Some thoughts on Tron: Legacy

This is a copy and paste of the review I wrote for Facebook. I will offer some additional comments at the end. 


"Tron: Legacy is an amazing movie. It has some of the most wildly imaginative spacial effects that there are to offer. The story is pretty well done, even though there are still elements that aren't original. Still, there is a lot there to love and that is the best about it. Is this movie for everyone? No. There are many who have looked at this movie and written it off. That is too bad. It is filled with adventure and really cool things to watch. It is a great revisit to some characters that we are familiar with, if you watched or remember the original, while giving us new characters to enjoy. Is there problems in the movie? (Spoilers, just in case) Isn't there always? One of the biggest problems I have is with the de-aging of Flynn. In the old days, they would have just put some makeup on Jeff to make him look oddly old, my wife would have complained about it, and we would have gone on with our lives. Now, with digital technology, we feel its something that we must use for everything, and, in this case, it doesn't always work. The major issue being that his eyes looks mostly off and his mouth seems weird. I am glad that they tried this route, but I wish it had been better. Also, we are given loads of introductions into this world, yet we aren't given a ton of time to get adjusted. That being said, when we are able to move around said world, it's amazing. I wish that there had been a bit more given to one of the characters, but maybe one day, if they follow this up, there will be more time. What worked? So much more. The games were awesome. The action is top notch. The surprises are really wow- inducing, and the ultimate outcome is a bit shocking and sad. The End of Line club is great, Daft Punk's score is amazing, and the little bits and pieces that they put in there for the fans of the original made me smile in so many ways. Yes, I feel this movie is good. I am so happy that this film turned out as good as it did, and I was able to return to a world that I loved as a kid and as an adult. I hope it does well, and we can get other movies."


This movie came out, made very little money, made very few waves, then disappeared. Why? Well, that's where it gets interesting. Or not. In any case, I think that it suffered from two major issues.



1. It turned off the general public. Disney did a great job of showcasing the special effects and the fact that this was going to be filled with action, but didn't do much to help remind those who were unfamiliar with the original. Disney didn't release TRON on a format that was able to be bought or seen right before the movie, so people were not able to get ready for these characters or even the world. This was a major factor, I am sure. After all, if you know it's a sequel, and you haven't seen the original movie, then you might be worried about jumping on that bandwagon. Of course, I also seemed to feel that people were suffering from 3D fatigue, and didn't want to see yet another film in that format. In any case, people weren't sure how to handle this movie. And when you get to that point, then mostly that is the 'DVD rental' phase, where they will catch it next time they remember it in the video store or on-line. 


2. The geeks were totally divided on it. I saw a review on G4 today, in which the DVD guy reviewed the movie and HATED it! He was trashing it up and really explaining just how much he was disappointed in what they did, who played Sam, and just everything else in general. This person is clearly a geek about movies and such, so he was one of them to really took this movie to task. This was a problem that was repeated time and time again. There were people like me that were floored and got a kick out of it, despite it's flaws (yes, there are many) and tried to explain this to others. Then there were the ones who took this as a personal attack a really slammed it. This had to have hurt it. After all, if you liked the first film, and heard that the second was a mess, you are going to think twice (or three, or four times) about seeing it, just in case. In any case, it was geek on geek war, and it hurt. So what happens then. 


So, when I look back on what happened, I feel both regret that the end product didn't seem to be more of a draw, but that it really made the people that should have embraced it, go against each other. OK, so it wasn't as dramatic as all that, but it did really hit the skids with many of them. I would have loved it to have done much better, if for no other reason then we would get another. This, however, just isn't going to happen. This is the truth. If it does, and this is a huge if, then it will be a cinematic miracle. Until that happens, then we are left with the still burning wreckage of the crash of this film. This was the second hit in 2010 to the geeks. Scott Pilgrim being the first. Hollywood is going to think twice about taking chances, and that is a bad thing. 


--MGS