This is OLD news..

[Bini]

But better late than never!

OK so Hubby and I never got around to seeing Tron Legacy when it first came out. We heard a lot of hype about it, both disappointing rants and awesome praising raves. I think the main reason we held out was because of crowds. So we waited and waited for that to die down and eventually just missed out on seeing Tron on the big-screen all together.

Anyway, we ended up watching Tron via Direct-TV at home. And to be honest, I felt a little.. "meh" afterwards. Maybe that's because I hadn't seen the original? Or maybe because I didn't fully understand the concept behind the flashy-glowing red and blue lines? I think the part where the "red army" so to speak (lol) wanted to cross-over in our world (reality), that's where the movie kind of lost me. Just seemed lame. And.. Brace yourself.. WHO exactly is Tron? I was confused as to why he initially fought along side Flynn and later became aide to his nemesis. And also, the girl who came into the real world at the end. Was she now human or still program?

Meh. Just felt meh afterwards. Clearly I missed out/misunderstood a lot. Can anyone fill me in?

[Guest]

BINI! YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE ME RANT AND RAVE AGAIN!

Tron Legacy is the biggest mess of a sequel ever... Even bigger than Xmen 3!

So, yeah, you gotta watch the original... and it would help if you know how to program in "old school".

So, this is a synopsis of the original story to get you to appreciate the new movie a little bit even if it was a disaster:

Kevin Flynn (the dad in Legacy - Jeff Bridges) works at Encom with Alan Bradley (the guy with the pager in Legacy - Bruce Boxleitner). They're good friends. Kevin got laid off so he started making video games and opened his own video game arcade. But, he found out that this big shot guy at Encom, Ed Dilinger (you only get to see his son at the beginning of Legacy), is stealing his game programs and submitting it as his own to Encom which got him promotions all the way to the top spot.

Flynn tried to find proof that Dilinger is stealing his code so he tries to hack into Encom but he got blocked by a Master Control Program (MCP). Come to find out Ed Dilinger wrote the MCP that controls all the Encom programs so Dilinger can have control over all of Encom.

Now, Alan, works in IT security at Encom. He wrote a program called Tron that would monitor communications between the MCP and the outside world. So, Kevin found an opportunity to hack into Encom from within Encom itself using Alan's Tron program. But to do that, Kevin has to help Alan reprogram Tron to get a higher security clearance and bypass the MCP. So, Alan snuck Kevin into Encom so he can help Alan use the Encom computers to reprogram Tron.

Now, Alan has a girlfriend, Lora, who also works at Encom. She wrote a program called Yori that can digitize real-world objects to use as images for Encom programs to use. It's the 80's version of a Graphical User Interface. This program uses a Laser that zaps real objects and digitizes them via quantum teleportation (okay, okay, it's a stretch, but hey, it's a movie!).

Anyway, while Alan and Kevin was busy hacking into Encom, the MCP protected itself by activating the Laser that just so happened to be where Kevin was sitting, and zapped him into the computer!

So, that's how Kevin ended up in the computer as a digitized version of himself.

Now, what you kinda need to understand is - there are USERS and there are PROGRAMS. The Users are the people on the keyboard typing the programs - or giving instructions to the programs. The programs are inside the computer - they can't really do anything except for what they were programmed to do. Whereas, a user can do anything - he can just program something to happen. Make sense?

So, Tron is the security program whose user is Alan. Now, inside the computer, the program takes on the features of its user... So Tron inside the computer looks like Alan. And Yori looks like Lora. The MCP looks like Dilinger. And Kevin looks like... well, Kevin... but he's not a program - he's a user! It's not very clear in the movie, but Yori knows everybody inside the computer including all the layouts/buildings/roads etc because she is the "graphical user interface". So, when Yori saw Kevin, she knew he wasn't a program. But, Tron didn't. So, for a while there, Tron did not like Kevin at all. Yori had to get them to like each other so that Tron will listen to Kevin.

Anyway, while Kevin was inside the computer, he finds all his game programs (light cycle, etc.). Back in the 80's, the light cycle was an awesome game! You basically block out the other guy using the "lines" you make. The other guy can't cross your line, otherwise he blows up. So, eventually, you can block him out so that he has nowhere to go but blow up on your line. Anyway, so the MCP kills hacks (and useless programs) by giving them to Tron to "derez" (digital version of wipe out) - remember, Tron is a security program. They do this by having Tron and the wayward program play in the games. So, when Kevin got sucked into the computer, the MCP gave Kevin to Tron to derez in the games. But Kevin wrote that program, and he's a user, not a program - so he is not bound by any rules, so he figured out how to jump the game and took Tron with him!

