What a Terrible Night to Have a [Insert Movie Title]

I meant to post this yesterday, but the X-Men: Days of Future Past trailer came out, and I apparently had a rant in me about that. Today, though, I'm going to start a week of discussing "failed blockbusters". A number of recent Hollywood big-budget productions have failed (either critically or financially... or both), and I wanted to look at a few of them and see what went wrong.

I'm going to start off with the sci-fi sequel, Tron Legacy. Spoiler alert: I liked it. So why didn't everyone else? Obviously, my opinion as a cinephile is different from the average movie-goer -- I see many, many more movies than the average person, and I'm certainly more interested in giving movies that only look half-way decent a chance than most people are. The trailer for Tron Legacy didn't look that interesting (there's weird sports! there's a dark landscape with people in blue and people in red! there's a father-son relationship that gets passing lip-service!), and that probably didn't help get butts into seats.

Let's be honest here, too: the original Tron is no classic. I know it has its fans, but the movie just isn't very good. Certainly it has an intriguing point-of-view, and the art-style was cutting edge back in the day, but viewed years removed from its original date of release, the movie just hasn't aged very well. It's poorly designed, it's slow-paced, and it's just goofy. If there was anyone that was like "oh, Tron Legacy is a sequel? I should watch the first one so I know what's going on" was probably turned off by the first movie and checked out long before Legacy premiered.

And the whole concept doesn't work when removed from the '80s. A network that connects everything, one where people can get on and get jacked in. It's sounds like the internet, and we already have that. Considering all the viruses, and spam, and porn, and cat videos, I can't think of a good reason why someone would want to jack into the internet. Well, maybe the porn... but that doesn't show up in the Disney movie.

Plus... the name. Tron. That's a meaningless name. Sure, in the context of the movie it represents the hero, Tron, and his adventure alongside "the user" to free the network from the clutches of the master controller. Great and all, but naming a movie "Tron" is like naming a movie "John Carter" -- you just don't get any relevant details about what the movie is from just the name.

So it's weird that, despite all these reasons to dislike the who concept of the movie, and the fact that I just did not like the original film, I actually enjoyed Tron Legacy quite a bit. I'm not going to argue that it's a perfect movie and everyone should watch it, but it is good; better than everyone said it was.

When it comes to flaws with the new movie, chief among them is the lead actor, Garrett Hedlund as the son of original game user Kevin Flynn. Young Sam Flynn has the "my daddy left me and I'm such a tortured hero" plotline, a trope to be sure, but Hedlund is so boring, so lacking in charisma, that he's unable to rise about the trope-laiden material. The opening section of the movie isn't boring, but it lacks a certain zip that a more charismatic lead would have been able to deliver.

Things pick up once we get into the world of "The Grid" where everyone is a program on the network, and people get to wear cool LED clothing. The art style for the sequel is miles better than the original, and what looks goofy and stupid back in the '80s seems much more interesting with current technology.

There are still issues even once we get into The Grid. Pacing for the film is still slow, and many of the key action scenes (like the disc battles and the jetbikes) aren't action-packed enough. Plus, it seems like the only people that ever died on screen were no-name characters than we barely got to learn anything about (including what their names were) before they were obliterated into a dust of tiny data cubes.

Thankfully, the story really picks up once Jeff Bridges shows up (as original user Kevin Flynn, stuck in the machine for decades, as well as his duplicate program-clone, the evil Clu). Jeff Bridges has so much charisma that he's able to carry the second-half of the movie pretty much on his shoulders. Even when he's off-screen, the promise of his quick return helps the make the slower parts zip by, and then he's right back again, making quips and just being totally "far out, man (his words, not mine).

It's in the last half of the film, too, where the plot really comes together... such as it is. There's this whole nod to a new evolution of programs, ones that can somehow cure all the ails of the real world... probably. Although the main conflict of Flynn vs Clu is settled by movie's end, the larger ideas that were proposed in the movie aren't fully explored before the credits roll. There were obvious plans for a third movie in the series, but Legacy proposes too much without fully articulating all of its own concepts.

So yeah... why did I like this movie? I don't rightly know, looking back at it. It was stylish and interesting (enough), and while the acting was universally good, there were enough bright spots to really liven up the proceedings. It's a little long, and a little slow-paced, but it certainly proved to be a decent way to kill a couple of hours without being bored (which is not something I've every said about the original Tron). I don't know how likely I am to watch it again, but for a one-time viewing, I honestly did enjoy Tron Legacy.

(Also the soundtrack kicks ass. Daft Punk did an amazing job. They should be hired to make the soundtrack for every movie that isn't already being scored by Trent Reznor.)