professional bad example

so. finally got around to watching TRON: legacy in its entirety. and the thing that bothers me, that makes it not really feel like TRON, is that it's just too dark. both visually, and i don't even know how that's possible considering these frankly gorgeous lights, and thematically. see, with the original TRON, there was this constant sense of wonder, of holy fuck there's a whole different world in here, and sure some of it is incredibly dangerous, but the real world can also be, and overall it's just a totally amazing place and worth everything. whereas TRON: legacy just leaves me feeling, hey, everything's turned into shit, you're lucky to get out here alive let alone have gained anything positive from the experience, and really you'd probably be better off if you never tried in the first place. they tried to turn it darker and edgier, i think, and it really doesn't work.

also, i really don't like the concept of the ISOs and how they're oh so special. wasn't it kind of the point of the original movie that programs already are far more complex and real than we can see from our side of the screen? isn't it amazing enough that hey, something that was created to fulfill a single purpose turns out to be a person that we just can't see the entirety of? what do we need those stupid ISOs for? :| i just don't really see their point, plot-wise. i'm pretty sure the story could've been reworked to work just as well without them.

and then the thing about programs being able to enter the real world. i'll admit, i was playing with it in a nonwritten fanfiction ages ago. but on the scale clu was planning on going about it, it just doesn't make sense. where would all that matter their bodies would be composed of come from? would their digital forms even contain the patterns required to make it fall into place? it actually does make sense in quorra's case alone because a) her real-world body was probably created from the matter that used to be part of kevin's and b) her digital form is explicitly different from regular programs' and presumably far closer to a human being's. beyond that, it doesn't feel properly thought out at all.

so yeah that's my disappointments.

on the upside, as i said, it does look really pretty even if some of it just doesn't make sense to me - why are there clouds in the grid? why fog? why do the buildings look so much like the real world? yeah, okay, because kevin programmed them that way, that explains it from a storytelling point of view, but does it work all that well? the soundtrack is great, too.

and hey, my brain is happily working on a universe where somewhat altered versions of both TRON 2.0 and TRON: legacy happened.