Tron Legacy: What a disappointment

[anatess]

I'm one of the cultish Tron fans and I was so excited by Tron Legacy that I was fighting with my husband because I wanted to watch the movie at 12:01AM! Kids had school the next day so my husband said to wait until they get off school. I was literally jumping out of my skin wanting to go to the theater so bad.

Then I sat through half the movie and I was so disappointed I had to force myself to sit through all the way to the end. And it went downhill all the way to the last scene.

If any script writer would ever manage to read this, take note: When you're writing a sequel at least understand the concept of the original movie! GRRRR.

[Byrdie]

I'm one of the cultish Tron fans and I was so excited by Tron Legacy that I was fighting with my husband because I wanted to watch the movie at 12:01AM! Kids had school the next day so my husband said to wait until they get off school. I was literally jumping out of my skin wanting to go to the theater so bad.

Then I sat through half the movie and I was so disappointed I had to force myself to sit through all the way to the end. And it went downhill all the way to the last scene.

If any script writer would ever manage to read this, take note: When you're writing a sequel at least understand the concept of the original movie! GRRRR.

x9001

[smd58]

That tells me to wait for the DVD.

[Elise.m]

I loved it! I think they did a really good job at taking the end of Tron and continuing it. I'd like to hear exactly what you think about the plot that doesn't fit the original.

[j_h_smith]

Wow, three posts and two differing opinions.

Jim Smith

[Wh00h0069]

I watched in last night, and loved it. I thought it was better than the first one. It had a great plot, and awesome visual effects. My two buddies said the same.

[Egapal]

I'm one of the cultish Tron fans and I was so excited by Tron Legacy that I was fighting with my husband because I wanted to watch the movie at 12:01AM! Kids had school the next day so my husband said to wait until they get off school. I was literally jumping out of my skin wanting to go to the theater so bad.

Then I sat through half the movie and I was so disappointed I had to force myself to sit through all the way to the end. And it went downhill all the way to the last scene.

If any script writer would ever manage to read this, take note: When you're writing a sequel at least understand the concept of the original movie! GRRRR.

I couldn't disagree more. I thought it was a sequel made for the fans. If you sat down and watched the original with a young adult who has never seen it today they would most likely not love it as much as you. The graphics had to be changed to meet todays standards. Overall I was really impressed. I would love to hear what you didn't like exactly.

[anatess]

Those who are part of the Tron cult understands what the Tron concept is all about. It is not just a willy-nilly fiction story. There's a rhyme or reason to the "grid". This entire concept was made into hodge-podge senseless soup in Legacy!

I'm a programmer. I wrote my very first program (Hello World, of course) in June 1982. I was 12 years old. I didn't know what a computer is. I was in the Philippines - there was not even a single video game arcade in the entire island!

On the first day of programming class, the teacher asked us, what is a computer? And all 8 kids in the class didn't know! So he popped in the Pacman cartridge (yeah there were no hard drives back then) and for the first half of the 3 hour class i played my very first video game. I was crazy hooked on computers since then. By July 1982, i successfully wrote my own Pacman program... Those days you have to program the screen pixel by pixel. There was no such thing as graphical user interface. There was no Windows even, let alone a mouse... The monitor was the T.V., you save your programs onto a cassette tape using your tape recorder. The computer had 16Kb of RAM.

Then Tron came out that summer. Man, it was the movie that defined my programming world! It was so cool that somebody in Hollywood understood my world completely!

See, Tron was a very true to concept movie... The Tron world was simple really - you have "users" who are the real people in the real world who are using the computer.

Then you got the programs inside the computer who are controlled by the users. The awesome concept of Tron is that the programs are represented as people. So the programs take on the image of the user who is either playing the game or created the program (non-game). So that, everything that happens inside the "grid" is controlled by some user somewhere in the real world. In 1982, there was no world wide web. So the grid is limited to the computer network at Encom where Flynn works - or actually got fired from.

So the story is that Dillinger wrote a program for Encom (Master Control Program) for the purpose of controlling all other programs so that Dillinger can do whatever he wants at Encom. Flynn used to program for Encom but he got fired so he started his video game arcade. He found out that Dillinger stole his gaming programs to make it part of Encom (the disk thing, the light cycle, etc.). So he tried to hack into Encom to take it back. That's when he found out about the MCP. So he tries to destroy it. Unfortunately, his friend, Alan, who still works for Encom wrote this security program called Tron so he can't easily kill the MCP.

