I saw Tron Legacy over the weekend. I have to say, being a huge fan of the original I was incredibly excited for this new one. I'd close my eyes every time a trailer came on because it was great music and I didn't want to ruin any of the visuals. I was trying not to see it in 3D (erroneously thinking it was a 2D post job) and since it's only playing 3D in town, my viewing pleasure was a touch delayed. Really, it took Ben saying it was a great 3D experience to get me to see it. The benefit of seeing it so late was hearing many folk say...."eeehhhhhh" or "meh" or "hold onto your optimism" as my cousin Mark put it. This lowered my expectations immensely to the point where I actually enjoyed the film.
I kept waiting for it to get to the bad place everyone else thought it did and that never really happened. It had a great feel, great tone, great visuals and a fantastic score. Those were enough to keep the film flowing and the fridge logic at bay. Overall, I really enjoyed it but in the end there were many structural/story issues that kept it from being great. Spoilers after the trailer.
Basic plot courtesy of the wikignomes
My main issues:
There were massive parts of the backstory that were handled with exposition:
What happened to the Grid
What the ISOs were.
How the ISOs died
Where CLU came from
Why CLU went evil.
In so many situations, there was no dramatic reason to care. Looking back I have to really stretch to find an answer to "why does it matter?"
Rinzler's redemption
Clu's getting to the real world
Zuse and the End of Line Club
ISOs and their genocide.
ISOs in general - sure they're self-creating programs, that's impressive. What does it mean for the world?
Quorra's motivations
Flynn's damn light cycle "fasted on the grid"...at least Sam's ride in didn't take long. Too bad he traded it for...what?
The Grid - isn't it now just a disconnected world running in Flynn's Basement?
Why are the games important? In the last film, it was a game company. Why are they still playing? 'cause it's what they've always known?
I can come up with an explanation of these things in terms of story logic...but really, they still didn't matter in the grand narrative scheme of things. They were dramatically arbitrary.
And then there are the things that make no damn sense: (so either they make NDS or I just missed something which wouldn't be hard to buy)
What is Clu going to do when he gets to the real world? He's going to be forced to fight a *physical* battle...against the US Military? That's a completely different film/tone/genre/whathaveyou. It's just diff'rent, man. And this is his main dramatic goal? That's his thing? Get outside?
If it's a closed system and Clu can't make new programs, where are all of the other programs coming from? Why didn't Flynn give Clu the power to make programs? What if Tron was able to access the internet and was pulling programs in.
How does Clu contact Alan in the real world from a disconnected phone line? Okay...that's just nitpicky...ignore I said anything.
This next bit is a bit of a geekout, so I apologize in advance. I was going to be working on a throwaway script every day, but I think this qualifies for today's quota. It's been so long since I've actually written consistently, I wasn't going to stress myself out initially by trying to write something marketable, or, y'know good. I just wanted to write something fun. And this qualifies. Anywhoo...
I'm always a sucker for epic storytelling. Co-ed Naked Epic Filmgoers! - we do it big and in a theatre....wait, what? I think, in the end, the film wasn't big enough for me. What were the characters primary motivations? Sam wanted to get off the grid so he could delete Clu and be with his dad. Flynn wanted to preserve the grid and just be...man. Clu wanted to get out...to take control of...the world? I mean, I'm all for dreaming big, but what was he going to do with his army on the outside? Take on the US Military? Maybe I'm missing something, but it seemed like that was his Main Schtick. Okay, granted he wanted to make everything work perfectly...by getting off the grid? Quorra? You got me...
What I wanted were 2 films. I thought this one started out great...the first act set the tone, the visuals, the feel. JJ's mystery boxes were all around and I was hooked. Where was Flynn?, what was he working on? Holy crap, what happened to the grid? What's the game play now? Dude, love the recognizer redesign.
But what I really wanted was Rinzler to be the Big Bad of episode I. Clu is still the ruler, we'd still have the Clu/Sam scene. We'd need to show that Rinzler is the Head of Security and the enforcer. Pretty much everything could be similar with Rinzler switched with Clu for the cycle event to the point right after Quorra saves Sam.
