Tron thinky thoughts
Dec. 19th, 2010 06:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coyotegoth-Interesting that this and the original Tron were both directed by first-time filmmakers (Steve Lisberger, who helmed the original, is a producer on this one).
-And again I say: Bruce Boxleitner, totally rocking the silver fox action. Most scotches don't age this well.
-This movie does not fuck around with getting the plot rolling: hi, Flynn's secret office (Journey song on the jukebox: a nice touch); computer; zap!
-Wow, Olivia Wilde; why can't I recall her ever having been in anything besides House?
-Michael Sheen: daring, fascinating work; always just this side of ridiculous.
-Would Clu really say "man" in the scene with Zeus ("End of line, man"? I can see it in the first scene with Sam, when he's using the fact that Sam has confused Clu with Flynn to get information from Sam, but isn't Clu's whole thing getting rid of human imperfections? (One imagines him dealing with The Dude from Big Lebowski similarly.)
-The fact that the CGI de-aging on Jeff Bridges isn't quite perfect actually works; it makes Clu look more, well, computerized.
-Did someone leave this movie in the refrigerator next to Inception? It's been in the works since the '90s, off and on, but gives me a strong Nolan vibe nonetheless: Cillian Murphy as son of muckety muck; interior time running on a faster scale than real-world time (Jeff Bridges manages to indicate with a minimum of expository dialogue that his character has been in the 'Net for ages); numerous other philosophical and cinematic echoes.
-When Flynn says to Clu, "(I helped Sam and went against you, after you did everything I told you to do because) he's my son" I was half hoping Clu would say, "So was I!" Alas, no.
-Wow, that dinner scene could not remind me more of Keir Dullea eating at the end of 2001. Err, except for the roast pig.
-Love the recognizers here: huge and ominous and awesome.
-Daft Punk: great soundtrack choice. Hard to follow up Wendy Carlos, but they do indeed manage.
-I wish they could have mixed Bruce Boxleitner's voice louder for "I fight for the Users!"
-The ending reminds me of Bill Murray in Tootsie: "I saw your play... what happened?" The ending (I think there was a line or two of Bridges' in the middle that foreshadowed it somewhat; alas, I missed it) could have made more sense, and this can't be the same movie Tron was in 1982, pre-Neuromancer (remember when Matthew Broderick could plausibly have his computer call every computer in Seattle- all two dozen or so of them?), but I'll give it an A-.
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Date: 2010-12-20 01:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-20 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-20 05:43 am (UTC)- "Scotches"? And yes, Boxleitner was awesome, my only complaint was that he wasn't in more of the movie. And where was Lora? Was she Sam's mother?
EDIT: Apparently, she was! (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1104001/trivia) (scroll down a bit).
- I could have done with a little more character development of Sam before we threw him into the adventure, but I think they did a decent job as it is. That jumping right into the plot, though, was part of that "new director smell" I mentioned before.
- She was in House? Didn't even recognize her!
- Michael Sheen is a great actor, and he's a great chameleon, able to disappear into his role, but this time around I felt, between his performance and costume, that he was trying so hard to be David Bowie that I started to prefer Bowie in the role than him. I don't know if that's a compliment or not.
- Given that CLU was a digital copy of Flynn, I felt that CLU having some of Flynn's speech patterns made sense.
- I agree that computerized Bridges looked... off, but I hadn't considered that it was appropriate until I read your note here. That said, funny digital humans still creep me out, and every time we saw Clue's face while he talked, my skin crawled. It looked more like they digitally recreated his face, ala Polar Express, or Beowulf, than digitally de-aging him ala X3.
- I haven't seen Inception yet, but the non-Daft Punk parts of the score sounded a hell of a lot like the Batman Begins/Dark Knight soundtracks, which I think added to the Chris Nolan feel. I certainly noticed that. However, IMDB says Daft Punk did all the original music, so I guess they weren't the ones responsible for the Chris Nolan feel from the other movies, they just copied it, or else hit the same tone by accident.
