Tron Legacy (2010)

[Nerroth]

I got the OST today; for some reason, the media stuff that was supposed to be on the disc (and noted on the back cover) wasn't there. Hmm.


Sounds great, though!

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by Nerroth

I got the OST today; for some reason, the media stuff that was supposed to be on the disc (and noted on the back cover) wasn't there. Hmm.


Sounds great, though!

Definitely have to get that. Thanks for the link.

[JagdPanther]

Just got back from the movies.

I think it was excellent. My mom said she was blown away by seeing a 25-years-younger Jeff Bridges on the screen at the same time as the current Bridges.

There was so much of other sci-fi works in this movie. Obviously there were lots of little, one-liner or barely noticeable references to the first movie, but it was riddled with homages to Star Wars, The Matrix, and there was a TON of Ghost in the Shell in this. I don't know if I was just reading a lot of GitS into the movie, but at every turn I was thinking, "Yeah, that's right out of GitS."

I want a Quorra, btw. Quorra = very yes

Gotta buy the soundtrack. So good.

[Hooves]

Hmm.. A movie that has some elements of other sci-fi movies, and some Ghost in the Shell... Sounds tempting, I have considered watching this, but was gonna wait till more people posted about how they viewed it to make sure I don't waste money (of course I should consider how I view it alone, but reading what other people say helps alot)

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by Hooves

Hmm.. A movie that has some elements of other sci-fi movies, and some Ghost in the Shell... Sounds tempting, I have considered watching this, but was gonna wait till more people posted about how they viewed it to make sure I don't waste money (of course I should consider how I view it alone, but reading what other people say helps alot)

My mom, who is not a big sci-fi person, felt it stood alone pretty well.

I must warn people, though, that Bridges definitely channels his inner hippie/Jeffrey "Dude" Lebowski at times. I was half-expecting him to say, "The rug really tied the room together," at some point.

But other than that, I think everything fit well.

Spoiler for sort of... not really, though. No real plot divulged here. More commentary about why the movie works.:

The premise is very believable. When people whine and complain about computers doing whatever they want, they don't realize that that's not true; programs do exactly what they are designed to do. If there was a foul-up in the programming or the command, then the program appears to "mess up" in the eyes of the user.

I definitely recommend seeing it.

[iceyfw]

i'd recommend people to watch it as well if they're fans of sci-fi movies or not. the first tron movie was made before my mom gave birth to me and it was very enjoyable without knowing the majority of its background from the first movie.

Spoiler for small plothole and ending spoiler:

so was kory found as a child when the father rescued her? do isotopes even age? i can see a problem with that since she is now living in the real world. i'd assume she'll grow old, but i don't remember it being explained if isotopes age just like humans do.

[NorthernFallout]

Excellent movie. Was also the first time I watched anything in 3D, though it wasn't super-uber... But still, loved the music and the visual style. Acting, especially from Bridges, was excellent. The fact that it wasn't purely visuals and that it actually had some thinking behind it puts it high on my list.

[Ithekro]

Good movie. The 3D did strain my eyes a little due to not being able to blink for fear I might miss something.

Spoiler for plot points:

My friend's only major complaint was that Tron was not in the film all that much. Technically he is in the film a lot, but yeah. He wasn't in the original film as much either now that I think about it since the story focus was Flynn.

I did like that they did keep doing a lot of supposed foreshadowing and making you think you knew what was coming and then crashing your expectations five to ten minutes later with a twist even if the actual plot point was in front of you the whole time. That wholw introduction to the Encorp board at the beginning that made you think it was going to be them on the inside really shifted things once you are giving the film's true villain. Also a lot of takes with "I need you to do something" cuts to set up the next twist in the plot.

I would like to see what would happen if they original was done with these graphics. 1982 was the infant stage of cgi/animation quality.

I thought at first that the film was more violent that the first...it isn't, just the graphical quality has changed...the number of people getting "killed" is about the same...just how "death' is show has been updated and the general state of injury is higher since it has been almost 30 years since the first film. It is still Disney.

[Shiroth]

Went to see the film at the IMAX today, and i must say i was absolutely blown away. The visuals of the grid and the Dark Punk score are easily the high points of the film, though it's nice that the story isn't that bad either. Some of the writing and dialogue make you think you're watching a film from the 80s, though that was probably the theme they were going for.