Then she takes Sam to a band of ISOs who are hanging in the outlands. The purge is the same, but it didn't get everyone. The rest are in hiding and searching for any trace of Flynn, who gave them his disk when he was going to confront Rinzler who he knows is a corruption of Tron. Nobody knows what happened after that, only that he hasn't been seen in a long freakin' time. Flynn holds the key to their escape from the grid to the internet. They know Sam is important and see him as the chance to get to Flynn. So they train him to fight with his father's lightsaber..I mean, uh, lightdisk and through that training he learns of the ISOs, learns that they repopulate themselves and that they're not programs because of this some of them have special powers, who knows what? And yes, this get's really close to Muad'ib and Dune, but it's all I've come up with in 24 hours. So at the end of this he has a band of fighters who all want the same thing, to find Flynn. So they raid the castle. Rinzler sees them coming. We could even have the End of Line club with Caster having info on Flynn, who knows? Okay, this is getting too detailed.
Main points, Sam and his band of merry monks fight towards Rinzler's stronghold where he has Flynn stashed. Along the way they find that Clu doesn't know Rinzler has Flynn, also CLU didn't kill the ISOs off, he is reprogramming them to fight in his Army. They free Flynn, (group hug), except Flynn is really out of it (sticking with the zen thing) then Flynn and Son (tm) run off to take Rinzler and CLU down whist Quorra and Crew run off to free the rest of the ISOs that haven't been rewired. Big battle, actual conversation with Rinzler who is then redeemed (he didn't tell Clu he had Flynn because he still was protecting the grid - dueling directives which corrupted Rinzler.)(maybe he's reprogrammed by Flynn), becomes Tron again turns on CLU who has a similar conversation with Flynn as he does in the actual film. "I only did what you wanted, why isn't that good enough?" I loved this facet of his personality. Again he can't kill or harm Flynn and perhaps he even saves him from getting killed. Clu reveals that's why he wants to get online, because then he can fulfill the mission that Flynn gave him. But then Clu takes his toys and Flynns info disk and runs away.
Tron reveals that Clu has indirect access to the internet (he sent the page) but has been getting closer to a direct connection and the disk is going to get him the rest of the way there. Once Clu is online so to speak, he'll easily be able to use his Army to repurpose many of the worlds' interconnected systems. However then we get skynet or the matrix and nobody really wants that now, do they? Well, we must stop him, our heros say. Huzzah! roll credits fade to black.
Episode II.
Clu still retains control of most of the grid. However, due to the fact Tron went to the other side, and as chief of security he had a lot of control, the grid is slowly sliding towards corruption. This is also affecting Clu and he's getting more erratic. Things are breaking down, chaos is slowly creeping in. Before tackling Clu, they have to restore order. Although, if they just let things disintegrate, that would take care of Clu. But that's not cool, man. Anywhoo, that's the first big climax...but that gives Clu the time he needs and also makes him right in the head. At the end of the first act the Grid is secured, but Clu gains access to the global internet and streams through. All is lost! Woe is me! *back of hand to forehead!* Flynn, Tron, Sam and Quorra with their small band of superIsos chase after them, coconuts well in hand.
The internet is a crazy mixed up place. I wonder what that looks like? I don't have enough technical knowledge for the next bit of the story...I don't know where a rogue program would go to try and get the most control. Google? Dept. of Defense? Financial traders? Whereever that is, that's where goes. Our heroes have some time because first Clu needs to breach their defenses. This gives our heroes a chance to join the other side...but the other side would probably see them as a threat as well. That could be interesting. Anywhoo, throughout this Flynn teaches Sam how to program on the fly to alter the world around him. We start to understand that Flynn can do things no one else can. Big battle ensues. Clu is defeated, but not completely, his Iso's have infected whatever he's fighting, but no one really knows what that means. That can wait for a later film...or not. Also, the second and third act need more, we have the main climax, but the whole thing needs a few more levels of drama and action.
Anywhoo, now that the Iso's have seen the world outside there's no way they're going back to the grid, so they run off to see the world...not so sure that's a good idear, but how much harm could they cause?
Flynn reveals he can't leave the grid, he's been without his disk for so long he's integrated into the grid...perhaps he gets weaker the further into the internet they get. Maybe it's Clu who realizes what's going on and actually saves him...I don't know, it's late. Anywhoo, he has to stay, Tron will help him rebuild a new better world. Quorra becomes the leader of the Iso's. She goes with Sam for a quick dip in reality so she can see the sunset and better understand what it means to be human...or tired, do you know how early sunrise is? Sam has a choice whether to stay outside and fix Encom or stay inside. Okay, there's a bunch there that doesn't make sense. It's possible this is all crap.
Anyway, that's end of this bit.
Peace!
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