 AM on March 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
I want a sequel where they get back out of the computer but it turns out to be a million years later because the CPU they were in had a clock speed of 3MHz.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 11:51 AM on March 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 11:51 AM on March 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
See it again, imagining Bridges is not Flynn, but Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski.
posted by ubiquity at 5:50 PM on March 24, 2016
posted by ubiquity at 5:50 PM on March 24, 2016
Tron II: The Interstellaring
You can't spell astronaut without TRON.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:57 PM on February 10, 2018
You can't spell astronaut without TRON.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:57 PM on February 10, 2018
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It was really pretty though. And I liked the Daft Punk soundtrack.
posted by grouse at 4:48 PM on March 21, 2016 [3 favorites]