My god that Daft Punk score. I've been listening to it quite a bit since the CD release, though it was a total different experience hearing it during the film. Especially once we entered

Spoiler:

the 'End of Line' club. Nice Daft Punk cameo as well.

I'm hoping the release of this film means a re-release of the original. A lot of my friends won't go and see Legacy because they haven't seen the original.

[james0246]

I entered the theatre having no knowledge of the film (beyond actors and director name, etc), and was more than pleasantly surprised.

Spoiler for some serious film spoilers...:

First of all, great soundtrack. I cannot express this enough, but the soundtrack for the film is near perfect. True, there is nothing subtle about the score (not like the film is very subtle), and loud and rumbling it may be, but it is still a complete aural joy and helps elevate the bleak images greatly. Additionally, the sound effects and design were quite good…although nothing we haven’t heard before…

Secondly, the special effects were top notch. This is the first film to use age regression technology so well. "Young" Jeff Bridges looks phenomenal with nary a glitch or problem. Additionally, the basic computer generated world is quite detailed (though often times making little sense...which is okay since the world is supposed to be "imaginative") and extremely well executed...though the simplistic colours with little variance made for a drab colour pallet, and the amazing world created "off the grid" is completely lost in dark hues that make up the world (there is a later scene set over an "ocean", that alternatively looks beautiful but extraordinarily ill-defined...which I guess you can argue is what "off-the-grid" scenery should look like, but I do wish I could have seen more of the world). Additionally, the use of 2D was quite interesting: the film starts in 2D, but as the characters move the digital environment, everything becomes 3D, greatly increasing the emersion process for the audience, and really emphasizing the 3D in a unique way...though it is a little ironic that the "real" world is 2D, whereas the computer world is in 3D.

As for the acting...well everyone was completely average. I was impressed that Garrett Hedlund (who plays Sam Flynn) could stand up to Jeff Bridges presence quite well, but there was little chemistry between the two (through no fault of the actors, rather the script). Additionally, the quieter moments, where Sam reflects, or when he silently talks with Quorra, Hedlund shows some serious promise. Bridges himself is okay, and at times he is clearly getting into all the mumbo-jumbo, and special effects (I expect he loved seeing himself 30 years younger, and he seemed to get a kick out of playing the ill-defined villain evil computer program C.L.U.), but other times he looks simply lost. And finally, Olivia Wilde is probably the best part of the film. Not only because she downright beautiful (her beauty, along with Beau Garrett as JEM, is certainly one reason to see the film, in fact I expect some will see the film solely for this reason), but because she plays naive and earnest so well. Somehow, despite living in a tyrannical society, and being the last surviving member of a species of digital life form (that is casually exterminated for no real reason sometime before the film starts), Quorra is the only character that seems ever hopeful, and has a constant desire to help. While this makes the character a little unrealistic, Wilde's performance is actually pretty good...although, at times I expect the storywriters chose the personality solely to cause the more fanboyish fanboys to like her character more (and consequentially like the film more).

That being said, there's not much to the characters, and the acting is ultimately merely proficient. But, it should be noted that the acting never really gets in the way of the story/special effects (unlike, say, Transformers 2).

As for the script...well the script is pretty bad. The dialogue can be quite awful at times, and definitely random. The story itself is okay, but it is clearly written by someone with little experience with a computer, so there is little realism to anything (not that the original was in anyway realistic, but viewers 30 years couldn't exactly pull out a fully functional computer during the film and do searches of key words either); which wouldn't be so bad if the film didn't put so much emphasis on the digital revolution (etc). Additionally, there were many side-stories that were introduced then dropped by the end of the film for no apparent reason. For instance, Cillian Murphy (yes, that Cillian Murphy), plays the head computer programmer/designer for Encom, who is briefly introduced during the initial scene of the film, but then never mentioned again. What makes this particularly strange though is the fact that he appears to be working with the evil-computer-program C.L.U. (or at least the ill-defined moment led me to believe this was possible), but this is never exactly mentioned, nor does anything about the scene actually impact anything seen in the rest of the film. In fact, I would even go so far as to say the entire scene could have been excised from the film with little to no repercussions to the story (which is a shame since Cillian Murphy looks a little hot as a dwebish nerd ). And, there is the entire macguffin that starts the story: Sam gets a message (on a family friend's pager), to met his dad. How this is done is never fully explained, and who exactly did it is also never fully revealed (we are told it is a plan of C.L.U.s, but he never actually reveals this to anyone, and he seems as completely surprised by Sam's appearance).