Anyway, Kevin finally convinces Tron to go to a portal (that would be the keyboard) so that he can get Alan to reprogram him with the higher security clearance. The MCP chases them all the way but Tron managed to make it to the portal and he gets his disk re-written. So, now, all they need is to bypass the MCP, so Tron, Yori, and Kevin races to the Mainframe to find the MCP to somehow deactivate him... Kevin kisses Yori (which won the Best Kiss in the Oscars) before he jumps to the MCP and blowing it up, he gets teleported back to the real world, Tron managed to get all the proof he needed on the stolen programs and had it printed out for Kevin. (Oh yeah, Yori looks like Lora who is Alan's girlfriend, but I guess Kevin had a secret crush on her!).

So then, Dilinger sits in his big-shot desk and tries to activate the MCP and all he gets is... End of Line.

So, anyway, Kevin ended up becoming the CEO of Encom...

[Traveler]

The new movie was a despoilment to many old timers that understood the technology that was part of the first movie. For example I so missed bit.

Tron was a software program used to keep the OS from taking over computers - which happened in real life with DOS and Windows and to some extent UNIX. I/O specific programs have disappeared. The Tron remake is just eye candy (which was fun) but not much of any understanding of anything.

The Traveler

[Bini]

Aha! Anatess! I knew I could count on you! You just shed an oracle of light on this for me! It makes a lot more sense now. I'm following.. Wow. Ok I'll have to watch the first Tron sometime. Funny thing is, Hubby saw the original when it came out but couldn't tell me WHAT was going on! Lol. Thanks for the heads up :)

[Canuck Mormon]

Darn!! I thought this was a thread about Pam!!! :p:p

Tron was a huge dissapointment for me. It was slow and a little preachy (about creating the perfect society0 as well. The special effects were good, but not great, and the acting was terrible. Too bad I spent the money on the blu-ray/dvd/digital copy movie pack. Oh well, live and learn.

[Guest]

If they would have just hired me to write the script!!!

[Canuck Mormon]

If they would have just hired me to write the script!!!

I think a 5 year old could have written a better script then that one (not yours anatess, I'm sure yours would have rocked).

[slamjet]

From all the reviews & comments, I equate the sequel to the Star Wars prequel. A waste of an awesome story line and not worth seeing. Haven't seen it and I lost all desire to.

[Bini]

From all the reviews & comments, I equate the sequel to the Star Wars prequel. A waste of an awesome story line and not worth seeing. Haven't seen it and I lost all desire to.

I wouldn't highly recommend it BUT if it were on RedBox for a dollar I'd say go rent it. The film wasn't awful, there's worse movies out there. So if you can see it for a buck—it's sure to be some decent entertainment.

[Blackmarch]

But better late than never!

OK so Hubby and I never got around to seeing Tron Legacy when it first came out. We heard a lot of hype about it, both disappointing rants and awesome praising raves. I think the main reason we held out was because of crowds. So we waited and waited for that to die down and eventually just missed out on seeing Tron on the big-screen all together.

Anyway, we ended up watching Tron via Direct-TV at home. And to be honest, I felt a little.. "meh" afterwards. Maybe that's because I hadn't seen the original? Or maybe because I didn't fully understand the concept behind the flashy-glowing red and blue lines? I think the part where the "red army" so to speak (lol) wanted to cross-over in our world (reality), that's where the movie kind of lost me. Just seemed lame. And.. Brace yourself.. WHO exactly is Tron? I was confused as to why he initially fought along side Flynn and later became aide to his nemesis. And also, the girl who came into the real world at the end. Was she now human or still program?

Meh. Just felt meh afterwards. Clearly I missed out/misunderstood a lot. Can anyone fill me in?

K in the first movie, there are 3 important people;

Flynn, encoms bright programmer who sets up his own account and uses their computer to start programming his own video games. (Ends up getting sucked into the computer).

Has his games stolen, and is eventually fired by the guy who stole them... after that he is constantly trying to hack into the encom mainframe to find evidence and proof so he can bring the guy down.

Ed Dillinger. Another programmer that joins encom, creates a program that is capable of improving itself by assimilating other programs as well as learning, called the Master Control Program. He ends up stealing Flynns programs and then shows them to encom as stuff he's made, the company then releases the games and makes big bucks off them and Mr Dillinger starts flying up through the ranks and eventually becomes the guy in charge, and fires Flynn.

