Tron Legacy

[LK]

[Rishathra]

[LK]

 

[Merusk]

...and the actors struggling with green-screen.  Success!

<snip>

It was the first movie ever for me with 3D, and I have to say that I liked it (IMAX 3D showing).  Probably because the orphan animals 3D preview made me go, "wow, that's really cool, maybe 3D in movies isn't as stupid as I thought".  I have been really skeptical of 3D in general, but seems like for a movie that placed an emphasis on visuals it's a decent addition (if done well).

Interesting fact, they just had the Production Directior on NPR.. most of the sets were physical, not green screen.  The CGI was used to extend the sets beyond the 12'-16' tall they'd been built, but the Actors are all interacting with a physical environment.  Also, the lights on the suits were not CGI but actual lights on the actors.  Nifty.

As for a discussion on the 3d, it didn't thrill me.  Mostly I felt it got in the way.  The floaty screen glass was just a nuisance and the extent of most of the film.  I really felt like I was watching a 2d film for a lot of the movie and only noticed the 3d when I thought to look for it.  It was the complete opposite of Avatar or the animal orphan movie you mention (hey same IMAX previews!).

The wife and I had a chat about it on the way home and the reason the 3d didn't work for me as a whole was the director was still using  a lot of 2d camera tricks to direct the viewer.  It's offputting when you see some depth to the shot, but either due to camera limitations or drama the director has decreased changed the focus from where the eye wants to go.   If you want to focus on something other than what the director has determined should be the focus, it throws you right out of the movie as your brain tries to figure out wtf is going on.

Three examples I can think of specifically. The first two were from the Pirates trailer - so yeah, 3d being applied to a 2d movie, some leeway must be given - when Cruz thrusts her sword through the door or when Blackbeard swings his sword up and at the camera, my eye wanted to focus on the tip.  However, because the director wanted you to focus on Depp and McShane's faces the tips were blurred.. so wanting to focus on the swords made me feel a bit crosseyed.  The Tron scene I remember was in Flynn's house on the Grid.  Sam is the focus of the shot, with Olivia in the background, but because his head is so large in the shot I wanted to focus on her, instead of his 3-story melon.  However, she was blurred out because he was talking.. so again, mental confusion and that crosseyed feeling as I tried to focus before I realized what was going on.     It seems until Directors stop using their old 2d tricks, 3d is going to still feel really gimicky and unpolished, imo.

Ed: Oh, and I felt the 80's songs picked for the transition were perfect.  Not only were they nostalgic and perfect for the setting but the lyrics and themes were great for the moment they were used.  That geeked me quite a bit because it showed a lot of attention to detail.  I would typically expect just some chart topper from '89 to be used for the whole scene, but the timing and transition were excellent.

[Slyfeind]

Ed: Oh, and I felt the 80's songs picked for the transition were perfect.  Not only were they nostalgic and perfect for the setting but the lyrics and themes were great for the moment they were used.  That geeked me quite a bit because it showed a lot of attention to detail.  I would typically expect just some chart topper from '89 to be used for the whole scene, but the timing and transition were excellent.

Holy crap that was so much awesome. I was happy they spent so much time with that, allowing Sam to take us back to the 80's before we hit the Grid. It was like, "Hey audience who watched Tron when it first came out, you remember when it all began? Maybe not? Well.......now you will." /Pacman/Galaga/Journey.

[pxib]

Eh it was everything I expected, and I had a lot of fun. There are just some major problems. Nothing is explained, nothing is developed, lots of telling rather than showing. Also, the world is dead... there's no sense that anything has purpose. Even the original film gave some sense of how things were operating, with its I/O ports and the domination of Master Control over an office mainframe in the 1980's. The world of the Tron was small in more ways than one. Flynn went inside and saved that tiny world from a dominating villain, and by conquering domination within the corporation's computer system he's able to conquer it within the corporation as a whole. Yay.

Now I get the feeling that the fiction doesn't know what the digital world actually is. Is it a parallel universe? Is it a whole computer universe in some way? Does it have access to the internet? Are these programs just programs from inside ENCOM or are they programs from everywhere? Is CLU dominating ENCOM or is he dominating all computing everywhere? What does that mean in real world terms? What are Isos, and where did they come from? Why were they a threat? What has Flynn been doing in there for however many centuries? What has CLU been doing? What did CLU intend to do?

I wouldn't be bothered by loose ends if this film weren't so short on tied threads. It wastes a lot of time on very pretty, but ultimately underwhelming action when it could be giving us some answers.

