ALISON ST. JOHN: And you're back on Film Club of the Air on KPBS, with Beth Accomando, Scott Marks, and Anders Wright. Let's move on to "TRON: Legacy" BETH ACCOMANDO: Moving down. Way down. SCOTT MARKS: Oh, boy. ALISON ST. JOHN: Okay. The original movie was Tron, in 1982, and it was ahead of its time in special effects. And it's a story about a hacker who gets sucked into a virtual world. It was very beloved by computer geeks and sci-fi fans, and now these fans get to revisit the obsession 30 years later, called "TRON: Legacy." It stars Jeff Bridges following up the role he created in the original film. You're in a good position to tell us what your impressions were. Beth? BETH ACCOMANDO: Oh, my God. It was so bad. And to say it's in 3D is false advertising. For one thing, they actually have a disclaimer on the film, which says not all of this was shot in 3D, and it was intended that way. And even what was shot in 3D doesn't look very good at all. ALISON ST. JOHN: Isn't it kind of neat the way they use the 3D where it comes in in the movie? SCOTT MARKS: Oh, boy. No. ACCOMANDO: No. Here's the thing, first of all, I think a lot of people remember Tron with more affection than if they were to see it again right now. What was cool with Tron wasn't so much that it was really state of the art effects or that it was this really great film. But it was the first film that really put you inside of a game, into a gaming world, and they had cool toys, and when you're a kid that kind of stuff is appeals. But if you go back and watch the film, it was slow, and the effects were kind of cheesy. And this film does not improve on anything, even with all the new technology. I mean, there are some things that look kind of pretty. But it's slow, it's pretentious, I mean Jeff Bridges, you know, youthened, is terrifying. ANDERS WRIGHT: It's just digital. ACCOMANDO: Digital. And it actually rips off a lot from star wars, some of the fight scenes, the, like, dog fight, yeah, I know you hate that. MARKS: Oh, boy. ALISON ST. JOHN: All right, Scott. MARKS: Lasers in here just like Star Wars? ACCOMANDO: No, not lasers. What are the races -- some of the fighter stuff was either like the pod race in Phantom Menace or it was the dog fight [CHECK AUDIO]. MARKS: That's frightening. ALISON ST. JOHN: So Scott what was your impression of it. MARKS: This thing is unwatchable. ALISON ST. JOHN: Oh. MARKS: These people should be jailed for making a movie as bas as this. You ever wonder what -- what it would be like if Ingmar Bergman directed a live action Disney film? WRIGHT: No. MARKS: This is so cold and so boring and unengaging, it's like watching guys throw a lighted frisbee among Tivoli lights for two hours. ALISON ST. JOHN: And Anders? MARKS: I think you underestimated the original Tron. That was a major breakthrough in digital film making, whether it was good or not. That was [CHECK AUDIO]. ALISON ST. JOHN: So Anders were you a fan of the original one? WRIGHT: Yeah, absolutely, and I was a kid when it came out. I was absolutely the perfect target audience for it, and I loved it am and I have a lot of affection for if, and I certainly, like, grew up playing that video game too. The big problem here is that people who want to enjoy this movie are really going to enjoy it because they're not gonna really care, but it's really all style over substance. ACCOMANDO: It's not even style. MARKS: Style? Where? ALISON ST. JOHN: It was such a big deal, up, Comic-Con, they promoted this thing up. They have been trotting this thing out at Comic-Con for years, this is, like, the third or fourth year in a row. And I saw some footage at Comic-Con, and it got me kind of excited for it. But the fact is that the story is really what's lacking. ACCOMANDO: You came out at Comic-Con all pumped up. WRIGHT: Yeah, I was. ACCOMANDO: The panel and then the Tron party. WRIGHT: The Tron party was terrific. But, you know, the story just gets more and more and more ridiculous as it goes on. Because, you know, if you're gonna create a world like this, you've gotta make everything that's inside it make sense of it's all got to be true to the world that exists. ALISON ST. JOHN: And it is moving into a virtual world, right? And that's where the 3D comes in. WRIGHT: Yes. MARKS: They try to do the wizard of oz, where it's flat, and as soon as they go into the computer game, it's 3D. ACCOMANDO: It barely looked 3D. I recommend seeing it in Imax [CHECK AUDIO]. THE COURT: But you were saying that far Jeff Bridges was better in this movie than in true grit. ACCOMANDO: That's a meager comparison. But yes, he is better in this. WRIGHT: Here's the thing. This is occupying what Avatar did a year ago. It's the big 3D tent pull movie of the year. And that movie, Avatar, no matter what you think of it, it was an immersive 3D experience. Of this really isn't. It's still like you're looking at it instead of being in it. ALISON ST. JOHN: Any good action sequences at all in this movie. ACCOMANDO: They pretend there are. WRIGHT: Actually early on, there are some light cycle battles that are pretty cool. MARKS: I never knew what restless leg syndrome until I sat true this thing. ALISON ST. JOHN: What about the director? MARKS: Who? Who directed it? ALISON ST. JOHN: Joseph Kosinski. MARKS: Never heard of him, and I hope I never hear from him again. ACCOMANDO: Oh, who he is, he's gonna do the remake of the black hole, which came out around the same time as Tron, from Disney, another one of these big kind of bloated Sci-fi films. WRIGHT: What's really disappointing is this movie will make a bucket and a half a money. MARKS: Don't be so sure. I think the first week gonna kill them, it's gonna be like the tourist. ACCOMANDO: It is gonna do a huge opening week, and [CHECK AUDIO]. WRIGHT: There are people there who loved. The person who I took, people are sort of determined to like this, to enjoy themselves. And maybe they should be because they're dropping 15 bucks to see it in 3D. ACCOMANDO: Your not gonna talk anyone who was a fan of the first Tron out of skiing should sequel. WRIGHT: Yeah. ALISON ST. JOHN: In your view, was that a topnotch movie in its own right. ACCOMANDO: I didn't think so. WRIGHT: The kid in me will tell you that the time it came out, and the anal I was at, I absolutely adored it. ALISON ST. JOHN: Uh-huh and have you gone back and seen it again. WRIGHT: It's been at least ten years. MARKS: But the original Tron did do that well in the box office, so why Disney 30 years after the fact? Because someone at Comi-Con is a big fan of Tron. WRIGHT: No, they're basically saying, look, we've got this 3D technology, what better place to put it than into the computer. It makes sense of however that doesn't mean you can skip on the story. ALISON ST. JOHN: Okay, well, Tron legacy opens everywhere on Friday. So you'll have a chance to make up your own mind. I'd like to thank you you guys for coming up. We have had Beth Accomando, KPBS film critic, thanks Beth.. ACCOMANDO: Thank you. ST. JOHN: Scott Marks, author of the film blog, Emulsioncompulsion.com. Scott. MARKS: Nice seeing you again. ALISON ST. JOHN: And Anders Wright, film critic for the San Diego City Beat. Anders, great to have you. WRIGHT: Good to see you, Alison. ALISON ST. JOHN: Thanks so much for listening, I'm Alison St. John in for Maureen Cavanaugh.
