TRON Legacy

Tron Legacy is a perfect example of lazy plotting and style over substance.

The film is undeniably pretty. It's dark landscapes, neo-punk nightclubs, impressively designed vehicles and ships that looks like something out of a Star Wars spin off. The action scenes are mostly impressive too, well directed, and mostly make some good use of the 3D format. But I'm not really impressed by that. I'm not really impressed by how much money a production company has thrown at a film. That does not up my opinion of it, especially when there are so many 'pretty CGI' films out there nowadays.

If the film did not have any of the aesthetics, it would be a boring, nonsensical mess that I'm surprised even fans of the original have any time for. Despite everything else being pretty, CGI Jeff Bridges will have to go down in infamy as one of the worst pieces of CGI since The Rock in The Mummy Returns. I mean, what were they thinking? The mouth barely moved when he spoke, the expressions just looked awkward, and what they ended up with was something that barely looked human, let alone like a young Jeff Bridges. It was a constant distraction, and as a result, I could not take the character of CLU seriously.

But what excuses the rest? There was an awful lot of coincidental nonsense in the film, especially towards the end. I can't really go in to it without ruining it, but it was akin to a badly written wrestling storyline. A inexplicable face turn, sudden use of superpowers, and really stupid bad guy behaviour. Long, wordy sequences pass by between the characters when they try to explain and justify the silly storyline, involving the last of a race of beings that could solve every human problem if brought in to the real world. It was never really explained how this might happen, or why Flynn knew this. It's just all very poor, and should not be anywhere near two hours in length.

Something for the kids, but why an adults are wasting their time with this is beyond me.

3/10

The Men Who Stare at Goats

A film about a branch in the US army that uses the power of the mind and the will to do good to win wars, who refer to themselves as 'Jedi'. Like most of the jokes and the plot, the concept is quite amusing. But, it will rarely get you laughing, or really even thinking about any sort of bigger picture. Can it really be taken seriously?

While it's certainly a nice idea and story, it left very little impression on me as a viewer. While the satire is quite well done, the characters are not likeable enough to really care about, Spacey's antagonist isn't really hatable enough either. It's all a bit too safe, undramatic, and as a result I found it very hard to be absorbed by the events unfolding. While much of it is very quirky, and very easy to watch in an inoffensive kind of way, it's never going to be someone's favourite film. It would have benefited drastically by pushing the more ludicrous elements to the forefront and really using them as real gags, or toning it down and going for a bit more drama, because there was potential there. Without that, it treads the middle ground between offensive and passive and doesn't really provoke any reaction at all. Still, I could watch Clooney, Bridges and Spacey act all day.

5/10