First off let me say I still love this movie. Mainly because I just love the world of Tron so much, and seeing it realized again in an age that can handle it better is just beyond far out. I think Legacy had the opportunity to make Tron huge, but I just watched it again today, and it was a bit easier to see how some points against it prevented it from being the massive success they were obviously hoping it would be.
1. CGI Bridges
Let's get a big talking point out of the way, and let me state my opinion outright real quick. I like CGI Bridges. BUT, only for CLU.
For CLU I think it works great. I mean, he's a program. Because of that, I actually like the idea of him looking like a simulated young Flynn. But where Disney fucked up, is that they for some reason decided to include those early scenes which were ENTIRELY UNEEDED of the real Flynn with a CGI face.
This screws up what could've been this kind of neat thing that would have been accepted easier by the audience, and just makes people say "wtf" and laugh at how it almost instantly aged. It may seem petty, but it will always be a weird tarnish on the movie that they could have completely avoided with better direction in those early scenes.
2. The Tron Knight?
One of the main things that makes Tron's aesthetic so cool is the feeling of dark, empty space punctuated with bright neons. And this movie nailed that in a lot of ways. But at the same time, this movie came out around the time that Nolan's Batman movies were the biggest things out there, and it's obvious they were trying to ride that dark-tone vibe.
From the intro stuff in the real world that just seems like it's trying a little too hard to be dim-lit dramatic, to the game world not allowing anything too crazy beyond the awesome visuals, the movie is very much playing for a certain tone, and playing it safe with that tone on top of that. This leads us to leaving, I guess some of the more "wacky" stuff, behind. Everything just feels very safe.
So stuff like this...
Became this
We also didn't get anything just fucking crazy and weird, like Master Control.
Pretty much what I'm saying is, it should have had the confidence to take itself a little less seriously in some places, or at least go a little crazy. I don't think these now pretty goofy things from the original were intended to be goofy at the time or anything, but that's what they ended up being. It became part of it's charm. And people love Tron because of stuff like this along with the stuff that did end up getting into Legacy, despite the original not being that great of a movie. Legacy should have tapped into that more, focused more on it's source material, kind of like how the Marvel movies do today. But instead just played to that Dark Knight-like style too straightforwardly, and the movie suffers from just straight boredom sometimes because of it.
3. Everyone besides Jeff Bridges sucks.
Sam is just...not compelling. A very typical character trying his best to be atypical. You don't hate him, but you definitely don't love him either. He's just...there. To move the plot along and get to Jeff Bridges. Quorra borders on being interesting, but never makes it past just feeling like a love interest with a bit of back bone. Everyone else may as well not exist. Sam's father figure type guy in the real world and anyone else out there. CLU's servant dude or pretty much anyone else on the grid. The only ones that feel like that have presence and actually matter are both Jeff Bridges, Flynn and CLU. And while Bridges gives a very respectable performance, it's not enough to stop the movie from feeling sort of hollow.
The closest any other character gets to having something compelling going on with them is Tron himself. But that's not even used as a strong element, and is mainly just cool because of his rad "I fight for the users!" line. To be fair, this is definitely something the original struggled with too, and I'd say even more so. While they did make some progress in the right direction with Legacy, it wasn't enough to stop it from feeling like it was suffering again from one of the major issues from the original.
Anyway, I fucking love Tron, and like I said I still really enjoy watching this movie. It bums me out that the movie wasn't as big as they hoped, because I want more Tron movies and just Tron shit period. I know the movie didn't straight up bomb, and I keep hearing rumblings that another movie is coming every now and then, but those seem to have been happening for years. I just really hope they make another. And if they do, I really hope they can learn from their mistakes in Legacy, put their full concentration on it, and make it something really special. The more Tron there is in the world and the more people that love it, the better.
1. CGI Bridges
Let's get a big talking point out of the way, and let me state my opinion outright real quick. I like CGI Bridges. BUT, only for CLU.
For CLU I think it works great. I mean, he's a program. Because of that, I actually like the idea of him looking like a simulated young Flynn. But where Disney fucked up, is that they for some reason decided to include those early scenes which were ENTIRELY UNEEDED of the real Flynn with a CGI face.
This screws up what could've been this kind of neat thing that would have been accepted easier by the audience, and just makes people say "wtf" and laugh at how it almost instantly aged. It may seem petty, but it will always be a weird tarnish on the movie that they could have completely avoided with better direction in those early scenes.
2. The Tron Knight?
One of the main things that makes Tron's aesthetic so cool is the feeling of dark, empty space punctuated with bright neons. And this movie nailed that in a lot of ways. But at the same time, this movie came out around the time that Nolan's Batman movies were the biggest things out there, and it's obvious they were trying to ride that dark-tone vibe.
From the intro stuff in the real world that just seems like it's trying a little too hard to be dim-lit dramatic, to the game world not allowing anything too crazy beyond the awesome visuals, the movie is very much playing for a certain tone, and playing it safe with that tone on top of that. This leads us to leaving, I guess some of the more "wacky" stuff, behind. Everything just feels very safe.
So stuff like this...
Became this
We also didn't get anything just fucking crazy and weird, like Master Control.
Pretty much what I'm saying is, it should have had the confidence to take itself a little less seriously in some places, or at least go a little crazy. I don't think these now pretty goofy things from the original were intended to be goofy at the time or anything, but that's what they ended up being. It became part of it's charm. And people love Tron because of stuff like this along with the stuff that did end up getting into Legacy, despite the original not being that great of a movie. Legacy should have tapped into that more, focused more on it's source material, kind of like how the Marvel movies do today. But instead just played to that Dark Knight-like style too straightforwardly, and the movie suffers from just straight boredom sometimes because of it.
3. Everyone besides Jeff Bridges sucks.
Sam is just...not compelling. A very typical character trying his best to be atypical. You don't hate him, but you definitely don't love him either. He's just...there. To move the plot along and get to Jeff Bridges. Quorra borders on being interesting, but never makes it past just feeling like a love interest with a bit of back bone. Everyone else may as well not exist. Sam's father figure type guy in the real world and anyone else out there. CLU's servant dude or pretty much anyone else on the grid. The only ones that feel like that have presence and actually matter are both Jeff Bridges, Flynn and CLU. And while Bridges gives a very respectable performance, it's not enough to stop the movie from feeling sort of hollow.
The closest any other character gets to having something compelling going on with them is Tron himself. But that's not even used as a strong element, and is mainly just cool because of his rad "I fight for the users!" line. To be fair, this is definitely something the original struggled with too, and I'd say even more so. While they did make some progress in the right direction with Legacy, it wasn't enough to stop it from feeling like it was suffering again from one of the major issues from the original.
Anyway, I fucking love Tron, and like I said I still really enjoy watching this movie. It bums me out that the movie wasn't as big as they hoped, because I want more Tron movies and just Tron shit period. I know the movie didn't straight up bomb, and I keep hearing rumblings that another movie is coming every now and then, but those seem to have been happening for years. I just really hope they make another. And if they do, I really hope they can learn from their mistakes in Legacy, put their full concentration on it, and make it something really special. The more Tron there is in the world and the more people that love it, the better.
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