But I was willing to give Tron Legacy a try. The first one was pretty okay, maybe a 7/10 for me, so how much worse could the sequel be?
Well... it's complicated.
Overview
27 years after the events of the first film, Kevin Flynn has disappeared. Nobody knows why he would or why he could, especially not his son, Sam.
Then one day Sam finds out a message was sent from his dad's office in the abandoned arcade. He goes down there to see what he can find and is accidentally teleported onto the Grid. But this virtual world is very different from the paradise his father told him about in bedtime stories. The users are hated -- as they are said to enslave programs -- and a program by the name of Clu has risen up to be the overlord of a 'perfected' society. But Clu doesn't know where Kevin Flynn is either. So he's very happy when Sam is conscripted into the arena games. What better bait could he have asked for?
Story and Characters
From the premise, I was a bit more invested in this film than the original (I'm sorry, Original fans, forgive me.)
Part of the reason is probably because I really like stories with a lot of family dynamics and emotional growth, but the other part is basically because the protagonist's goal was a lot more consistent and impacted nearly every decision he made.
To be blunt, in the original film Flynn's goal developed from 'Prove I made the program,' to 'Survive the game,' which ended with him just getting the proof he wanted in the end. Sam's goal always stays fairly within the ballpark of 'Get dad back,' even as he's trying to survive, because what's the point of going back to the normal world if he can't have his father with him?
However, his character arc seems a bit stilted in the end, as the ultimate decision of change isn't made by him, but forced upon him.
I really appreciated the fact that his reactions to being transported to the Grid are incredibly realistic, though. Great job on that, director/screenwriter/actor team!
Kevin Flynn's arc is a bit more satisfying, in that he goes from a self-preserving 'what happens will happen, just stay zen' mindset to actively pursuing goals for the sake of his son.
Clu was a much more entertaining villain, as he has all of K. Flynn's traits, skewed by his ideals of perfection and mathematical calculation. But because of this, he comes off more as Kevin's villain, not Sam's, which makes their conflict really impersonal. For an example, when they find out Clu's reprogramming programs into mindless soldiers, Kevin is sorrowful, guilt-ridden, and horrified, while Sam's reaction is more along the lines of an American patriot.
At least Clue does fight Sam, though.
Also more connected with Clu and his crusade of perfectionism is the rebel program, Quorra, who has been living with K. Flynn as his apprentice ever since he disappeared. As far as obligatory strong female characters go, she actually wasn't that bad, because:
A. She had a unique personality
B. She had dreams and goals of her own
C. When she caused a problem which risked all of their lives, she apologized for it
(Man, that bar is so low...)
However, above all this, I've got to say that the direction choices and editing stunted a lot of character appreciation for me, for instance:
"Why is Sam just crouching on the floor for 15 seconds during this fight scene, watching programs get shredded apart? Oh, yeah, so we could have Quorra do that sick jump over him. I see."
Plot
Genuinely not bad. Sam's an incredibly impulsive and emotion-driven character, so his decisions keep the plot moving at a steady pace, and the worldbuilding of the new Grid gives a lot of nice challenges.
The Fatal Flaw
Generally I'd say this is a good example of the importance of music to a film. I understand that one of the main attractions of this film is that the soundtrack was composed by Daft Punk (who makes a cameo in the film) and it's fairly good, but it's overall tone is disconnected from everything on screen, floating above the film so it makes scenes that should be emotionally gripping fall flat. If your protagonist is screaming in fury/terror but the music sounds like something from a techno spa, it's not going to work.
Also this film was smothered in the latter acts by a ton of Buddhist philosophy which was really distracting from what should have been the primary theme of a father and son trying to reconnect after years of separation and estrangement, rather than, 'Be zen, answers will fall into your lap -- Oh wait, you mean I've actually got to make decisions that require self-sacrifice and further abandoning my son? Uh, it's fine. He'll get over it. Because he'll learn to be indiff- I mean, zen.'
Summary
I had high hopes for this movie. Then the second and third acts came along and slapped those hopes in the face. The visuals were nice, but no amount of computer graphics in the world can cover up a forced and bad moral theme.
Probably a film I'd watch again only to spark deep philosophical discussions with friends.
5/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment