How come Star Wars gets a fuck ton of shitty sequels but the first TRON film in 15 years is a flop? I was waiting for this film since I was a child.
I mean no one likes him but if it was good that wouldn’t be a deal breaker.
I’ll watch it eventually for the soundtrack, but Jared gives me the creeps.
It’s not always Jared Leto’s fault when his movies bomb. Easy scapegoat for the everyone else involved, fron the writer to director to producer, to just blame him and pretend no one else fucked it up.
Given some of the bad dialogue (e.g., Ares talking about why he likes Depeche Mode), my impression is that Jared Leto used his role as producer to push the production in certain directions that appealed to his personal preferences. I went in wanting to like the movie (I love Tron: Legacy and NIN so I was definitely excited by certain aspects of the movie), but the movie felt too much like a Leto vanity project. So yeah, I think that, in this case, it’s fair to blame Leto for the movie’s failure, even though, like you say, there were failures across the board, from many people involved.
Seeing how much of an egomaniac the dude is, and straight up like psycho levels of self absorbed, this rings true to me as well. When I saw the poster in theaters I was beside myself as I LOVED Legacy, but the second In started to see the posters with Leto I noped the fuck out. I still had lingering hope, but the lashback from opening week makes it apparent I should wait to stream it.
I think the bigger problem is that it’s just moved away from what Tron is supposed to be about. Like the whole point of Tron is it happens in the computer world what is the point of bringing it into the real world. Then it’s just a weird sci-fi movie with sort of but not really aliens invading, and the market is saturated with sci-fi films with alien invasions.
Having seen the movie, I think it’s actually a decent setup for the plot. The crux of the conflict is that programs can only exist in the real world for 29 minutes before dissolving, and the good mega corporation and bad mega corporation want the “permanence code.”
This time limit adds tension to the real world scenes in a pretty compelling way, because the good guys only need to escape capture for that half hour before gaining some respite. This is reinforced by the moments of viewing the world through the programs’ eyes, which always include the countdown to how much longer they have. There were times I thought “oh they only have a couple minutes” without stretching my suspension of disbelief beyond what’s required to watch a movie where flesh and blood can be digitized by a laser.
It also allows more interplay between the real and digital world that I felt was lacking in the older movies. Those ones call the digitized humans “users,” but it never feels like they are that different when they are in the console rather than at it. This movie has a lot of scenes that cut between the bad guy sitting at his desk typing in commands and the programs in the grid of his computer hearing them as orders and treating him with reverence appropriate to a machine. There’s a hacking scene where you see the programs from one server grid break through the literal firewalls and cut through antivirus programs that does a good job feeling like an abstraction of what is happening in the real world scenes.
All that said, I went to this movie for the soundtrack and pretty visuals, and while the light bikes and such in the real world did look cool, they would have looked a lot cooler in the digital world. There’s one action scene that is, and it is the coolest part of the movie.
This film is a weird mix of pokemon and superman 2.
That’s just it. The money bros are spineless. Alien invasion movies have a track record of making money. Making Tron true the source material is a gamble insofar as there’s no movie said money bros can point to and use as citation for projected revenue.
Tron never was a thing and Disney keeps trying to make it a thing. The concept was cool in the 80s but no one has cared since the property.
I’m just glad Hollywood hasn’t made remakes of Flight of the Navigator and Neverending story.
But neverending story has limitless franchise potential - it’s right there in the title! Lol
Neverending story
Hate to be that guy but:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NeverEnding_Story_II:_The_Next_Chapter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NeverEnding_Story_III
II is though more of a shitty sequel but III is a shitty original story.
And finally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NeverEnding_Story_(film)#Possible_remake
Those are shitty sequels. I saw one of them. I mean full out reboot.
As dar as I could see, III was an original story. But bidding has been won for a remake so we might get one in 3-5 years.
Ackchtually… :-)
The first movie is the first HALF of the original book, and the second movie is the second half.
They sliced an (awesome) ending into the middle of the book, and the vibes of the second movie were different, but it was authentic to the book.
Now as for the THIRD movie, your point is legit. (Also fun to note, it has Jack Black as a street punk.)
Disney didn’t know wtf to do with Tron. I thought Legacy was a great addition to the universe, but this time around it was nothing more than skipping to the end of the Marvel universe with the Boss Battle bent on world domination with flashy CGI characters. Couldn’t have possible chose a worse or more boring addition to the franchise. Ruined it, IMO, and I have been a Tron fan since forever.
Legacy was good and a fine launching pad for squeals. They should have used Tron: The Next Day as a starting point for any addition. It’s not as well known, but The Next Day was a bonus added to the physical release of Legacy to pitch the next movie.
Disney is to blame for making this crap and screwing an entire legacy for A quick buck.
As someone who loves sci-fi films and the Tron aesthetic, and who generally enjoyed the two previous films, a sequel should have been an easy sell to me.
Unfortunately, the whole “Tron bikes” and “Tron here” IRL was - to me - such a huge red flag I skipped opening weekend. It gave the feeling of big action set pieces in the real world where the least amount of creative work would be needed and I had no desire to watch the military or the rag tag group of heroes fight computer programs IRL.
My favorite part of Tron was going into a new world and seeing the digital landscape. I want the lore, I want the computer program’s are people and mechanics vibe, I want the fantasy portion of the sci-fi. I do not need another boring ass marvel / Star wars movie with a Tron paint job.
