TRON: Legacy - Review and Grading

[Kaijima]

The critics got this one so wrong it isn't even worth talking about, they are called critics for a reason, don't listen to them. This forum is a better guide for movies because most that post here have similar tastes in movies.

A critic's job isn't to identify that which sci-fi/fantasy audiences will embrace... it's to judge the movie on its merits.

Well, I'd argue that a disruption/hostile takeover of the whole bloomin' Internet would have pretty huge effects on the real world.

And they wouldn't need to stop there, either, but I think it'd have made a better place to start.

You have a point, tho I suppose for my tastes, it's a bit too "Skynet" and "killer rogue AI" cliche.

And "evil human-created machines taking over the world" isn't?!

The Programs (and now ISOs) in Tron were always a lot more humanized and like "artificial persons". More Blade Runner than killer robot, though the MCP could do a reasonable impersonation of Colossus.

But at any rate, people who like the Internet angle may get their wish anyway if a Tron 3 picks up dangling plot threads from the extended fiction and alternate reality games. I believe a plot point is that Encom is about to roll out a new worldwide security suite for the Internet along with Encom OS12, that in all likelyhood is Alan Bradley's latest version of the Tron project, and would be terribly open to exploitation from say, the other side of the screen.

I could imagine a pretty good plot where Ed Jr. sends Sark 2.0 to take over the security network that Tron 3.0 is in charge of to hand control of the Internet over to lil' Eddie.

 

[Gaith]

^ Maybe, but after (allegedly) threatening the whole world, threatening the Internet (as grave a matter as that would be) would almost certainly be something of a step down in intensity.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I don't buy into the parallel world theory and that it's more of a "world" inside the computer. Isn't that the whole idea behind it? That all of these "programs" are just manifestations of computer programs and actions? In the first movie alone the "idea" is that the LASER digitized the person and stored the information on the computer (making them a "program") not that it was transporting them to another/parallel world.

So that means when Quorra appeared in the "real world" the mass that made up her lovely, perfect, body had to come from somewhere and that "somewhere" is energy and the energy it'd take to make a full person is quite huge. The energy it'd take to make a 110lb woman's body (pure guess on my part as to OW's weight) is 4.5 quadrillion joules. Or about the about the amount of energy 100,000 Americans use in one year.

That's assuming the Real World is real at all and not just another artificial world created by Users with Humans as Programs. In this case the Users are our modern deities/supernatural beings and those of ancient myth. It's interesting that they give Michael Sheen's character two names from mythology, namely Castor and Zuse (Zeus). The exception with Humans being that we're not aware of our status as artificial life like the Programs of The Grid are.

God created man in his image just as the Users create Programs in theirs. Gods and supernatural beings have powers beyond that of Man just as Users and the Creator (Kevin Flynn) often have exceptional gifts in The Grid (you could say Sam's mastery of The Games and the weapons/vehicles of The Grid on his first exposure to them counts as exceptional). The light of The Portal is similar to the light at the end of the tunnel you supposedly see see when you're dying and reaching the Afterlife.

And just as Gods have created Man and Man has created Programs, the ISOs have arisen spontaneously (unless someone unknown created them) from The Grid in a continuing cycle of creation.

Gods > Humans > Programs > ISOs (the "Miracle")
The Afterlife > Earth > The Grid

I know it's similar to my preferred explanation for Zion in the Matrix sequels (Zion simply being another layer of control in The Matrix) but if you look at it in this sense the laser disintegrating and reintegrating people and giving mass to digital beings; allowing them to live in or conquer our world, makes perfect sense. Also, it fits the mythology and reverence the Programs had/have for the Users and their treatment of them as gods or false gods.

 

[Trekker4747]

Everything you said there is great. It's a shame that the Tron movies, as good as they are, -frankly- never get that deep.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The Thirteenth Floor kinda did, though...

 

[Morpheus 02]

I like the taking-over-Internet angle. Sark/Dillinger Jr. could become the new MCP.

Dillinger jr. didn't seem that bad, just really smart (i.e. fixing the release problem)...it'd be interesting to see his program actually work WITH Tron 2.0 (or would it be 3.0)...though of course be suspect at initial encounter.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Dillinger Jr. wasn't evil THIS time, but I think we all know he will be next time. Look at the utter slimeball his father was. (God only knows how he managed to have a son in the first place. What woman with any self respect would marry a scum like that?) Like father, like son.

At the very least, Junior will probably want revenge for what happened to his dad.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Just came back from seeing it and voted Excellent. 3/4 stars for me and this will be in my top five when I come to compose my top ten films of this year. The story was pretty basic and the acting was average at best but just the sheer scope and feel of the film was excellent. I felt nostalgic seeing it and got emotional a couple of times, especially the earlier scene with Tron. This is a kind of movie where you have watch a few times to see stuff but the visual effects were simply stunning. I think the VFX Oscar is going to come down between "Inception" and "Tron:Legacy" which Tron edging "Inception" out. Daft Punk's score is simply breathtaking with how they were able to seamlessly merge their electronica style with a full orchestra. I dug their cameo appearance as MP3's too. Thought that was a nice touch. This is a must buy DVD for me.

 

[Mr Light]

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/47844

Disney XD will be airing a new animated series set between the two movies. Can't wait!