And, of course, there is the awful use of tie-ins that make little to no sense to anyone that hasn’t played the games or read the comics. Most significantly, the tragic plight of the ISOs is ultimately a footnote in Tron: Legacy solely because the events in question only occurred in the game Tron: Evolution. This makes for extremely clunky storytelling, and turns the entire plot point and important character definition for Quorra into a moot point to the film. Also, the entire philosophical discussion of perfection makes little sense, especially considering how completely imperfect C.L.U. is within the story…Additionally, the character of Tron (who briefly appears) makes no sense, the character conversion makes even less sense, and the character's conclusion is an unsubtle set-up for a sequel.

In the end, the script made little sense... the story was okay, though, but the script needed a complete revision...

As for Directing...strangely enough, despite being an action film, there was really only one decent set-piece in the entire film (the light cycle competition). All the other fights were badly choreographed and badly shot, with little semblance of mise en scene and little regard to transitions. This is especially burdened by the fact that all the characters, besides the main characters, are virtually identical to each other, so I often found it hard to keep track of anything that was going on. Besides that, the editing was also a little sloppy at times…

All in all, the film was certainly better than I expected (though I expected very little). 65/100.

[Kyero Fox]

Originally Posted by james0246

I entered the theatre having no knowledge of the film (beyond actors and director name, etc), and was more than pleasantly surprised.

Spoiler for some serious film spoilers...:

First of all, great soundtrack. I cannot express this enough, but the soundtrack for the film is near perfect. True, there is nothing subtle about the score (not like the film is very subtle), and loud and rumbling it may be, but it is still a complete aural joy and helps elevate the bleak images greatly. Additionally, the sound effects and design were quite good…although nothing we haven’t heard before…

Secondly, the special effects were top notch. This is the first film to use age regression technology so well. "Young" Jeff Bridges looks phenomenal with nary a glitch or problem. Additionally, the basic computer generated world is quite detailed (though often times making little sense...which is okay since the world is supposed to be "imaginative") and extremely well executed...though the simplistic colours with little variance made for a drab colour pallet, and the amazing world created "off the grid" is completely lost in dark hues that make up the world (there is a later scene set over an "ocean", that alternatively looks beautiful but extraordinarily ill-defined...which I guess you can argue is what "off-the-grid" scenery should look like, but I do wish I could have seen more of the world). Additionally, the use of 2D was quite interesting: the film starts in 2D, but as the characters move the digital environment, everything becomes 3D, greatly increasing the emersion process for the audience, and really emphasizing the 3D in a unique way...though it is a little ironic that the "real" world is 2D, whereas the computer world is in 3D.

As for the acting...well everyone was completely average. I was impressed that Garrett Hedlund (who plays Sam Flynn) could stand up to Jeff Bridges presence quite well, but there was little chemistry between the two (through no fault of the actors, rather the script). Additionally, the quieter moments, where Sam reflects, or when he silently talks with Quorra, Hedlund shows some serious promise. Bridges himself is okay, and at times he is clearly getting into all the mumbo-jumbo, and special effects (I expect he loved seeing himself 30 years younger, and he seemed to get a kick out of playing the ill-defined villain evil computer program C.L.U.), but other times he looks simply lost. And finally, Olivia Wilde is probably the best part of the film. Not only because she downright beautiful (her beauty, along with Beau Garrett as JEM, is certainly one reason to see the film, in fact I expect some will see the film solely for this reason), but because she plays naive and earnest so well. Somehow, despite living in a tyrannical society, and being the last surviving member of a species of digital life form (that is casually exterminated for no real reason sometime before the film starts), Quorra is the only character that seems ever hopeful, and has a constant desire to help. While this makes the character a little unrealistic, Wilde's performance is actually pretty good...although, at times I expect the storywriters chose the personality solely to cause the more fanboyish fanboys to like her character more (and consequentially like the film more).

