I saw Tron: Legacy in the theater yesterday.
Unlike my review of a pair of Disney movies, I decided to put the review in 2 comments for non-spoiler purposes.
Thoughts on video games, travel, and life
Thoughts on video games, travel, and life
Tron: Legacy kind of puts the whole franchise in a more depressing light.
ReplyDeleteKevin Flynn disappeared from his home, where his son already lost his mother. Sam (the protagonist) eventually ends up bumming around and pulling pranks on the Emcom board of directors (which he owns a majority stock in).
The whole world of the Grid is no longer part of the rest of the world, which was probably necessary for the technology jumps since 1982 (the Internet, mostly).
The movie seems to dismiss religion and glorify the spontaneous-growth "ISOs" (and no, the fact that they are a CD disc image suffix has nothing to do with anything).
Tron is brainwashed into being one of Clu 2's lackeys (the second Clu was created by Flynn to create a "perfect world").
Tron becomes good before dying, and then the Grid is destroyed when Kevin Flynn merges back with Clu 2.
ReplyDeleteNot to say it's a total downer: the graphics are bright and amazing (unlike the comparatively dark world of Tron 1), there's lots of references to the 1980s (In Flynn's arcade, Mario Bros. can be seen, and Donkey Kong sound effects can be heard) including a compact Macintosh in young Sam Flynn's room. Plus Sam saved information from his father's Tron Disc on an SD card.
But there could've been so much more to do: Dillinger Jr., the son of the villain from the first film, works as a board member at ENCOM, but he does nothing in the film except make wry comments. And no one else from the "real world" make any effort to go in, not even Alan Bradley (creator of the Tron program).
All in all, it was pretty good, but I couldn't help but feel disappointed.