Matthew Wrather hosts with Mark Lee, John Perich, and Jordan Stokes to overthink (which is to say, rip on) Tron Legacy, Jews, women, and Fenzel. Spoilers for Tron: Legacy. Not that it matters.
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Just read the description.
Uh oh.
For the record, we don’t rip on the Jews.
Yeah, that was a little exaggeration for comic effect.
This is the song that doesn’t end. Yes it goes on and on my friend. Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was, and they’ll continue singing it forever, just because this is the song that doesn’t end…
You had to go there. Didn’t you.
We ragged on Tron a lot, but didn’t get around to discussing this one thing that bugged me a lot: why make such a big fuss about ENCOM OS 12 at the beginning of the movie? Is this supposed to be some sort of dig at Microsoft and/or Apple? And seriously, they were shocked–shocked–when the OS was leaked to the Internet for free?
For me, this is where the eye-rolling started.
Best. Podcast. Ever. More Perich! Perich singing elevated the podcast to a brilliant level right from the beginning.
All of the descriptions of the sun reminded me of elementary school when they used to make us write papers on things like trees just to practice writing. So, it must not be very difficult to describe an object to someone who has never seen it, in the same way that it’s not difficult to describe a film or a book, etc. What does seem somewhat more difficult is making an emotional connection without any frame of reference. Do the computer programs in Tron have feelings?
The idea of a story with repetitive threads intrigues me. What if after a few rounds the person actually telling the story were to actually tell a story. That would mean the person however many levels into the narrative was telling a story. So the actual speaker would be telling a story about someone telling a story about someone telling a story [etc. etc.] and then you would hear the story that the original speaker told. That almost seems like a callback to the oral tradition or a really complicated way to introduce the fact that the story is hearsay [i.e. a much more detailed beginning of The Turning of the Screw].
Oh, and minor point…I think what the camera wants is whatever is visually stimulating and/or aesthetically pleasing. It doesn’t have to necessarily be moving. Otherwise, why put so much effort into cinematography and say things like “it photographs well”? The lighting and the framing and the staging is as important for static or at least not frenetically-energized motion as it is for action.
Are you describing Inception?
The thing that bothered me about Tron Legacy (and retroactively the original Tron) is the whole idea of identity discs.
The identity disc houses all of a program’s (or user’s) vital information, memory, data, etc. It’s also the implement used to attack and kill other programs. Doesn’t it seem a bit irresponsible to be throwing around a disc with all your personal information? That’s kind of like having a credit card that doubles as a throwing star.
If I may “well, actually”, the changing the colour of characters from blue to red (indicating their ownership by the baddies) was in the original film as well, which did not have any major Gnostic subtext (or coherent plot).
And I completely agree regarding the “analogicity” of the new film. A large part of the charm of the old film is that the world was so abstract, so clearly artificial and digital — it didn’t look at all “real”, and that was very cool. This one not so much.
Apparently they don’t have They Might Be Giants on The Grid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JdWlSF195Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLkGSV9WDMA&feature=related
Okay, so some more serious commentary (and yes, Sylvia, I totally went there, muahahaha).
Tron: Legacy seems to me an action flick that is a loving tribute to the original. Take it sort of like an “inspired by” kind of deal, while keeping in mind that it’s an action flick (and thus hold it to sub-par plot standards but high-visual effects ones), and you will have a fantabulous time. If you go into it expecting a plot that will blow your mind (in the good way, meaning because of its awesome and not its confounding nature), you’re (naturally) going to be let down. The original itself wasn’t all that amazing in terms of plot, but it has, indeed, gained a rather strong cult following in love with it, in spite of the lackluster plot. As such, nostalgia and sentimental attachment to the first one probably helps a body enjoy this one, too. Also, the events of the first one are explained well enough that a viewer need not remember it to understand this one.
As for Daft Punk, my previous bitching about the soundtrack sounding like Hans Zimmer stands totally firm. But it added a vibrancy to the scenes that really enhanced the overall experience of the film, at least for me.
Cain and Abel? Eh? Sort of? At least a little? I also thought Kevin Flynn was a cross between God and Plato, once he realized perfection is impossible. Of course, there’s also a little Jesus in the mix there, too. I get kind of tired of the religious interpretation things, though.
I admit fully the relationship between father and (birth) son could have been hashed out more, and there were a lot of “conveniences” to explain what was going on. I especially felt dissatisfied with Quorra’s backstory (because the way Zeus reacted when Sam said her name created a lot of loose ends for me). Regardless, I still enjoyed it.
So I’m not a very good writer, but I was called out on my twitter reply that I was actually disappointed in the review.
Watching Tron: Legacy reminded me of a modern Odyssey. I saw the archetype of the Heroes Journey (outlined by Joseph Campbell) being played out. And while the begotten vs. created son idea is interesting and relevant to parts of the movie, as a whole the story is centered around the Journey and not the goals. It almost seems like the script was broadly was adapted to the characters already in place from the first movie, and not a dreamed continuation of the story set out by the first. I may be wrong (in fact I’m fairly sure I am), but I can’t help but see the steps of the journey played out in Sam’s (or should I maybe say Telemachus?) quest to find Flynn (Odysseus).
Just as a reminder, those steps are: Departure, Initiation, and Return. Here’s the wiki link that outlines the steps in further detail; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroes_journey
I can also see influence from other sources like ‘The Wrath of Kahn,’ and ‘Star Wars’ (Seriously – the robes? Maybe it’s because I’m jewish, but I don’t get the jesus angle. I see Jedi) but I think I’ll leave it at that to have my thoughts ripped to shreds by better writers than myself :)