I'll second the raves the music is getting, simultaneously modern electronic and reminiscent of Vangelis scores from the 80's. I also want to say the visuals were generally too sparse. Other than Flynn's sanctuary everything looked more or less the same. The bar looked like the bridge of the ship looked like the locker room looked like the game grid looked like the city streets. That was not a part of the original aesthetic that needed copying.

[Ratman_tf]

Eh it was everything I expected, and I had a lot of fun. There are just some major problems. Nothing is explained, nothing is developed, lots of telling rather than showing. Also, the world is dead... there's no sense that anything has purpose. Even the original film gave some sense of how things were operating, with its I/O ports and the domination of Master Control over an office mainframe in the 1980's. The world of the Tron was small in more ways than one. Flynn went inside and saved that tiny world from a dominating villain, and by conquering domination within the corporation's computer system he's able to conquer it within the corporation as a whole. Yay.

At first it didn't even have programs. It was Flynn's little experiment in his basement. Literally.

Now I get the feeling that the fiction doesn't know what the digital world actually is. Is it a parallel universe? Is it a whole computer universe in some way?

There's a scene in the first film that shows programs competing in the light cycle grid, while a guy in an arcade is playing the game. It's an indicator that there is one sub-universe, and computers are our only way of percieving it.

Which might be retconned by Legacy, or maybe Kevin intentionally secluded his system.

Ah! What if Isos can provide a way for us to interact with the grid without computers? That would be neat.

[Surlyboi]

Flynn intentionally secluded his system.

Now, issues of entropy and power usage aside, there's your easiest answer.

[pxib]

It would have been trivially easy to make this stuff clear, and the movie chose to say nothing. Drove me nuts.

[LK]

Now I get the feeling that the fiction doesn't know what the digital world actually is. Is it a parallel universe? Is it a whole computer universe in some way? Does it have access to the internet? Are these programs just programs from inside ENCOM or are they programs from everywhere? Is CLU dominating ENCOM or is he dominating all computing everywhere? What does that mean in real world terms? What are Isos, and where did they come from? Why were they a threat? What has Flynn been doing in there for however many centuries? What has CLU been doing? What did CLU intend to do?

I took all this from paying attention to the movie and thinking about it. Are we still spoilering stuff?

[Ratman_tf]

It would have been trivially easy to make this stuff clear, and the movie chose to say nothing. Drove me nuts.

They didn't specify this kind of shit in the original movie either. 

[Merusk]

Again this highlights the core problem of why it's getting such mixed reviews.  It's a Disney movie and while its audience has matured the story has not.   Nobody asked those questions because it didn't matter any more than why CLU seemed to think that their digital staves and frisbees of doom would be effective weaponry against bullets in the physical world.   Or, for that matter, what happens to Quorra when she gets injured in the physical world.  Does she bleed, does she digitize? Do she and Sam have sex? How, because a digital vagina makes no sense at all.

In the end, it makes as much sense as any of your usual pop-fantasy properties that run into continuity issues.  Just say a wizard did it.

[Ratman_tf]

In the end, it makes as much sense as any of your usual pop-fantasy properties that run into continuity issues.  Just say a wizard did it.

A badass wizard daddy.

[Surlyboi]

Again this highlights the core problem of why it's getting such mixed reviews.  It's a Disney movie and while its audience has matured the story has not.   Nobody asked those questions because it didn't matter any more than why CLU seemed to think that their digital staves and frisbees of doom would be effective weaponry against bullets in the physical world.   Or, for that matter, what happens to Quorra when she gets injured in the physical world.  Does she bleed, does she digitize? Do she and Sam have sex? How, because a digital vagina makes no sense at all.

In the end, it makes as much sense as any of your usual pop-fantasy properties that run into continuity issues.  Just say a wizard did it.

I chalk some of that up to:


And C) I put on my robe and wizard hat...

[Rishathra]

As to the potential threat CLU posed to the real world, would programs have 'powers' that users don't in the real, just as users had on the Grid?

[LK]

[LK]

Something that interested me or I thought novel:


We still spoilering stuff?

[bhodi]

Yes, of course we are. It hasn't even been a week yet.

[Ratman_tf]

As to the potential threat CLU posed to the real world, would programs have 'powers' that users don't in the real, just as users had on the Grid?

I imagine that's a question that Flynn didn't want answered by Clu's invasion.

[LK]

Yes, of course we are. It hasn't even been a week yet.

I saw some slips, wasn't sure. Hid my stuff.

[Ratman_tf]

[LK]

I really like this movie. o_o;

[LK]

[Slyfeind]

[LK]

[Slyfeind]

[LK]

[Slyfeind]

[LK]

[Surlyboi]

Something that interested me or I thought novel:

[bhodi]

[Ratman_tf]

[Rishathra]

[Ghambit]

[LK]