We need an actual trilogy, an actual story with actual arcs, we need actual stakes. This movie convinced me from its trailer alone that it would say nothing, fail to surprise me, and play out in a safe and predictable fashion and do it in such away that it wouldn’t even be fun. I’m all for repetitive dime store movies, but they have to be compelling, well paced, and self-aware. I doubt this movie was any of those.
There are no writers left that can world build. They’re all momentary hype linked by and-then storytelling.
There are plenty of good writers out there working on smaller stuff. The problem has always been they get stifled and overruled in every part of the process in these attempted large blockbusters because the suits ‘know what works’ best apparently.
I think it’s more of a studio/money problem. There are tons of great, well-written movies no one hears about and lots of other creative media. But Americans have low IQs and terrible taste which can only be satisfied by shitty sequels that play on nostalgia and existing IP.
Looking at the comments, maybe. Though not because of his performance which was honestly fine. The film is fine, his performance is fine and I honestly left happy and excited for the next film.
If anything my biggest gripes were the beginning and a couple scenes in the middle where the sound was a mess and the pacing went weird. Have a theory as why but at the end of the day that only matters if you showed up to see it and seems like no one was interested which sucks for Tron fans.
I’m not a big Leto fan. He’s not the worst actor, but he’s by no means great. But Gary Oldman couldn’t have made this movie work. The problem isn’t the acting, it’s the script. The movie felt like it was designed and written by a marketing committee. Everything about it is formulaic and hollow.
I mean, he’s also a sex pest. Maybe that’s why people didn’t want to see it.
That’s certainly never affected box office receipts before now…
True. Alll he can do now is become president
But Gary Oldman couldn’t have made this movie work.
You could think the same about the 5th element.
Leto was a long term producer of Ares. He had a say in all those things.
That’s something that Disney regularly has a problem with. They used to find interesting, compelling stories that writers were excited to create.
Now, most of their films are being pushed from the top to expand their known IPs or messaging. The story has become secondary to the product.
Bob Iger said just a couple years back that they had a few flops with new ideas and we’re going to focus on existing IPs and brands. He’s leading Disney into a second direct to home video sequel era. Just like the one that nearly killed the company in the 80s.
Disney is riding high on nostalgia and brand recognition but is quickly burning their capital of good will. The youngest generation isnt getting that same nostalgia that’s going to turn them into Disney fans like the 90s kids had. We’re 30 something’s with a bit of disposable income, and Disney is bleeding us dry after making us their primary demographic. They no longer cater to families, and they no longer are looking to make new, young fans.
It’s honestly depressing to see how much that company has fallen. I got hired to work at Disneyland back in 2008 and spent 8 years of my life trying to bring happiness to the guests that came there. I agreed with and worked hard to bring their message to life. But in my time there, and since, I’ve seen a continual shift from taking care of their employees, making it a great place to work, and to make the best entertainment they can.
My favorite snarky critic review:
“Forty-three years later, “Tron: Ares” is groundbreaking for being the first “Tron” film with a discernible plot.”
Wasn’t the first about a programmer getting his game back from the evil corporation?
Something Tron fans seem to forget, and Disney forgets it every so often, the first Tron was a significant failure as well. Yeah, flashy effects and a cool concept, but it wasn’t as relevant to a wider crowd yet. And Legacy wasn’t exactly a success in the box office either. Many forget that Tron appeals to a smaller crowd and isn’t the blockbuster franchise it should be.
A lot of people think that, but it turns out a lot of people are wrong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron
$17m budget, $50m box office, and it basically created CGI on the way.
I think people just assume such an acid trip of a movie with such a goofy costume has to have flopped, but nope.
Disney dont know how to market to boys. I was a kid when the OG Tron came out, and I loved it. But the marketing was non existent. There was very little in the way of pushing the movie into the hearts and minds of kids, the same way Star Wars, or heman, or transformers, or even fucking gobots had.
In fact, when I say Tron for the first time it was part of a disney kids double bill. That other movie being Something Wicked This Way comes… Which was, to say they least, creepy as all fuck. These movies went together like peanut butter and a sloppy dogshit.
Tron is a masterclass in how to fuck up a franchise.
I myself was hyped until I saw Jared Leto, i just don’t wanna see him in anything
Same for me. I didn’t see 2, but this one looked good until I saw Leto was in it, then it was a hard no
Leto has done some great roles. See Bladerunner. His problem is his manager that signs him up for every turd script Hollywood can generate. He’s the new Nicolas Cage paying off his IRS bills. Why does Greta Lee have a job in acting? Because she’s an Asian female?
Blaming an actor for a bad movie is like blaming one plumber when a building collapses. The problem is movies are now so expensive to make that they are made by a committee of risk averse accountants. If Quentin Tarantino tried starting today, he would never get to touch a film. The recent trend I do not understand is high audience scores for really terrible movies like F1. They recycled the script from Stallone’s Driven, even the main character. Both were terrible movies misrepresenting the sport. Fantastic 4? Proof that COVID-19 was a brain infection if audiences thought that crime fighting with a newborn was a plot line.
Leto was also a producer and put funding into the movie so he had a much larger hand in the movie than just an actor.
I keep hearing that there was no marketing for the movie but I’m not even interested in the movie and I saw a lot of marketing, I assumed it was going to be popular