That being said, there's not much to the characters, and the acting is ultimately merely proficient. But, it should be noted that the acting never really gets in the way of the story/special effects (unlike, say, Transformers 2).

As for the script...well the script is pretty bad. The dialogue can be quite awful at times, and definitely random. The story itself is okay, but it is clearly written by someone with little experience with a computer, so there is little realism to anything (not that the original was in anyway realistic, but viewers 30 years couldn't exactly pull out a fully functional computer during the film and do searches of key words either); which wouldn't be so bad if the film didn't put so much emphasis on the digital revolution (etc). Additionally, there were many side-stories that were introduced then dropped by the end of the film for no apparent reason. For instance, Cillian Murphy (yes, that Cillian Murphy), plays the head computer programmer/designer for Encom, who is briefly introduced during the initial scene of the film, but then never mentioned again. What makes this particularly strange though is the fact that he appears to be working with the evil-computer-program C.L.U. (or at least the ill-defined moment led me to believe this was possible), but this is never exactly mentioned, nor does anything about the scene actually impact anything seen in the rest of the film. In fact, I would even go so far as to say the entire scene could have been excised from the film with little to no repercussions to the story (which is a shame since Cillian Murphy looks a little hot as a dwebish nerd ). And, there is the entire macguffin that starts the story: Sam gets a message (on a family friend's pager), to met his dad. How this is done is never fully explained, and who exactly did it is also never fully revealed (we are told it is a plan of C.L.U.s, but he never actually reveals this to anyone, and he seems as completely surprised by Sam's appearance).

And, of course, there is the awful use of tie-ins that make little to no sense to anyone that hasn’t played the games or read the comics. Most significantly, the tragic plight of the ISOs is ultimately a footnote in Tron: Legacy solely because the events in question only occurred in the game Tron: Evolution. This makes for extremely clunky storytelling, and turns the entire plot point and important character definition for Quorra into a moot point to the film. Also, the entire philosophical discussion of perfection makes little sense, especially considering how completely imperfect C.L.U. is within the story…Additionally, the character of Tron (who briefly appears) makes no sense, the character conversion makes even less sense, and the character's conclusion is an unsubtle set-up for a sequel.

In the end, the script made little sense... the story was okay, though, but the script needed a complete revision...

As for Directing...strangely enough, despite being an action film, there was really only one decent set-piece in the entire film (the light cycle competition). All the other fights were badly choreographed and badly shot, with little semblance of mise en scene and little regard to transitions. This is especially burdened by the fact that all the characters, besides the main characters, are virtually identical to each other, so I often found it hard to keep track of anything that was going on. Besides that, the editing was also a little sloppy at times…

All in all, the film was certainly better than I expected (though I expected very little). 65/100.

Sorry, all i understood when i read this was "Im a bit picky but this movie was pretty good" XP

[Tsuyoshi]

Originally Posted by james0246

I entered the theatre having no knowledge of the film (beyond actors and director name, etc), and was more than pleasantly surprised.

Spoiler for some serious film spoilers...:

First of all, great soundtrack. I cannot express this enough, but the soundtrack for the film is near perfect. True, there is nothing subtle about the score (not like the film is very subtle), and loud and rumbling it may be, but it is still a complete aural joy and helps elevate the bleak images greatly. Additionally, the sound effects and design were quite good…although nothing we haven’t heard before…

Secondly, the special effects were top notch. This is the first film to use age regression technology so well. "Young" Jeff Bridges looks phenomenal with nary a glitch or problem. Additionally, the basic computer generated world is quite detailed (though often times making little sense...which is okay since the world is supposed to be "imaginative") and extremely well executed...though the simplistic colours with little variance made for a drab colour pallet, and the amazing world created "off the grid" is completely lost in dark hues that make up the world (there is a later scene set over an "ocean", that alternatively looks beautiful but extraordinarily ill-defined...which I guess you can argue is what "off-the-grid" scenery should look like, but I do wish I could have seen more of the world). Additionally, the use of 2D was quite interesting: the film starts in 2D, but as the characters move the digital environment, everything becomes 3D, greatly increasing the emersion process for the audience, and really emphasizing the 3D in a unique way...though it is a little ironic that the "real" world is 2D, whereas the computer world is in 3D.