Alan Bradley (the old guy that visists Sam in the new movie). Another programmer that has also been tatking some self initiative and has been working on a security program that he calls Tron. The only connection he really has to flynn is that his Girlfriend is Flynn's ex girlfriend.

At the beginning of the first tron after a failed hacking attempt, Flynn's ex girlfriend wants to warn Flynn that Dillinger knows that Flynn is trying to hack into the system and has pretty much cut off outside access to it (an action that also shuts out Alan Bradly from getting to his program, Tron). So they decide to break into encom and let Flynn hack from the inside to get his evidence. Well the computer they let flynn use happens to be in front of an experimental beam demolecularization and digitization device and by this time the MTC program dillinger has made is pretty much sentient and not nice (of course) and realises that Flynn is there and is trying to hack in... and so makes use of the laser to zap flynn into the computer world.

Apparently in this parallel world programs you create tend to look like you... FLynn has to break out of the Games that he is forced to play and break into the MTC, but before he can get into that he has to also help the program tron Break out because tron has the capability to shut the MTC down.

Anyways after the first movie Flynn's found this computer world, and sets up a private office with a standalone server and other machinery and tries to basically program and do things from the inside of the computer to see what he could create from inside the computer world, but unfortunately for him his program CLU, kinda becomes like the MCP from the first one and traps him inside and hijacks the security system (tron).. and further evolves the programming on the system.. which sets the scene for the second movie.

The big thing that Flynn discovered (a bit of a potshot to both theists and athiests) was that life manifested by itself digitally once the conditions were right, which makes Quarra very important in the second movie.

Edited May 3, 2011 by Blackmarch

[Blackmarch]

I wouldn't highly recommend it BUT if it were on RedBox for a dollar I'd say go rent it. The film wasn't awful, there's worse movies out there. So if you can see it for a buck—it's sure to be some decent entertainment.

I loved it and I really love the potential it has. I hope they really don't screw it over, if anything aII'd say the second really didn't go above or below the original.

The Game tron 2.0 does a real good job of bridging how the the real world and the computer world interact and affect each other.. so i hope the directors take a good look thru that game.

[Guest]

K in the first movie, there are 3 important people;

<snip>

Apparently in this parallel world programs you create tend to look like you... FLynn has to break out of the Games that he is forced to play and break into the MTC, but before he can get into that he has to also help the program tron Break out because tron has the capability to shut the MTC down.

<snip>.

LOL!!!

Some programs went on an LDS mission... :D:D

[Guest]

I loved it and I really love the potential it has. I hope they really don't screw it over, if anything aII'd say the second really didn't go above or below the original.

The Game tron 2.0 does a real good job of bridging how the the real world and the computer world interact and affect each other.. so i hope the directors take a good look thru that game.

I disagree! The 2nd movie went far below the original! It's nothing but a visual play with no substance... kinda like... Pamela Anderson?

[slamjet]

I disagree! The 2nd movie went far below the original! It's nothing but a visual play with no substance... kinda like... Pamela Anderson?

Oh... my... word, go ahead and just open my mind up to a billion inappropriate comments

[Guest]

Oh... my... word, go ahead and just open my mind up to a billion inappropriate comments

You like that, huh?

[Blackmarch]

LOL!!!

Some programs went on an LDS mission... :D:D

wow total freudian slip.

>.>

<.<

I disagree! The 2nd movie went far below the original! It's nothing but a visual play with no substance... kinda like... Pamela Anderson?

if you mean substance like a deep story, neither one had a deep story or much of one.

[Guest]

wow total freudian slip.

>.>

<.<

if you mean substance like a deep story, neither one had a deep story or much of one.

No... I mean the genius of the computer symbolism interplay which is the heart of Tron! That's what caused that seemingly blah 80's crap movie (not a single brat pack in sight, not even Molly Ringwald) into a cult Movie of all Ages!

[RipplecutBuddha]

I saw it. I liked it for some creative entertainment. While it's true they could have gone soo differently with it, the fact is not too many sequels live up to the first film anyway, so the letdown was anticipated no matter what.

Go ahead and watch it, though watching the first one will help greatly with the storyline, as well as appreciate that in the original film, the animation techiniques required each frame of film to be composed of at least 17 separate images/layers. Animation has come a long long way.