Tron Legacy adds 3D effects to the Tron 1982 but fails to live up to the legacy with bits new, old and borrowed
Tron Legacy (picture Disney)
I was excited to see Tron Legacy in 3D but disappointed by the movie at several points.
The cycle games/races and dog fight near the end were exciting on the one hand.
However, there were also long periods of boring and inaudible, philosophical commentary.
I still might go back and watch it again.
Tron (1982)
The original Tron in 1982 was innovative in the animation of characters in glowing neon suits and the metaphor of life as a computer bit. Tron’s appeal was mainly computer geeks (those few of us around back then) and fans adventure movies.
Tron was full of David-and-Goliath references as the hero gets dematerialized and re-materialized inside a computer. Is he a bit, a byte, a program? No he’s a “User.”
Tron (1982) cult favourite with Cindy Morgan, Bruce Boxleitner as Tron and Jeff Bridges as Flynn
I was never successful in getting any female to sit through the complete movie, despite the love interest played by Cindy Morgan.My sons and I lived with the movie for decades but it generally bored people of the female persuasion. While it was a bit leaden in places, for us the technology and excitement worked.
Tron Legacy
Tron Legacy is light years ahead of the original. First it’s in 3D which actually appeared to be several 2D planes stacked on top of each other. After awhile you ignore the artifact.
The Grid Game became a three dimensional motorcycle race which was heart pounding. The fans in the audience were right out of Gladiator and sort of creepy.
Most of the action scenes were hot – with 3D images and surround sound the excitement was visceral. However, you rarely felt like anyone important was at risk.
Unlike the first Tron, the plot in Tron Legacy is poorly developed either visual or in dialogue. Is Tron Legacy a “surly son-old father” story, sort of Oedipus Tech? Maybe but the reasons for that plot line were not convincing. They should have stuck to the action.
We’re used to confusing plot lines as in The Matrix. Tron Legacy is not on that level of complexity.
There is a long scene (borrowed) on the bean powered Solar Sail that died with low volume, talky-talky and no action. The same scene in Tron was used to build excitement as the bad guys chase the good guys. That is happening in Tron Legacy buy the director doesn’t work the angle.
Several scenes are borrowed in homage to movies like Blade Runner and Space Odyssey, although not the exciting parts of those movies.
However all that being said, the dog fight at the end rescued me from a severe case of the fidgets during the Solar Sail.
One thing for sure – movies like Tron Legacy are going to sell home 3D televisions. If they get the price point to $1,000, a 3D television will be the most wanted gift next Christmas.
Best scenes were the action shots like the cycle races
Stephen Pate
Toshiba to Sell World’s First Large Glasses-Free 3D TV
Jason Clenfield and Maki ShirakiJan 05, 2011 10:57 am ET
(Updates with sales target in the third paragraph.)
Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) — Toshiba Corp. plans to sell the world’s first large-sized 3-D televisions that don’t require viewers to wear special glasses, an advance which may aid the popularity of a technology that’s been slow to catch on.
The Tokyo-based electronics-maker will introduce in the year starting in April 3-D TVs 40-inches and larger that do away with the need for the glasses, Vice President Atsushi Murasawa said at a briefing today at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The sets will be introduced in Japan, North America and Europe, he said.
Toshiba expects the new models to help boost TV sales 33 percent to 20 million units next fiscal year, with the North American market share rising about 2 percentage points to 10 percent, Murasawa said. Larger rivals Samsung Electronics Co. and Sony Corp. are also offering 3-D TVs that require viewers to wear special glasses.
“It’s hard to get me excited about a TV business anywhere,” said David Rubenstein, a Tokyo-based analyst at MF Global FXA Securities Ltd., who rates Toshiba a ‘buy’ based on the strength of its semiconductor business. “Even the Korean companies have trouble making good margins on TVs and they have much larger scale.”
Chinese Project
Shares of Toshiba, which also makes nuclear power plants, semiconductors and personal computers, rose 2.5 percent to 460 yen as of the 3 p.m. close on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, after a Nikkei newspaper report that the company’s Westinghouse Electric Co. unit will join a Chinese project to develop a 1,400 megawatt reactor. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average slipped 0.2 percent.
Sony Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato said in October that sales of 3-D sets, projected to account for 10 percent of the company’s 25 million annual TV sales target, are trailing previous expectations. The TV business may lose money this fiscal year for a seventh year, he said.
Toshiba’s TV business will generate 15 billion yen ($183 million) in operating profit in the 12 months through March, about 5 percent of the company’s total, with margins of about 2 percent, MF Global’s Rubenstein said.
Toshiba also plans to introduce next fiscal year TVs equipped with Google Inc. software that allows users to browse the Internet, Murasawa said. The company last month started selling 12-inch and 20-inch glasses-free 3-D sets in Japan.
Toshiba, the sixth largest flat-panel TV maker, had 5.5 percent of the world market in the first nine months of 2010 in terms of revenue, according to researcher DisplaySearch. Samsung was the largest with a 22.8 percent share.