First off, let me say that I am NOT bashing Legacy. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and plan to see it again in the theaters as many times as possible before it completes it's theatrical run. I've already bought merchandise, look forward to more, and have recommended the film to friends and will continue to do so.

However, something major about the film bothers me, and it's in the "message" that the film sends. I was concerned about it when I read the articles about the religious philosophy that informed the filmmakers, and it was confirmed in spades in the film's final act.

Flynn is adamant that his quest for a better world in the Grid was a foolish one, that all that matters is what he had at home with his family and he was blind for seeking fulfillment elsewhere. This is reinforced throughout the film, from the dark fascist and noir design of the Grid to the focus on getting out and the clear plot point of Quorra being brought into the real world like it's a paradise she's escaping into. We see the Grid disintegrate, regressing to a single point of light. And Sam's final speech to Alan is all about him growing up and taking back the company, with no mention of the Grid. Both he and his father's character arcs are about rejecting escapism and settling down to real world responsibilities. The message is forget silly dreams and face up to reality.

Contrast this with the original film, which despite the control of the MCP still depicted the Grid as sublimely beautiful, and went out of it's way to depict an extended sequence where everything lit up and became yet more awesomely beautiful still. The final sequence gave the feeling that the exploration of that new frontier was only beginning, and that amazing things were yet to come. It was an inherently hopeful, pro-progress and pro-science and technology film.

That's where the connection to Avatar comes in. Avatar became a phenomenon not for it's visual impressiveness, or for it's story, but for the depiction of an amazing world that made people say "I want to live there". A vision that inspired them to dream. I know I'm far from alone in feeling exactly that way about the world of Tron. I want to live on the Grid, and I have since the first time I saw that amazing vision unfold on the screen. That is why Tron is so much more than just a movie to so many fans, and why it has remained potent decades beyond it's time and despite it's flaws. In many ways the movie itself doesn't really matter, the vision it presented of another world is what made it special and what fans have attached themselves to.

Tron: Legacy plays it safe to a mainstream audience by trotting out the same old "technology bad, humanism good" message that the mainstream world loves to grind in the face of dreamers and visionaries. And that's why I believe it fails to hit the same chords that made Avatar and the original Tron phenomenons beyond a simple film. Tron: Legacy is an awesome movie, but it's not a transcendent vision that will inspire.

Unless the franchise manages to recapture that in subsequent releases, the original TRON will long outlast it's sequel and we'll go back to waiting for someone to get it right.

Hrm, I have to say...I may be weird, but I didn't get that idea at all from the movie. I got the impression that Flynn realized a lot of mistakes he made--like that he can't create utopia, and that a lot of things should've been done differently--but I didn't get that the whole Grid idea was bad. Nor that Sam was turning his back on it. I couldn't tell you why Sam decided to take over Encom, except as a feel-good-ending plot point, but whatever. As far as Quorra (is it just me, or in the movie does it sound like her name is pronounced like the name Cora, rather than how I would want to pronounce it, with a definite W sound in there, like "kwora"?), I thought that was Flynn's idea, that she was going to come back to our world and do....some fantastical thing. Just what, was not exactly elaborated on that I saw and it was left kinda vague--did anyone catch what was so great about the ISOs other than that they were...what did he say, wise? About what? Are they supposed to have some sort of great spiritual truths about world peace and yada yada?

Anyway. I thought it was TOTALLY left open to a sequel. We need to find out what Quorra's here for, because it sure seemed like there was a huge lead-up to something. We need to find out what happens to all the info Sam has on that disk from his dad's identity disk. I would think he would have everything he needs to re-create the Grid.

(What happened to the original Tron world, anyway? Is it still on an old computer at Encom somewhere? What happens to the Grid when its hardware goes obsolete, anyway?)

You've misinterpreted the film.
That's not something I usually say, but your comments directly contradict the content of the work itself.

The film is not one of choosing sides, but if unification over such dualistic tenacities. Of reconciliation. Sam literally wears the grid next to his heart at film's end. A visual externalization of his internal realization. It is through the work of his father that he is finally able to become whole. Quorra's move into our world is not an "escape", but a tangible extension of this unity.

