Tron Legacy: What a bitter disappointment.

[Guest]

It hurt really bad.

If you're a cult Tron follower, don't bother trying to understand Legacy. The writers didn't bother to understand the Tron concept.

[prisonchaplain]

WOW. Perhaps I'm not a devotee. Then again, neither was the reviewer I heard. He said that this Tron was far superior to the original, which he did not really like. Yes, it was a bit complicated. But, he really thought it was quite good.

Maybe you were too married to the origiinal, and that ruined this one for you?

Newsarama.com : Review: TRON LEGACY An Improvement Over Original. But...

I saw at least three reviews that stated the new one is better than the original. The common line was, "To Legacy's benefit, most movie goers do not remember how wretched the original was."

Edited December 22, 2010 by prisonchaplain

[slamjet]

NNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Say it isn't SO! It was bad enough to have the Star Wars series ruined, and now Tron! Is nothing SACRED!

[slamjet]

Maybe you were too married to the origiinal, and that ruined this one for you?

I guess it depends on your level of geekness. Those of us with a high-quotient love the original. But then we're naturally anti-social and weird anyhow :)

[bytebear]

I really liked it. I was and am a huge Tron fan, and although some key plot elements should have been fleshed out more, it was just fine. I also missed the original music.

[HoosierGuy]

I never could like the original plus the video game that came out at the arcade was not good either.

I've never been to a 3D movie before. So in November I tell my two nephews I want to go with them to see this 3D movie. Last week it opened and I go over to my sisters to talk with my two nephews. One says - you want to go to the Midnight showing? I said Sure, how much are the 3D glasses? He says - I don't think they are showing it in 3D! What? Yep, the local city does not have a theater that shows 3D movies yet. They don't have the projectors.

i almost blew my top. I said forget it.

I only wanted to see this for the 3D. I still may see it in January when I get back in contact with a girl who wants to go out. She can pick - Tron or Little Fockers.

It's really ridiculous, a city with two big hospitals and a big university and two theaters with eight to ten screens each does not have 3D projectors yet.

[bytebear]

If you going to hold out for 3D, you should try for IMAX!

[TL10]

NNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Say it isn't SO! It was bad enough to have the Star Wars series ruined...

I sure hope you're not refering to Episodes I, II and III. Those were pretty good. Now if you were talking about that animated series they have going on right now, then I'd side with you.

I... missed the original music.

I havn't seen the original Tron, but after listening to the music in the first trailer they released for Legacy, I felt a rush of epicness. Needless to say, the OST is DEFINITELY going to be in the iTunes shopping cart soon.

Edited December 22, 2010 by TL10

[slamjet]

I sure hope you're not refering to Episodes I, II and III. Those were pretty good.

Good Gosh Man! Jar-Jar Binks, nuf said.

[captmoroniRM]

Tron Legacy wasn't that bad. I loved the first one and think they improved on a lot with the 2nd one. Is i hte greatest sequel ever made, nor will it win many oscars. But its a good clean and fun movie.

[Bini]

I've never seen the original Tron but hubby has. He doesn't seem too crazy about watching the new release BUT he almost bought tickets for us to watch it in D-Box. Has anyone seen it in this format? Or done D-Box in general? It's a lot more pricey than 3D, for obvious reasons but should we be glad we didn't blow our money on seeing Tron in D-Box?

[TL10]

Good Gosh Man! Jar-Jar Binks, nuf said.

Jar Jar was great.

'nuff said.

(and so the fan war begins)

[Guest]

Okay... here's the Tron geekiness explained for you PC!

Nowadays - everybody is familiar with computers, so this is not really "true" geek anymore. Back in 1982 hobby programmers are rare - you have to go to class to learn how to program, so it's reserved for geeks.

Those who are part of the Tron cult understands what the Tron concept is all about. It is not just a willy-nilly fiction story. There's a rhyme or reason to the "grid". This entire concept was made into hodge-podge senseless soup in Legacy!

I'm a programmer. I wrote my very first program (Hello World, of course) in June 1982. I was 12 years old. I didn't know what a computer is. I was in the Philippines - there was not even a single video game arcade in the entire island!

