I Am Not A Program
December 30, 2010 § 1 Comment
I haven’t blogged about any movies recently, and this is partly because I haven’t been to a theater in a while and also party because none of the movies I’ve seen recently have given me time to gather my thoughts about the movie while it was still playing. Enter Tron Legacy, which I watched in 3D with the extra pair of glasses slipping off my face.
It took me a while to see this movie because I didn’t know if I wanted to. All the hype put me off, the reviews were bad, and I wasn’t very into the original Tron. Finally though, my curiosity got the best of me, and I figured that I needed to watch this in a theater while I had the chance.
Welcome to the Grid, kid.
This review might contain a few spoilers; I’ve tried to keep it as vague as possible, but then again, if you’re worried about the plot being spoiled for you, you’re probably setting your standards too high. I didn’t expect the storyline to be spectacular, but I didn’t expect it to try so hard either. It’s hard to take this film seriously, and I can’t figure out if it wants us to at all.
Films with weak plots leave me with more questions than Inception did. For example, why is the character of Tron so obviously the ONLY one who can wield two discs? Why do programs watch other programs fight each other? What real-life technological situation is this supposed to simulate?
Zoom zoom zoom
Before Tron Legacy begins, it tells us that some of the movie is shown in 2D because that’s how it was shot and “meant to be viewed” or something like that. Why did I pay to watch a movie in 3D if only half of it is? Shouldn’t I just pay half of the inflated 3D price? This whole 3D fad had better be pulling the movie industry out of the slump it seemed to be in a few years ago, because it definitely isn’t benefitting my budget a whole lot.
The acting is stilted and the script is rather shoddy. At one point, when Flynn and Quorra are staring out into the darkness by the pool, Flynn turns away and declares, “Chaos. Good news.” Maybe I just wasn’t paying enough attention, but it was just so…random. We couldn’t help but laugh.
The actor who plays the Sam Flynn, Garrett Hedlund, has a stupefied, wide-eyed expression the whole time, but at least his crying is good. There are a lot of gratuitous shots of Olivia Wilde — tilting her head slowly, stretched out on the couch, staring at things — they’re pretty and pretty useless. I thought I saw a really hot Cillian Murphy in the conference room at the beginning of the film, but since he’s not listed in the credits, I can’t figure out who it is.
Whatcha thinkin’ ’bout? Nothing?
Of course, it’s not hard to get into the action; it pretty much looks like the most awesome video game EVER. The neon stripes, the glowing lights, the immaculately clean lines, etc. The racing scenes were so good; I wish there were more of them. Everybody speaks with autotune, which would definitely be a hit in the American music industry. The soundtrack fit the film perfectly, and it’s hilariously cute that Daft Punk played the DJs in the club scene.
At times this movie is similar to Narnia’s The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe: The Creator is on the run from the corrupted entity who is hellbent on evil & is raising an army of destruction…but what exactly is the destiny Clu talks about? To invade the real world and digitalize it? Can his minions be destroyed there? Would they be invincible?
My questions are many, but they don’t really affect the visual experience. Afterward, my mind was reeling from the movie, and it felt amazing just to drive home while listening to good music [in my case, MGMT].
auradis 
a movie of visual appeal but total rubbish in terms of writing, plot..everything else