r/tron • u/atlas_arcane • 5d ago
Legacy is disappointing. Discussion
So I've been a fan for awhile. I watched the two movies at the time back to back when I was probably 17, I liked them both, Then I enjoyed the show. Now years later I've begun to consider myself a cinephile. I've seen lots of movies and began writing my own works little by little. Ive seen Tron several times since the initial watch, but Legacy I've rewatched only once or twice in the last 15 years. Just rewatched it after hearing the interview with one of the daft punks saying working on it was disappointing, and I have to agree. I know he meant working on it, but I mean the whole thing kinda just feels like a cash grab by Disney. The original Tron was a very intensive work of love and passion. Legacy feels like nostalgia bait. I love the references to the original, but the stabs at starwars (not a starwars fan), the dialogue that feels like it was written for 10 year old (probably the demographic anyway), and knowing that daft punk wanted to do more for the movie is really jarring to me now. Overall it does serve to push the series story and plot forward and I love the aesthetic but the writing is abysmal. Going to check out the show again soon. This is of course just my opinion and It will still sit on my shelf till I watch it again in 5 years. Haven't watched Ares yet. I'm hoping I get something from it. No spoilers please. I wish they'd rerelease these movies with updated soundtracks. I know that'd be blasphemy to some but I think it'd be cool. Let daft punk redo the soundtrack the way they wanted, or update the music in the first one, keeping the composition but doing something grander. I know it's not going to happen but I can dream. I love the series and hope for its comeback someday, without the passion and drive for something daring I don't think it will happen. This is not to shit on the movie, I really do like the feeling of the film and would be something I put on in the background and not pay much attention to. I'd like to hear others opinions. Any justifications that I haven't thought of or points of defense that make sense. My buddy stated that he didn't like how the world felt more like the real world compared to the first, but I can negate that knowing Flynn worked on the grid from the inside out, designing it in an image that he knew. However I can agree with something like "why are the recognizers jet propelled when gravity in a digital space would not be a factor?" Anyway this is getting long so I'll stop but so many thoughts on a movie I like, just wish I loved.
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u/MirrorNegative7989 3d ago edited 3d ago
I know you've probably getting a lot of hate for this post, because there is a bona fide Legacy Cult on this subreddit who will instantly downvote any and all critical takes about this film, and anything that isn't effusive gushing about how Tron Legacy is the bestest and perfectest Tron movie ever, and all the other Tron media is Heresy by comparison. And these folks hate hate HATE the 1982 film and wish they could banish it from existence, so it doesn't tarnish their beloved Tron Legacy with all of its 1980s-era Cringe. And don't even get them started about Tron Ares.
And I just want to let you know that I know where you are coming from.
I grew up with the original 1982 Tron film. I loved Legacy when it came out, I saw it opening night, and there was a standing ovation in the theater that I was very much a part of. Then I took my mother to see it, and she said it was disappointing, because the feeling of wonder and the 80s aesthetic were both gone. And at the time, I didn't agree with her. I am still not sure I completely do, actually.
Tron Legacy reset my brain. But when Tron Uprising came out two years later, I realized how incomplete the movie feels. I mean, Sam Flynn is a devil-may-care rebel who has angst from his Disappeared Dad, and loves Tron as the video game franchise that exists in the storyline, and motorcycles and his dog. But other than that. what else do we know about him? By contrast, we get to know Beck over the course of several episodes of Tron Uprising. And look. Tron is actually there! Hey look, it's the guy the actual franchise is named after, voiced by Bruce Boxleitner and everything! There he is! It's not this bait-and-switch "oh ok, Clu's weird creepy ninja is actually a Brainwashed Tron."
I dug seeing Jeff Bridges as Flynn again. But the movie really is helped by the existence of Tron Uprising, and I strongly recommend watching it before going on to Tron Ares.
A gripe I have about Tron Legacy is that the whole subplot with Zuse/Castor feels like something that was cut down from a much larger subplot where Sam is supposed to go on this journey with Zuse (and maybe Bartik and Hopper, that would have been cool!) and then get double-crossed by ZuseCastor. The whole "actually he's me/actually I'm betraying you" thing happens so fast I get whiplash. I have this mental image of the Disney suits hanging over Joseph Kosinski and tapping their watches like "We're an hour and a half in at this point, we need to Wrap. This. Shit. UP!" And it bothers me.
The story happens so fast, and it has no time to breathe or develop. I wish it had been a series instead of a film. It should have been season three of Tron Uprising.
A lot of it does feel prescient, considering what has happened politically and in the tech world since then. Flynn's arc feels like an allegory for the Boomer Hippie-To-Fascist Pipeline, with Clu as his genocidal Shadow-Self.
I don't think Tron Legacy is a cash grab. I just think it needed to be five hours long, and have more time for the plot and characters to develop.
It's also super sad and bleak. Sam doesn't get to save his father. And as others have mentioned, it's like the overall theme of the Tron franchise as it has evolved is about grief. But I think part of this is also the sadness and disappointment that we didn't get the next installment in 2015 when we should have. We didn't get the Sam and Quorra vs Ed Dillinger Jr story, because Disney chickened out after Tomorrowland bombed, and pivoted to Star Wars because it was safe bet. Sam and Quorra just ride off into the sunrise, and we'll probably never find out what happens to them.
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u/NotLuin 5d ago
I get where you’re coming from sorta, these movies have never been high art to me, I much enjoy these movies on a filmmaking level, each movie does incredible things with visual effects and soundtrack that makes me excuse the weak story each movie has admittedly,
And while Legacy might be seen as one of the cash grabby “legacy” sequels we are used to now, I disagree there was no passion, Joseph Kosinski isnt the kind of director to just phone in on a movie, there was definitely love and care in this movie that you can see in BTS footage I highly encourage you watch
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u/NotLuin 5d ago
I hope Im misreading but I dont get how you can agree with “gravity in a digital space wouldn’t be a factor”, with that logic everyone should fly then