- I think you're interpretation of Flynn and Clu's relationship might be projecting something that wasn't there. CLU was Flynn's "perfect self", which ties directly into his arc. Not only did CLU not grow because he was "perfect" but he was incapable of seeing past his "perfection." It's also it makes sense that Kevin and CLU would be friends, but eventually Kevin would learn and grow, and CLU, being stagnant, would see this as traitorous. They were equals in the beginning, but CLU's reversal, in Kevin's eyes, is what broke Kevin's spirit and really trapped him there, which is why he needed his son to rescue him, even though he probably had the power to do more than just hide.
- Yeah, the dinner scene was a little Kubric-esque. I blame it on the decor, and the awkward silence.
- Recognizers were HOT. HHOOTT. I wanted Sam to fly one.
- The soundtrack made me squee like a huge thing with a squeeing disorder. WWAAAAANT.
- I just wanted more Boxleitner, period. He's a favorite actor of mine.
- The ending made perfect sense. CLU was created from a piece of Kevin, and as such would need to be reintergrated back into the "source code" i order to be rid of.
I'm thinking, however, that instead of everything being destroyed, that the union created something new, which is where I would go were I to write the sequel. :)
So, TRON at the end of the movie, dead or alive? Could he even be alive if everything but the landscape (read: base source code) survived?
I LOVED that they mentioned Dillinger, by way of his son. I wanted more of that, but I suspect that's a seed for the sequel, if they get the chance for one. I have a good feeling they will, given how sequel-happy Hollywood is and given that the movie seems to be doing well. And dammit, I want David Warner back.
It was clear that The Grid took place in a closed system. I'm REAL curious how they would handle something like that happening on the internet, and I wonder how they would do it without stepping on ReBoot's toes, even though technically that show was building on TRON's toes.
-elf-
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Date: 2010-12-20 08:31 pm (UTC)As in whisky, I think he means.
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Date: 2010-12-20 11:04 pm (UTC)-elf-
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Date: 2010-12-21 01:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-21 01:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-20 04:52 pm (UTC)- Recognizerrrrrrrrrrrs. RE-COG-NI-ZERRRRRRRRRS.
- The Times review captured the uncanny effect that the CGI Bridges had . . she said it "hung on his face like a death mask". I agree with you in that the creepiness of that effect worked well for the story (worked less well when they were just trying to show a Young Flynn).
- "End of line, man" was fan service, pure and simple. And I LOVED it. :)
- My friend Rob and I were discussing the many merits of "Obi-Dude Kenobi" which I feel you would have appreciated.
My feeling on the film is basically this: if, while watching, you take it upon yourself for even a fraction of a second to notice the giant gaping holes in the script, or think to yourself, 'Wow, this dialogue is kind of awful', then everything will fall apart. I chose not to do that. It's not something I'd chose to do for just any film. And I don't think anyone can disagree with how beautifully choreographed the action sequences were. I also loved the really odd sense of humor the director brought to the proceedings (uncomfortable dinner, what? DJ's grooving on the giant battle scene? what? Awesome).
- I agree with your Flynn-Clu-creation-creator assessment, but again, I think that whole relationship boils down to, "We didn't want to actually take the time to think about motivations for these characters, so instead we--LOOK OVER THERE LIGHTJETS OMG!"
- Did you want the four battle-preparation-babes to break out into "Bad Romance"? Because I really, really did.
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Date: 2010-12-20 06:08 pm (UTC)I *heart* you :) (and I totally meant to quote your "this is the Aeon Flux movie we never got"- which really does sun it up nicely.)
(Also, I'm racking my brain- the only other thing I can come up with for Michael Sheen is Frost:Nixon (which rocked), and now, he's in, like...everything.)
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Date: 2010-12-20 06:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-20 07:46 pm (UTC)Also features a rockin' performance by the young lady that played Agatha Christie in Dr. Who Season 4.
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Date: 2010-12-20 08:32 pm (UTC)I've been meaning to see it for ages, actually.