On the first day of programming class, the teacher asked us, what is a computer? And all 8 kids in the class didn't know! So he popped in the Pacman cartridge (yeah there were no hard drives back then) and for the first half of the 3 hour class i played my very first video game. I was crazy hooked on computers since then. By July 1982, i successfully wrote my own Pacman program... Those days you have to program the screen pixel by pixel. There was no such thing as graphical user interface. There was no Windows even, let alone a mouse... The monitor was the T.V., you save your programs onto a cassette tape using your tape recorder. The computer had 16Kb of RAM.

Then Tron came out that summer. Man, it was the movie that defined my programming world! It was so cool that somebody in Hollywood understood my world completely!

See, Tron was a very true to concept movie... The Tron world was simple really - you have "users" who are the real people in the real world who are using the computer.

Then you got the programs inside the computer who are controlled by the users. The awesome concept of Tron is that the programs are represented as people. So the programs take on the image of the user who is either playing the game or created the program (non-game). So that, everything that happens inside the "grid" is controlled by some user somewhere in the real world. In 1982, there was no world wide web. So the grid is limited to the computer network at Encom where Flynn works - or actually got fired from.

So the story is that Dillinger wrote a program for Encom (Master Control Program) for the purpose of controlling all other programs so that Dillinger can do whatever he wants at Encom. Flynn used to program for Encom but he got fired so he started his video game arcade. He found out that Dillinger stole his gaming programs to make it part of Encom (the disk thing, the light cycle, etc.). So he tried to hack into Encom to take it back. That's when he found out about the MCP. So he tries to destroy it. Unfortunately, his friend, Alan, who still works for Encom wrote this security program called Tron so he can't easily kill the MCP.

So Flynn asked Alan to re-program Tron. Alan got Flynn into Encom to hack the network from the inside to re-program Tron but the MCP senses this. To stop Flynn, the MCP used this experimental program that digitizes "real" objects into the computer. That's the suspension of disbelief thing that is easy to accept because it is clearly defined - the real object gets sucked into the computer. The MCP can't control the real world so he digitizes Flynn so he can fight him inside the computer.

Flynn is not a program, he is a user, so he doesn't follow any "rules". Whereas, programs can only do what they are programmed to do. So Flynn goes looking for Tron inside the computer while the MCP tries killing him by making him fight in the gaming programs. Flynn finds Tron and so he takes Tron to the portal (user interface - keyboard basically) so that Alan in the real world can give him the new program to kill the MCP... The program gets written into his disk that he wears on his back. Long story short, Flynn, with the help of Tron kills the MCP, gets out of the computer and lives happily ever after.

See next post for Legacy...

[Guest]

If you haven't watched Tron Legacy, this may be a big spoiler!

The beginning was very exciting! Flynn's son Sam hacks into Encom which is now all pizzaz with all new technology and webbed and all. Encom is still shown as a big brother-type company wanting to control everything for money... Ok, we thought that ended in Tron 1... But that's ok coz Flynn disappeared in 1989, so his ideas died with him, I can accept that, even with Alan still at Encom.

So the initial skirmish was Sam hacking into Encom to distribute their new OS to the web for free. And Dillinger's son who is a member of the board (yes, I can accept that too) foiling him... Yeay! Exciting! Sets up the movie pretty good! Except that... That story line ended there never to be seen again... And my excitement of taking us into the "webbed" grid died there.

So 20 minutes into the movie I'm still trying to figure out what we were supposed to be fighting here.

So then Sam goes back to the arcade, gets sucked into the computer. Yeay!

Now we find that the fight is supposed to be between his dad and CLU. Ok, sweet! But the grid is confusing now... where is the grid in the real world? It seems that it is stuck in 1989 - isolated from Encom. There are no new games, not even a mention of the new Encom OS - just amped old games and nothing else worth paying attention to... So I'm understanding this as just the arcade and Flynns secret lab... Totally removed from the world! So, I'm like... How lame is THAT???

The rest is nothing but eye candy. Besides CLU, nobody had any relation to the real world, what the heck is an isomorphic program? It doesn't make sense! They're supposed to end diseases, wars, whatever... HOW exactly? They forgot to mention... So, I'm gonna have to figure this out myself... So an isomorphic program is an exact representation of something real. So, I'm guessing they are digital representation of diseases or whatever? And if so... How did they get into the grid? And what is their purpose? It seems like they are just random glitches in the system that doesn't really have reason for existing. So how exactly they can be made to cure anything nobody - not even the writers- knows. So, the only conclusion I can come up with is these isomorphs are just some willy-nilly creation from the writer's poor understanding of computer systems. Lame.

Tron was still there in a minor role - but he got re-programmed - to what we don't really know for sure - he is not an independent security program anymore he is like a Nazi soldier guy now... But then, of course he changes his programming on the fly.... Remnant programming from Tron I? Ok, I'll buy that. Sigh. I'm running out of money here...

So, the grid has a social network seems like... There's a bar and dance club. Ok. I'll buy that. BUT, a social network within a single video game arcade and secret lab? Seriously???

And so they want us to believe CLU tricked Alan/Sam into opening the portal so that he can invade the real world? Yea, they said that in the movie. I can buy that... Get out of the stupid grid that's stuck in the video arcade! So, the portal opens and instead of going through it, CLU goes chasing Sam and Flynn around. Oooohhhhkkkkaaayyyy....

And here's the clincher.... The user-less isomorphic program comes out of the portal.... And became human.

Okay it's too much. It's stupid. Very very stupid.

Edited December 22, 2010 by anatess

[slamjet]

Be still my beating-geeky heart! Those explanations just about brought me to tears! I think I'll hug my computer now.

[Backroads]

Do I dare rewatch the original before this?

[rameumptom]

I've seen the original Tron and loved it. I used to be very good at the Tron arcade game that focused on the discus (not the game with the tank, etc). Haven't seen the new one. I'll probably wait until it is on Netflix.

[Guest]

Do I dare rewatch the original before this?

If you "get" the Tron concept, sure. If you didn't really "get" it then... don't rewatch it... because you might "get" it the next time around and that would ruin Legacy for you.

[HoosierGuy]

Going to the Tron movie tonight with two nephews.

[HoosierGuy]

I'm back. It was OK. I like it.

[talisyn]

Wait, the program comes out of the portal and becomes human? I can see maybe the human going into the system because our brains are filled with electronic impulses, etc. But making a whole human out of nothing but electrical energy seems a bit much. You can't get proteins and mitochondria out of the air ><

I loved the original movie, very edgy for it's time

[NeuroTypical]

I re-watched the original Tron last year. Be warned folks - if it's been a decade, and you feel nostalgic and remember it as a good show, you might not want to go watch it again.

Dang. Can you say campy? I've never seen a movie so full of itself. It put Battlefield Earth to shame as being it's own best fan. It's like the cavemen vs. oblisk scene in 2001, except it lasts for the whole movie. I can't believe I used to think Tron was a great movie. I've never wanted to drink to forget about anything as much as I do here. Watching it was like breaking out the wedding pictures, 5 years after divorcing the abusive bum and moving on with life. It was like going back to your elementary school and meeting your favorite teacher, only to discover he's shorter than you and keeps picking his nose and wiping it on his shirt. It was like going back and meeting your best childhood friend (the one you used to fight the bad guys and conquer the universe with), only to discover that he never progressed past the 6th grade and still has a 50-word vocabulary and uses the same 5 pedantic juvinile phrases - over and over and over again.

I mean, I've been sharing StarWars with my kids. I'm passing Fraggle Rock and Munsters and Monty Python and Schoolhouse Rock on to the next generation with vigor. But I wish I had let Tron die with the '80's. I intend to bash my head on a rock before seeing the new one, so I can go back to just having a vague sense of the original plot, and a whole lot of awe for the original concept.

LM

[talisyn]

LM, you have to remember it in the context of it's time. This was before the internet, before computers became household appliances like a stove or fridge. And this was when programmers were demigods. Tron fits the era perfectly.

[NeuroTypical]

You mean as opposed to the current day, when they just think they're demigods?

[talisyn]

Yeah. It seems like now people (mostly my daughter and nephews) take computer stuff for granted, it's as much a part of them as breathing. I remember programming on a commodore, it thrilled me to no end when I figured out how to change font colors