Post by Maethius on Dec 22, 2010 9:00:51 GMT -5
Curious if anyone's seen it. I just had the privilege of seeing it and, for the most part, really enjoyed the film. Now, since I'm a part of the old fogy crowd, there are definitely some things I would have done differently, almost entirely within visual styling based on the original (not the old technology, but the visual concept).
The likes-
First, the story isn't half bad. No spoilers here, but it flows well from its roots while exploring some new territory. That said, there IS storytelling... not everything is an action packed disk or cycle battle. There are some stretches of flashback and narrative; they seemed to stretch just a little for me at times, and I think they could have benefited from a technique used in the original film of letting us glimpse at the unique architecture of the world around the characters or full-on flashback sequences, but I'm glad for the filling in of the storyline.
I liked the characters as well, for the most part, though at times there was a "hollow" feeling to the world... the original saw Sark often walking around with some twenty warriors and guards, where here we seldom see more than four or five characters at a time aside from the scenes on the game grid. This was used as a tool, I think, to ramp up the feeling of epic consequences later on, however.
Music? Daft Punk- 'nuf said? No comparison; the original tried for a completely synthesized, computer sounding theme which was quite hallow and lacked much excitement. The new soundtrack (especially in IMAX with its 12,000 watts of power!) hammers you into the action at times, draws up wonder at others, and even wells up a sniffle or two.
What would be my biggest change if I were the honcho behind this production? I felt the artwork, though obviously superior, failed to convey at most times the entire point of the concept. The original movie was extremely limited in what could be shown, but at the same time things looked as they were supposed to; they looked like a world built unlike our own, comprised entirely within the computer. Things were built out of mathematical blocks, solid masses were broken by the occasion glow of some inner circuitry. A recognizer was constructed of code, and it showed; the parts floating impossibly next to each other and yet holding the menacing form we all ... recognize. In the new film a Recognizer appears to be a construct of steel with neon tubing tucked in here and there; it has exhaust producing thrusters to pull it into the air as opposed to having an alien quality of just plain working.
Lots of "glass" now permeates the world, no force fields like the classic film that offered a much more "computer world" looking visual cue (like when Flynn strikes his knee on the door to Ram's cell in the original). Going off the grid should feel like stepping into a raw landscape of wondrous structures build from primordial data; instead we have a landscape of rocks and dirt. There were natural landforms in the original film, but they felt digital in structure, not just because they lacked the gigabytes to make them smooth and shiny. Polygonal chasms, naturally occurring monoliths, stretches of bleak, barren grid, a sky of floating geometry. Not stone, dirt, and clouds.
Derezzing Happens. Should be a bumper sticker. In the original we see these computerized beings either blip into a flash of light or fade away into unraveled code (like Ram), returning to the world of the computer. In the new movie we have processing power, so everything shatters into little glass cubes. While I'm definitely not opposed to far more dramatic visuals when one of these computer beings or vehicles gets whacked, I just found myself thinking, "couldn't they have done something that looked less like our world?"
The original costuming wasn't really impressive, but I feel it conveyed more the feel it was intended; beings were made up of circuitry-looking code. Now they appear as people wearing leather or cloth with shiny parts. The style isn't bad at all; it just doesn't say "computer generated being." I would love to have seen what could have been, had they crossed the original concept with modern computing power. Visually, I think that TRON 2.0 was much closer to the direction this production should have gone, at least from a visual standpoint.
In all, though, it was a great film with some nice eye candy. I suppose what I really longed to see was a world that was a bit less like our own... Tron Legacy could almost have happened in New York for all of its visual cues of structure and physics... and the entire point of the Tron world was to "see things we have never seen before." I've seen rocks, and glass shattering, and dust, and hot engine exhaust. I do wish there had been more of a feeling of other-worldliness that would have been so easy to do.
There are one or two SPOILER-based things I would comment on as well....
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.SPOILER THINGS COMING.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.YOU WERE WARNED!!!.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Flynn- I would REALLY have liked to seen some real "user power." The man's been trapped in a system where he was a creator for 20 years; he should be able to reshape the landscape, or write a vehicle on the fly. Perhaps not instantly, but in the old days he created the Recognizer, invented the tanks, and wrote the light cycle. If users have no power within the computer that was never mentioned, and we saw that he could repair a Recognizer (effectively willing the broken code repaired) in the first film. We should have seen things that made us go, "damn... that rocks!" I know they didn't want to infringe on Matrix, but let's face it... Matrix infringed on Tron first! He's been meditating like a guru for years... perhaps some uber-grid manipulation is in order?
Vehicles- an ATV that requires knobby tires? Jet plains that sound like jet plains? That STALL?! Recognizers made of steel? There could have been a LOT more detachment from our world here... these things looked like real world vehicles with neon lighting, not incredibly alien objects of impossible design held together by code!
Tron- BIG SPOILER HERE! He has been "re-purposed" by Clu. I'm fine with that. I kinda got that feeling when I saw the telltale four blocks of red at his collar. I was surprised they didn't use the same tech that was used to create Clue (a younger Jeff Bridges) to make more of a show of a younger Bruce Boxleitner? I mean, once his identity is known, why stick with the opaque helmet 100% of the time? Would have been cooler if he had turned a bit "blue-old-school" in the end, before turning on Clu, not just fading out when he drowned.
Oh, and on that... he DROWNED? Here we see a severe lack of creativity on the part of the design crew. He's a program, not a human, and the Sea of Tranquility need not be literal water. Let's leave some physics behind, guys. When a program dies, it derezzes. Like Ram before him, Tron's form should have had some kind of effect of breaking into code and fading dramatically away. I guess they only thought programs died by shattering into little cubes, and without an impact, they only drown.