As for the acting...well everyone was completely average. I was impressed that Garrett Hedlund (who plays Sam Flynn) could stand up to Jeff Bridges presence quite well, but there was little chemistry between the two (through no fault of the actors, rather the script). Additionally, the quieter moments, where Sam reflects, or when he silently talks with Quorra, Hedlund shows some serious promise. Bridges himself is okay, and at times he is clearly getting into all the mumbo-jumbo, and special effects (I expect he loved seeing himself 30 years younger, and he seemed to get a kick out of playing the ill-defined villain evil computer program C.L.U.), but other times he looks simply lost. And finally, Olivia Wilde is probably the best part of the film. Not only because she downright beautiful (her beauty, along with Beau Garrett as JEM, is certainly one reason to see the film, in fact I expect some will see the film solely for this reason), but because she plays naive and earnest so well. Somehow, despite living in a tyrannical society, and being the last surviving member of a species of digital life form (that is casually exterminated for no real reason sometime before the film starts), Quorra is the only character that seems ever hopeful, and has a constant desire to help. While this makes the character a little unrealistic, Wilde's performance is actually pretty good...although, at times I expect the storywriters chose the personality solely to cause the more fanboyish fanboys to like her character more (and consequentially like the film more).

That being said, there's not much to the characters, and the acting is ultimately merely proficient. But, it should be noted that the acting never really gets in the way of the story/special effects (unlike, say, Transformers 2).

As for the script...well the script is pretty bad. The dialogue can be quite awful at times, and definitely random. The story itself is okay, but it is clearly written by someone with little experience with a computer, so there is little realism to anything (not that the original was in anyway realistic, but viewers 30 years couldn't exactly pull out a fully functional computer during the film and do searches of key words either); which wouldn't be so bad if the film didn't put so much emphasis on the digital revolution (etc). Additionally, there were many side-stories that were introduced then dropped by the end of the film for no apparent reason. For instance, Cillian Murphy (yes, that Cillian Murphy), plays the head computer programmer/designer for Encom, who is briefly introduced during the initial scene of the film, but then never mentioned again. What makes this particularly strange though is the fact that he appears to be working with the evil-computer-program C.L.U. (or at least the ill-defined moment led me to believe this was possible), but this is never exactly mentioned, nor does anything about the scene actually impact anything seen in the rest of the film. In fact, I would even go so far as to say the entire scene could have been excised from the film with little to no repercussions to the story (which is a shame since Cillian Murphy looks a little hot as a dwebish nerd ). And, there is the entire macguffin that starts the story: Sam gets a message (on a family friend's pager), to met his dad. How this is done is never fully explained, and who exactly did it is also never fully revealed (we are told it is a plan of C.L.U.s, but he never actually reveals this to anyone, and he seems as completely surprised by Sam's appearance).

And, of course, there is the awful use of tie-ins that make little to no sense to anyone that hasn’t played the games or read the comics. Most significantly, the tragic plight of the ISOs is ultimately a footnote in Tron: Legacy solely because the events in question only occurred in the game Tron: Evolution. This makes for extremely clunky storytelling, and turns the entire plot point and important character definition for Quorra into a moot point to the film. Also, the entire philosophical discussion of perfection makes little sense, especially considering how completely imperfect C.L.U. is within the story…Additionally, the character of Tron (who briefly appears) makes no sense, the character conversion makes even less sense, and the character's conclusion is an unsubtle set-up for a sequel.

In the end, the script made little sense... the story was okay, though, but the script needed a complete revision...

As for Directing...strangely enough, despite being an action film, there was really only one decent set-piece in the entire film (the light cycle competition). All the other fights were badly choreographed and badly shot, with little semblance of mise en scene and little regard to transitions. This is especially burdened by the fact that all the characters, besides the main characters, are virtually identical to each other, so I often found it hard to keep track of anything that was going on. Besides that, the editing was also a little sloppy at times…

All in all, the film was certainly better than I expected (though I expected very little). 65/100.

Well, I'm not expecting much in the way of script, especially considering this is a post Y2k Disney Movie, but I could tell from the trailer that age regression technology looks nothing short of amazing. He really looks as young as he was back when the original was made. That's all I can really say right now since I haven't seen this movie yet, but I will try to get a viewing during my holiday in Italy starting next week.