As a friend and fellow critic recently told me as the number of '80s remakes and rip offs continued to roll in: "When will they stop raping my childhood?" Well not any time soon as the new "TRON: Legacy" (opening December 17 throughout San Diego) serves up new abuse.
You can listen to our discussion on the KPBS Film Club of the Air or read my review.
I know there are a lot of people out there who hold the original 1982 "TRON" very dear to their hearts. I'm so sorry but I think most will be disappointed. But probably nothing I say will stop them from spending their hard earned money on this sequel. They will want to find out for themselves and maybe some will be able to overlook att the flaws to find something to appreciate. But I think even diehard fans of the original will have a hard time finding the good in this bland, pretentious sequel. If you will not heed my warning to avoid this snoozer than at the very least avoid the 3D version and see it in IMAX 2D. Simply put, the 3D sucks!
The original film was about hacker/arcade owner Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) who is literally abducted into a video game by the evil Master Control Program. Flynn is reconstituted into a bright, geometrical 3-D world of computers where he joins forces with Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) to outwit the Master Control Program that holds them captive in a complex computer game. In "TRON: Legacy," it's Flynn's son (Garrett Hedlund) who ends up entering a wild cyberspace landscape, this time in search of his missing father. He meets a new Tron and a new kind of evil.
First of all let me say that the digitally youthened Jeff Bridges is creepy beyond words and looks out at us with dead eyes. Really? This is the best state of the art technology can deliver? Second, any film that opens with a disclaimer saying that not all of the film was shot in 3D, some scene were deliberately 2D, is beginning on wussy grounds. Now add in the fact that the film feels like it's ripping off "Star Wars" (one chase is like the pod race scenes from "The Phantom Menace" and another is like the dogfight in "A New Hope") and maybe "Rollerball" too, and then pads the film with long, dull philosophizing between meager action scenes, and you have a recipe for disaster. The only two things keeping me awake were the cool score by Daft Punk and Michael Sheen's over-the-top performance as the villainous Zuse. He's like an effeminate version of Malcolm McDowell's Alex in "A Clockwork Orange." He chews up virtual scenery like crazy but at least he has some energy and passion. Everyone else is sleepwalking through this thing.
Bridges tries to Dude-ify the Flynn character with laid back lines like "you're interrupting my Zen." I half expected him to ask for a White Russian and throw out a rug, you know the one that tied the whole room together? But it's a stiff hollow performance. He's even worse as the youthened computer generated Clu. Ew! Garrett Hedlund is likable as Flynn's son Sam and Olivia Wilde is sexy cute as Quorra, and that's the kindest thing I can say about their acting.
"TRON: Legacy" could survive on style alone if director Joseph Kosinski knew the first thing about style. There are certain design elements to the film that look sleek and attractive but Kosinski doesn't know how to parlay those elements into a deliberate and effective style. Even though the bulk of the film takes place inside the cold world of a videogame, Kosinski doesn't know how to invest any human warmth into his characters, they might as well be chess pieces to be moved about.
The script by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz is pretentious and entirely lackluster. It's badly written with dialogue lifted from other movies and long stretches of absolutely nothing happening. If you haven't seen the original "TRON" in years you may not remember that it too was slow and pretentious. But it was cool because it was the first film to really put you into a game, and it marketed a fun set of toys to go with the movie. If you go back to the film now it may not hold up to the affection you remember having for it. But for many people it is the film of their childhood and there's nothing that can shake their affection. (That's how I feel about "Star Wars.") But this new "TRON" doesn't seem likely to engender the same passion and affection.
"TRON: Legacy" (rated PG for sequences of sci-fi action violence and brief mild language) was a painful experience on multiple levels. So if you feel the irresistible need to go to "TRON: Legacy," put a blindfold on and crank up the music then you should be okay. And as a final note: Kosinski is set next to direct a remake of another bloated Disney sci-fi epic from the past, "The Black Hole." (Scratching head and mumbling curses under my breath.)
Companion viewing: "Gamer," "Crank 2," "TRON"
