tron legacy

I seem to recall quite a lot of negative reviews for tron legacy when it came out.  However, looking at the page on Wikipedia it describes critical reaction as "mixed".

I think that probably sums up my opinion of it too - mixed.

I can't honestly say I've watched tron in a while.  I have seen it quite a few times over the years, but I guess with it being from the very early 80s it's not something they tend to show much any more.

If I'm honest, I don't really remember the plot, as such.  I remember the awesome, innovative and clever visuals once it goes inside the computer world, I remember the games (the light cycles and disc battles) and I remember the sound, which had the dull and flat quality, like it was set in a foam box.

I do also remember it was riddled with clever little 'puns' and usage of names - programs and users being good example, but also that the whole inside world cleverly parodied (if that's the word) the outside world.

So what about this sequel?

Well, the plot was bobbins.  It was such a generic action film plot that was so predictable as to be almost painful.  It was like they'd taken a big book of Hollywood movie plot ideas and just transferred them into the film.

But as I say, I'm not entirely sure the original tron was up to much cop in terms of plot anyway.

The visuals were amazing.

Well, generally amazing.  They'd done something to produce a young Jeff Bridges and the results were okay, but a little freaky.  Now as it happened this kinda worked with the character in question, but it still looked a little off to me.

The games part of it also still worked well.  They'd taken the basic ideas if the games and amped them up to the next level.  This was rather in keeping with how games computer work - sequels are often the same basic concept (or, indeed, exactly the same game) but with more bells and whistles.

And the sound was great - more because of a storming sound track by the Chemical Brothers (turns out it was actually Daft Punk - groups that use keyboards really aren't my bag :/) than any particular overall clever strategy, but it still worked.

The thing that didn't really seem to have made it through and that I really missed was the clever ideas.  I'll give you a specific example.

In the real world at the beginning the encom corporation is launching its latest operating system and the main character sneaks in and plays a tick on them.  Fair enough, but in the meeting of the board (which was weird - you'd normally expect a big launch party, but whatever) there's this young guy who's meant to be the son of the first film's bad guy and he's also a bit of a bell end.

But when they go into the digital world, rather than him being the bad guy or, indeed, involved in any way, it's all about the old tron mythos.

Now there are justifications for this, but you could easily have made it so that they weren't issues.  Indeed, a plot along those lines may have worked a bit better.