Don't get me wrong, overall the movie was exceptional. I would just do a few things differently.
The likes-
First, the story isn't half bad. No spoilers here, but it flows well from its roots while exploring some new territory. That said, there IS storytelling... not everything is an action packed disk or cycle battle. There are some stretches of flashback and narrative; they seemed to stretch just a little for me at times, and I think they could have benefited from a technique used in the original film of letting us glimpse at the unique architecture of the world around the characters or full-on flashback sequences, but I'm glad for the filling in of the storyline.
I liked the characters as well, for the most part, though at times there was a "hollow" feeling to the world... the original saw Sark often walking around with some twenty warriors and guards, where here we seldom see more than four or five characters at a time aside from the scenes on the game grid. This was used as a tool, I think, to ramp up the feeling of epic consequences later on, however.
Music? Daft Punk- 'nuf said? No comparison; the original tried for a completely synthesized, computer sounding theme which was quite hallow and lacked much excitement. The new soundtrack (especially in IMAX with its 12,000 watts of power!) hammers you into the action at times, draws up wonder at others, and even wells up a sniffle or two.
What would be my biggest change if I were the honcho behind this production? I felt the artwork, though obviously superior, failed to convey at most times the entire point of the concept. The original movie was extremely limited in what could be shown, but at the same time things looked as they were supposed to; they looked like a world built unlike our own, comprised entirely within the computer. Things were built out of mathematical blocks, solid masses were broken by the occasion glow of some inner circuitry. A recognizer was constructed of code, and it showed; the parts floating impossibly next to each other and yet holding the menacing form we all ... recognize. In the new film a Recognizer appears to be a construct of steel with neon tubing tucked in here and there; it has exhaust producing thrusters to pull it into the air as opposed to having an alien quality of just plain working.
Lots of "glass" now permeates the world, no force fields like the classic film that offered a much more "computer world" looking visual cue (like when Flynn strikes his knee on the door to Ram's cell in the original). Going off the grid should feel like stepping into a raw landscape of wondrous structures build from primordial data; instead we have a landscape of rocks and dirt. There were natural landforms in the original film, but they felt digital in structure, not just because they lacked the gigabytes to make them smooth and shiny. Polygonal chasms, naturally occurring monoliths, stretches of bleak, barren grid, a sky of floating geometry. Not stone, dirt, and clouds.
Derezzing Happens. Should be a bumper sticker. In the original we see these computerized beings either blip into a flash of light or fade away into unraveled code (like Ram), returning to the world of the computer. In the new movie we have processing power, so everything shatters into little glass cubes. While I'm definitely not opposed to far more dramatic visuals when one of these computer beings or vehicles gets whacked, I just found myself thinking, "couldn't they have done something that looked less like our world?"
The original costuming wasn't really impressive, but I feel it conveyed more the feel it was intended; beings were made up of circuitry-looking code. Now they appear as people wearing leather or cloth with shiny parts. The style isn't bad at all; it just doesn't say "computer generated being." I would love to have seen what could have been, had they crossed the original concept with modern computing power. Visually, I think that TRON 2.0 was much closer to the direction this production should have gone, at least from a visual standpoint.
In all, though, it was a great film with some nice eye candy. I suppose what I really longed to see was a world that was a bit less like our own... Tron Legacy could almost have happened in New York for all of its visual cues of structure and physics... and the entire point of the Tron world was to "see things we have never seen before." I've seen rocks, and glass shattering, and dust, and hot engine exhaust. I do wish there had been more of a feeling of other-worldliness that would have been so easy to do.
There are one or two SPOILER-based things I would comment on as well....
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.SPOILER THINGS COMING.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.YOU WERE WARNED!!!.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Flynn- I would REALLY have liked to seen some real "user power." The man's been trapped in a system where he was a creator for 20 years; he should be able to reshape the landscape, or write a vehicle on the fly. Perhaps not instantly, but in the old days he created the Recognizer, invented the tanks, and wrote the light cycle. If users have no power within the computer that was never mentioned, and we saw that he could repair a Recognizer (effectively willing the broken code repaired) in the first film. We should have seen things that made us go, "damn... that rocks!" I know they didn't want to infringe on Matrix, but let's face it... Matrix infringed on Tron first! He's been meditating like a guru for years... perhaps some uber-grid manipulation is in order?
Vehicles- an ATV that requires knobby tires? Jet plains that sound like jet plains? That STALL?! Recognizers made of steel? There could have been a LOT more detachment from our world here... these things looked like real world vehicles with neon lighting, not incredibly alien objects of impossible design held together by code!
Tron- BIG SPOILER HERE! He has been "re-purposed" by Clu. I'm fine with that. I kinda got that feeling when I saw the telltale four blocks of red at his collar. I was surprised they didn't use the same tech that was used to create Clue (a younger Jeff Bridges) to make more of a show of a younger Bruce Boxleitner? I mean, once his identity is known, why stick with the opaque helmet 100% of the time? Would have been cooler if he had turned a bit "blue-old-school" in the end, before turning on Clu, not just fading out when he drowned.
Oh, and on that... he DROWNED? Here we see a severe lack of creativity on the part of the design crew. He's a program, not a human, and the Sea of Tranquility need not be literal water. Let's leave some physics behind, guys. When a program dies, it derezzes. Like Ram before him, Tron's form should have had some kind of effect of breaking into code and fading dramatically away. I guess they only thought programs died by shattering into little cubes, and without an impact, they only drown.
Don't get me wrong, overall the movie was exceptional. I would just do a few things differently.