[AnimeFan188]

"Director Joseph Kosinski decided that he wanted the suits to actually light up, so
that the actors would illuminate each other on set. The filmmakers created costumes
using brand-new technology that allowed for sleek, streamlined suits that could
glow without the help of visual effects. They look great on-screen, but they were a
nightmare for the actors who wear them."

See:

http://blog.movies.yahoo.com/blog/31...e-high-tech?nc


Sometimes you gotta suffer for your art, I suppose.

[Kaijo]

In a word: bad.

The people writing this not only have no concept of the original movie, but no concept of a coherent plot, either. "Hey, let's go to this place we just established that we can't go!" Too many plot holes, and no real sense of this world inside the computer, and the way they changed things, made this a huge failure, in my opinion.

Acting was decent, and the soundtrack was good, but that's it. Seriously. Do NOT waste your money to see this. They took everything good about the first film, and mutilated it.

The light cycles? Destroyed. Anyone who likes these light cycles, has never watched the original movie light cycle fight, and has never played the light cycle games. The whole idea behind the walls these cycles leave behind, is to make the arena shrink and become more complex, upping the ante as time went by. You get NONE of this forming claustrophobia in the T:L's light cycles.

The plot itself was dumb as hell. So CLUE wants to go to the real world, and to do that, he needs Jeff Bridge's disc. And he needs Sam to lure out the father. So what does he do? Sends a page, that he has no idea who will get it, and thus no idea if Sam will ever come through. It could have been the other dude. And what does he do once Sam is in? Try to kill him.

That makes a lot of sense; try to kill the guy you need to lure out the father, when you were damn lucky to get Sam instead of someone else in the first place!

What are rocks doing in my computer world? The original Tron's graphics might seem hokey now, but they were cutting edge then, and really captured the feeling that you were in this strange computer world. I got NONE of that from this; it just seemed like another Earth to me. I was never brought out of my world at all.

And Sam is Jackie Chan? When did this happen? When did he become an Instant Expert in discs and Matrix moves and light cycles? The first film was better because Flynn wasn't much of a fighter. He fumbled around a lot, and it took him time to get used to things, and the main fighter was Tron; a program specifically made to fight. Tron should have been kicking all the ass here.

But I know what this was; it was an attempt to cash in on the Matrix craze, except Disney is a bit too late for that.

What I would have done: take the true spirit of the Internet and current dangers, by having Encom's grid be infected by a computer virus or malware or being taken over by a botnet, which takes over the laser and traps Flynn in the grid, and his son discovers this and accidentally goes in after him (or the botnet zaps him in as well to get rid of him). They had a real chance to do something interesting in this movie, and failed spectacularly. They gave us a cheesy B-movie action flick, trying to cash in on the Matrix and other bullet-time action flicks.

In short, if you saw the original film, do yourself a favor and don't see this. If you didn't see the film, you won't get any references anyway (and there are depressingly few of them from the first movie). The only way you'd get anything out of this movie, is if you're brain dead, and aren't attempting to engage this film in any intellectual capacity.

I could go on, but Spoony over at The Spoony Experiment pretty much covers a lot of the thoughts I could have.

[Kaioshin Sama]

I think the Soundtrack by Daft Punk was definitely the standout part of this movie for me along with the whole vision of the The Grid. Jeff Bridges was great though (I swear he just played The Dude for a good chunk of it) and Garret Hedlund was solid as Sam Flynn. Michael Sheen was amusing as Zuse but was a little too hammy at parts and ended up overkilling the role a bit I felt. As for Olivia Wilde, she seemed a little dumbfounded and like she needed more direction in a lot of her scenes and I don't know how much of that was intentional for her character and how much it was having to work with a far more charismatic Jeff Bridges who takes over every scene he's in pretty much every movie. Though I'm pretty sure a big part of her role was spelled out in the scene where she's posing on the couch in that skintight leather outfit.

As for the plot...well it was passable and appropriate for a Disney Movie I felt, but kind of disjointed and convenient at times in a way I'm sure even kids might pick up on. It was like an 80's movie really, predictable to a fault at every turn and very family friendly. It could be argued that that was entirely appropriate for a sequel to Tron.