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yep this is actually old news, think we might have discussed it in a previous thread. Elijah Wood is the voice of Beck who is a program being trained by Tron to help stop the uprising of Clu2. If it's anything like the film I'm in.

 

[DarthPipes]

I'm somewhat amazed Dillenger Jr. got himself a job at Encom considering what his scumbag father did.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/47844

Disney XD will be airing a new animated series set between the two movies. Can't wait!

Sounds like a good idea on paper. Hope it's a good series.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Cillian Murphy was uncredited as Dillinger Jr so I hope he has a more prominent role in a sequel. As for working at EnCom...I'm assuming he was able to obtain his position because of Sam's reluctance to have anything to do with his father's company and Alan obviously not having any power to do anything about it.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I hadn't heard anything about the series but it sounds interesting if they can make it work. It's cool to see that Boxleitner is involved but I wonder how it will work without having Clu 2. I guess Rinzler will be the primary antagonist and front man and avoid using Clu 2.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I'm somewhat amazed Dillenger Jr. got himself a job at Encom considering what his scumbag father did.

The crimes Dillinger committed in the real world were limited to software theft and fraud, which cost him his position as a senior executive and probably earned him a few years in prison at most given the white collar nature of the crime. According to the new Chairman of ENCOM, Dillinger Sr.'s "notable efforts helped make ENCOM what it is today." It's clear from the emphasis that he puts on "notable" that he's fully aware of Dillinger's crimes but not only is he not bothered by them, he applauds them as doing the right thing to help make the company the powerhouse it is.

Which should not be terribly surprising given that the company itself engages in fraud in the absence of CEO Kevin Flynn by simply "changing the name on the box" and jacking up the price on its new OS while making no change to the code and offering no new improvements. They probably couldn't rehire Dillinger Sr. himself due to the bad press, Sam possibly reasserting his control in that case, or legal restrictions (although in the game Tron 2.0, it is suggested that Dillinger later founded his own company fCon which gobbled up ENCOM in a hostile takeover), so hiring his genius programmer son was the next best alternative and gave Dillinger an indirect hand in the goings on at ENCOM. Nor is this behavior at all out of character when you think about some of the unethical practices of software companies and many corporations in general.

 

[RAMA]

So far I am getting a sense that the "sci-fi" fans liked Tron Legacy. This isn't always a given, I think the SCi-fi fans in general are more prone to cutting things like this to pieces especially a sequel 28 years after the original. "Mainstream" critics hate it--no surprise--and the general audience is mixed..though 75% of viewers like it on Rotten Tomatoes.

The movie made more $ in 3 days than the original in its entire release.

I think Daft Punk should get an Oscar nod for this one, the music is so identifiable. I always wanted to hear more electronic and orchestral soundtracks merged like this. The album is number 10 on the Billboard top 200, #1 digital release and its the #1 Dance album.

Thought the Tron cartoon was just rumor, glad to hear its not. So after 28 years Tron finally gets it's due.

RAMA

 

[Trekker4747]

Did Daft Punk do covers for the 80s songs in the Arcade?

 

[Admiral_Young]

I don't think so. They only scored the film. I actually wondered that myself when I heard them. I they just were just included.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

The 80s songs were originals. Journey's "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" and "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics. Excellent choices, by the way. There might have been a third song in there, but offhand, I can't remember what it might have been.

 

[UssGlenn]

^ About Quorra's physical form: Going on the assumption, as some do, that the computer world isn't literally a world inside the computer, but is rather a 'parallel' world of its own that just happens to be reached via the laser, then there wouldn't be a problem reconstituting her in our world (or Sam & Flynn in hers), since the body would be the same.

Eh. I don't buy into the parallel world theory and that it's more of a "world" inside the computer. Isn't that the whole idea behind it? That all of these "programs" are just manifestations of computer programs and actions? In the first movie alone the "idea" is that the LASER digitized the person and stored the information on the computer (making them a "program") not that it was transporting them to another/parallel world.

So that means when Quorra appeared in the "real world" the mass that made up her lovely, perfect, body had to come from somewhere and that "somewhere" is energy and the energy it'd take to make a full person is quite huge. The energy it'd take to make a 110lb woman's body (pure guess on my part as to OW's weight) is 4.5 quadrillion joules. Or about the about the amount of energy 100,000 Americans use in one year.

Since she used Kevin Flinns disk to get out she probably used his stored matter as well. here's a relevant part of an interview with the screenwriters.

Well, did you guys have to spend any time figuring out how a computer program could physically materialize?

Horowitz: We did. We did talk about the idea of what is being reconstituted. There is stuff that you can see in the frame, carbon molecules that are attached to the laser, that are what you are being transferred into and then how that's being turned into energy and then it's a data. And then the question becomes, how is that reverse process working? And in our mind, there was a logic to how on the one hand you can take a corporeal being and turn them into this kind of data, and then we can have a reversal process by taking the data then and say, okay, can't we then reconstitute that into some form of man?

Kitsis: And what we decided was, well yes, but it has to merge with the user, in the sense that the only way to get out is with a user disc - and therefore not even Sam's, but the Creator's disc.

So to some extent, it's like Quorra kind of literally uses his matter to become herself.

Horowitz: Well, what we don't want to be saying is that she's Kevin Flynn. And she's not. But that there was a one-for-one trade that essentially happened.