So Flynn asked Alan to re-program Tron. Alan got Flynn into Encom to hack the network from the inside to re-program Tron but the MCP senses this. To stop Flynn, the MCP used this experimental program that digitizes "real" objects into the computer. That's the suspension of disbelief thing that is easy to accept because it is clearly defined - the real object gets sucked into the computer. The MCP can't control the real world so he digitizes Flynn so he can fight him inside the computer.

Flynn is not a program, he is a user, so he doesn't follow any "rules". Whereas, programs can only do what they are programmed to do. So Flynn goes looking for Tron inside the computer while the MCP tries killing him by making him fight in the gaming programs. Flynn finds Tron and so he takes Tron to the portal (user interface - keyboard basically) so that Alan in the real world can give him the new program to kill the MCP... The program gets written into his disk that he wears on his back. Long story short, Flynn, with the help of Tron kills the MCP, gets out of the computer and lives happily ever after.

See next post for Legacy...

[The Hedgehog]

Waiting for the next post, because I have heard lots of bad reviews, and I saw Tron a long time ago when I was younger. I loved it, and I have heard that this plot makes absolutely no sense.

[anatess]

In comes Legacy. I'm only going to hit on the major points here.

If you haven't watched the movie, this may be a big spoiler!

The beginning was very exciting! Flynn's son Sam hacks into Encom which is now all pizzaz with all new technology and webbed and all. Encom is still shown as a big brother-type company wanting to control everything for money... Ok, we thought that ended in Tron 1... But that's ok coz Flynn disappeared in 1989, so his ideas died with him, I can accept that, even with Alan still at Encom.

So the initial skirmish was Sam hacking into Encom to distribute their new OS to the web for free. And Dillinger's son who is a member of the board (yes, I can accept that too) foiling him... Yeay! Exciting! Sets up the movie pretty good! Except that... That story line ended there never to be seen again... And my excitement of taking us into the "webbed" grid died there.

So 20 minutes into the movie I'm still trying to figure out what we were supposed to be fighting here.

So then Sam goes back to the arcade, gets sucked into the computer. Yeay!

Now we find that the fight is supposed to be between his dad and CLU. Ok, sweet! But the grid is confusing now... where is the grid in the real world? It seems that it is stuck in 1989 - isolated from Encom. There are no new games - just amped old games... So I'm understanding this as just the arcade and Flynns secret lab... Totally removed from the world! So, I'm like... How lame is THAT???

The rest is nothing but eye candy. Besides CLU, nobody had any relation to the real world, what the heck is an isomorphic program? It doesn't make sense! They're supposed to end diseases, wars, whatever... HOW exactly? They forgot to mention... So, I'm gonna have to figure this out myself... So an isomorphic program is an exact representation of something real. So, I'm guessing they are digital representation of diseases or whatever? And if so... How did they get into the grid? And what is their purpose? It seems like they are just random glitches in the system that doesn't really have reason for existing. So how exactly they can be made to cure anything nobody - not even the writers- knows. So, the only conclusion I can come up with is these isomorphs are just some willy-nilly creation from the writer's poor understanding of computer systems. Lame.

Tron was still there in a minor role - but he got re-programmed - to what we don't really know for sure - he is not an independent security program anymore he is like a Nazi soldier guy now... But then, of course he changes his programming on the fly.... Remnant programming from Tron I? Ok, I'll buy that. Sigh. I'm running out of money here...

So, the grid has a social network seems like... There's a bar and dance club. Ok. I'll buy that. A social network within a single video game arcade and secret lab? Seriously???

And so they want us to believe CLU tricked Alan/Sam into opening the portal so that he can invade the real world? Yea, they said that in the movie. I can buy that... Get out of the stupid grid that's stuck in the video arcade! So, the portal opens and instead of going through it, CLU goes chasing Sam and Flynn around. Oooohhhhkkkkaaayyyy....

And here's the clincher.... The user-less isomorphic program comes out of the portal.... And became human.

Okay it's too much. It's stupid. Very very stupid.