Also this was the first movie I've seen in 3D since the early 90's and I still don't think the technology is there yet even with a movie that was made for 3D like this one. Anyone remember the part in Back to The Future Part II where Marty is looking at the Jaws-3D billboard and the shark comes out and it looks like he's going to bite him and he jumps back. That's basically what everybody in the movie theater was doing and I assume that's the effect they were going for here for the most part. Unfortunately it still felt very much like a gimmick and a distraction other than a couple of parts like the dotted window barrier in Kevin's hideout, the initial transition into The Grid (the way it played out like crossing a boundary was the sole part I felt added to the overall visual experience) and a few of the particle effects. It certainly didn't feel worth the extra 3 bucks I spent on the ticket.

If I had to play the critic I'd probably give it something like 3 out of 5 stars and say that the movie is pretty much every you would expect going in, for better and for worse. Jeff Bridges and Daft Punk get a solid 5 out 5 stars though.

Originally Posted by Kaijo

I could go on, but Spoony over at The Spoony Experiment pretty much covers a lot of the thoughts I could have.

The part where he talks about the trailers is great. I remember sitting there with my friends and as soon as I saw the Jellystone Park sign I instantly blurted out (probably loud enough for at least 5 rows behind and in front to hear now that I think of it), "Oh god....I know exactly what it is they are trying to do here and it's a really REALLY bad idea! It didn't work the first time they tried it with Scooby Doo..." *image of a CGI furry Yogi Bear pops up on the screen* "OH GOD! THEY'RE DOING THE SAME FUCKING THING AGAIN! WHY?! YOGI LOOKS LIKE SHIT JUST LIKE SCOOBY DOO! THEY FUCKING PANNED THE FIRST HANNA BARBARA LIVE ACTION FILM...." *people in the theater start looking around* "this is a bad idea...."

[james0246]

^For a real experience in 3D, you should check out the animated features Coraline and How to Train Your Dragon. They are the 2 best examples of the power of 3D when it is used correctly. (You'll have to buy the 3D versions of the films though, and of course 3D on a smaller screen is no where near as good as 3D on a larger screen). Besaides that, anything animated from Dreamworks will have good 3D (though the movie content will be a little iffy), and while Pixar hasn't mastered the process yet their 3D is still pretty good as well (they haven't quite figured out 3D yet, but their movies are very good, so average 3D with a very good film is still a decent experience).

[Shiroth]

Coraline is a must for anyone who wants to experience a true 3D film. Usually i'm against films that are played in 3D just for the sake of it, though not here. Seeing the Grid come to life was such a huge part of my enjoyment for the film, especially on such a huge screen, the IMAX.

Planning to go see the film again this week. I must have seriously enjoyed the hell out of it, because i've never done that before.

[JagdPanther]

See, I have lowered my expectations of Hollywood. I wasn't expecting a great story. I didn't get one. I got a story that I bought, and that was enough.

I am definitely getting this in BluRay when it comes out.

[Vexx]

This may be one of those movies where I buy the soundtrack and never bother with the movie....

[Kaioshin Sama]

I saw the Spoony Review. All points he makes about plot holes and inconsistencies are fair except for the one where he talks about:

Spoiler:

Where they attempt to travel to the portal near the end and instead run straight into C.L.U's military base. Spoony seems baffled by it, but I think Jeff Bridges even explained that it wasn't supposed to be there and it's pretty obvious that C.L.U used the Creator's disc to make it.

Other than that yeah, if you go into this movie with any other attitude then just going with the story, watching the visuals and listening to the soundtrack it's going to fall completely apart at a rapid pace with legitimate plot holes like the big one I tried to point out to my stubborn ass friend that Spoony mentions where:

Spoiler:

C.L.U goes to Kevin's hideout which Quorra just explained was supposed to be inaccessible to programs operating on the grid

That was an "ouch" moment for me that I just kind of had to block out.

Originally Posted by Vexx

This may be one of those movies where I buy the soundtrack and never bother with the movie....

The problem here is that the movie works best with the soundtrack....err...I mean the soundtrack works best with the movie, that's what I meant to say.

Daft Punk obviously saw the work-print and deliberately designed the soundtrack to sync up with and enhance the visuals which is something they've always been good at IMO. I've listened to the soundtrack since seeing the movie and it's good Electronica, but it still doesn't capture the whole mood and experience of seeing it to the film.