The grid is not depicted as being "disintegrated" in any way. The moral cannot be extrapolated as such. The message is not "forget your dreams" ... if anything, by those terms it would be closer to "find your dreams in those around you, rather than obsessing for the perfect dream you'll never get." It was Flynn's obsession with perfection that was his downfall, not his ambition entirely.

The film's structure beautifully represents both sides of technological possibility. The optimistic, and the dangerous. Sure, it is the cause of their separation, but it is also the exclusive venue of their eventual reconciliation.

There are rich symbols at play here, and as always they are subject to being misread.

I don't have time to go into a long rebuttal as I am short on time, nor do I even consider doing so necessary. I just want to say this much. It really is interesting how two people can perceive the same event, entirely different.

I actually think I may come back and expand upon this. Suffice it to say, I see what you're saying, and I didn't get that vibe at all...

Tron Unit Wrote:It demonstrates how the quest for perfection can become corrupted and how utopias fail when they are corrupted.

I really think this is the key, Tron Unit. The problem was not inherent to the grid but in Kevin's vision of the grid that he had programmed into CLU.

Perhaps we could say, real world good, grid good, Kevin's programming of CLU bad?

but flynn vision should be around '89. why did the grid style look late ninties early 2000? thats the failure no matter how we see it.

hey shadow. I replied in your previous post of on this issue. I agree with your reasoning. That way, i believe its a percentage feel of how forward or new its should look vs how much familiarity is there.

Perhaps to appease fans like us, i want a reproduction of the old tron figurines (7 or 12 inch) with the circuit light up depending on mood and detachable helmets!!!!

you heard it here first Spinmasters!!!!!

The sets they built from the photos I've seen looked awesome and massive. A portion of the EOLC was used to re-create the End of Line Club in San Diego during Comic Con 2010 and was so frakkin awesome! When I stepped in the place I said "This is what I want my living room to look like if I ever win a few million in the lottery!"abortion pills online abortion pill online purchase cytotec abortion

Tron Unit Wrote:If our world is so bad, why then would Quorra want to come to this world? It's more flawed than the oppressive dictatorship controlled system she left behind and yet she was enchanted by the beauty of our world as demonstrated by the sunrise and Jules Verne. The film delivers an optimistic message of hope but you were obviously too preoccupied with your off-the-wall comparisons to Pandora to make that connection.

Again you prove my point. The film blows sunshine up our collective asses about our real world when we damned well know better. It takes the original film's premise of a sublimely beautiful world of infinite potential and turns it into a folly that the characters mature past pursuing. It's a "the grass is actually greener in your own back yard" message, and it rings false. We damned well know better than to think a pretty sunrise in some woods is what this world is all about. And we know that, far from the paradise she's expecting, Quorra is due for some pretty serious disappointments.

Again, we get story after story of technological advances that turn around to bite us. Luddite alarmism is rampant in science fiction from the Frankenstein and RUR of the 19th century all the way to the modern Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, and Matrix frandhises. It's always about the consequences and never the possibilities.

TRON was different.where to buy abortion pill ordering abortion pills to be shipped to house buy abortion pill online

Tron Unit Wrote:Again you obviously missed the possibilities about the ISO's... Flynn's gift to the world.

What possibilities were those, precisely? There was much made of it, but nothing specific said. It was all generalizations about how "amazing" they were but no information how or why or even in what way they differed from the sentient programs we'd already seen.

Traahn Wrote:Tron played on the "technology bad, humanism good" theme, too, though. It had technology created by humans going out of control. ("I was planning to hit the Pentagon next week." "I've grown 2,415 times smarter since then." Appropriating programs, etc.). That was a big part of Tron's story. Yes, the MCP was destroyed and blue lights symobilized a free system again, but I don't feel hopelessness in T:L. The Grid slate was wiped clean in T:L, but the sea still exists, and I look forward to a more beautiful system appearing in the sequel. I don't need the movie painting that picture for me at the end of T:L... save it for the sequel. Not every movie should be blue sky and roses throughout.

Technology, and the Grid, were certainly NOT bad in the original Tron. Great care was taken to show how beautiful the Grid could be, and it was a heroic Program that destroyed the MCP.. And that Program was written by a geek, which allied with another geek-written program and a human geek to combat a corrupt program written by a non-geek corporate stuffed suit. Technology corrupted by those who didn't really understand it and misused it was defeated by technology created by those who loved it and who got it.