Having watched TRON: Legacy more than 3 times in the last few months I have to admit to having quite the obsession with absolutely everything about it.
I grew up with the original 1982 movie (I was 4 when it came out) and remember it being one of those VHS films I watched again and again in the afternoons after school along with the Star Wars movies, The Goonies, Monster Squad and many others besides.
When the sequel was announced I was one of the geeks that literally shouted "YES" out loud, did a little victory dance and then counted every bloody minute until the trailer finally arrived online... When the trailer did eventually hit I had goosebumps for hours and my anticipation level was truly palpable. You could probably call it a true 'geekgasm'. I think the only other time I had that kind of excitement for a sequel movie was for "Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace" and we all know what a let down that was for fans... I have the same excited feeling for the future Marvel movies like Thor, Captain America and The Avengers and I know without a doubt I'll love them too!
Surprisingly after seeing TL in the cinema, and seriously loving every moment, even the rocking Daft Punk soundtrack, I encountered a fairly large number of haters who literally said to me "it's s**t" and dissed every aspect of it. I'm still shocked now, but then you can't please everyone and people look for something different in a film. I look for special effects, action, explosions, heart-racing chases, hot ladies and accuracy to the original source material to keep those fan expectations at peak level. Others look for acting, solid storylines and something new that they haven't seen before. What can I say, I can be considered shallow when it comes to my movies. But who cares, I love'em!
Below are the shallow reasons I love TRON: Legacy and why I can't wait for another outing in the franchise. We have the beautiful Olivia Wilde (Quorra), the truly stunning on screen presence of Beau Garrett (who mesmerises me in the film but who I wouldn't look twice at out of make up, even though that sounds harsh), and then the bloody excellent video for the tune of "Derezzed" by Daft Punk. I can also state that I really like Garrett Hedlund as Sam Flynn (others thought he was wooden), you've obviously gotta love Jeff Bridges in everything he does, you've also got to love that they brought back Bruce Boxleitner as both Alan Brady and TRON (even though TRON is now masked bad guy Rinzler) and finally the updated neon lit suits, vehicles and backgrounds and epic feel of the battles and the entire movie in general.
I know that when it finally gets released on Blu-ray in April I will have worn it out completely by May!!!
1 comment:
I'm glad somebody else out there in the world is as obsessed with Tron and Tron: Legacy as I was. I have to say that TL really surprised me. I was expecting a Phantom Menace (or at least an Attack of the Clones) but I was pleasantly surprised at every turn.
The way it tracked with the original source, a full 28 years later, was nothing short of amazing. Can you even count how many times a sequel was full of plot holes and inconsistencies when only one or two years separated them? They did a great job on that avenue.
The updated look was stellar. It looked modern, while still being stylistically the same.
Jeff Bridges just killed as CLU. I'll admit that the Kevin Flynn character left a little to be desired (although there were some great humorous moments), but CLU could be one of the coolest Big Bads I've seen in a long time. He was truly twisted and surprisingly complex.
The story was definitely linear. But it was not more linear than every other action flick out there. Tron (the original) set the bar high for originality, but it also had a very linear storyline. There were very few surprises in either. There doesn't need to be surprises for a story to be good, but ever since Sixth Sense, audiences almost get offended if there isn't some crazy plot twist in the last five minutes of a flick.
Man, I love that movie. I've also seen the original probably a thousand times because I, too, wore out a VHS copy when I was a kid after school.
My gripes (and these are very minor): (1) I'm not sold on Daft Punk. I think they did a better job than I thought they would have done, but they are too "funky" and sample-heavy IMHO for Tron. I wish the director/producer would have chose an electronic act that is more purely digital in their sound. Wendy Carlos' original Tron sound track was absolutely gorgeous and perfect for the film. Daft Punk fit, and fit well, but it wasn't something I remember was being stellar. I would have chosen Orbital, Hybrid, or Conjure One. (2) I would have liked to see the flashback scenes have a look that was somewhere between the 80s Tron and TL. That way you could see a progression of the visual style as The Grid evolved over time. (3) The way Kevin's identity disk was stolen was kind of lame. He was so protective of it, since CLU was insane, I wish the scheme the baddies came up with to steal it was a little more elaborate.
I can't wait for the sequel. I read that filming won't start until 2014. Ugh! I hope it doesn't get delayed. I can't wait another 28 years to see Tron again.
At least there's a Tron cartoon coming out later this year!
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