Ulysses 31 was my absolute jam.
Well, that and Transformers, Terrahawks, Battle of the Planets, Star Fleet, Bananaman, Chorlton & The Wheelies and of course Thundercats,
I Just Watched (Films)
-
Lenny Solidus
- Posts: 1137
- Joined: Sun Dec 26, 2021 10:31 am
- Location: RTB
Re: I Just Watched (Films)
Building the future, and keeping the past alive - are one and the same thing.
My YT:- https://www.youtube.com/@lennytothequantum3317
My YT:- https://www.youtube.com/@lennytothequantum3317
-
Animalmother
- Local
- Posts: 4211
- Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 3:44 pm
Re: I Just Watched (Films)
Trading Places
Now here's something I haven't seen in a very long time. Was always a Christmas favourite so I wondered how it held up. Still great I'm glad to say, all the performances are top notch. Some stuff in it that would be frowned upon today but it's of it's time. Jamie Lee Curtis's knockers are fantastic.
Now here's something I haven't seen in a very long time. Was always a Christmas favourite so I wondered how it held up. Still great I'm glad to say, all the performances are top notch. Some stuff in it that would be frowned upon today but it's of it's time. Jamie Lee Curtis's knockers are fantastic.
Re: I Just Watched (Films)
I've watched that film so many times (and yes, JLC's body helped through some rough teenage years 
) and I still don't fully understand the end.
I think I have a very rough handle on it but surprising they didn't go with an easier ending. Buying and selling futures. No idea.
) and I still don't fully understand the end.I think I have a very rough handle on it but surprising they didn't go with an easier ending. Buying and selling futures. No idea.
-- To be completed at some point --
Re: I Just Watched (Films)
Tron: Ares
I didn't expect much from this, if I'm honest. It's barely even a sequel to one of my favourite films, 2010's Tron: Legacy, as it doesn't build on anything that film did - if anything it repeats some of the concepts but with none of the charm. I can't even call Jared Leto the worst thing about it, as he's actually more engaging than most of the rest of the cast, which is really saying something. I just don't understand what Disney are doing with their casting and direction; they have all the money in the world, but they can't seem to get performances out of anyone. Some of their TV stuff has been alright, but I've maybe seen one film from them in the last five years where the acting was anything approaching a highlight.
I had a small glimmer of hope when they announced that Nine Inch Nails were doing the soundtrack. I was never expecting them to be better than Daft Punk, but I expected a hell of a lot more than this. It's just so bloody dreary. It's not like any of it feels wrong exactly, it does fit the theming of the film, but Legacy's soundtrack really elevated that film as a whole in a way that NIN just didn't. There's absolutely no sense of wonder to any of it, no crescendo, no emotion of any kind. I think Trent Reznor did more for the film as F-35 Pilot #1.
They don't even land the aesthetic, because, as I predicted the second I saw that first trailer; they spend far too much of this film's runtime in the real world, and absolutely none of it makes sense. Tron works because it all happens in a fantasy environment; the entire plot of this film revolves around efforts to reverse Tron's entire premise, and bring virtual constructs into the real world, and the second you do that it all falls apart. What are the Light Cycle trails made of? Why do they persist in the real world? How does the Recognizer fly? What are the digital people made of when they're 3D printed?
And then there's the general tone-deafness of the plot. It's arguably a better story than Legacy, that was never going to be difficult, but it revolves around ultra-rich tech CEOs going wild with new technology, and killing innocent people in the process. Don't try to make me feel sympathy for a character that's channelling Steve Jobs just because she's not Elon Musk. Sam Flynn at least felt vaguely sympathetic, and he had a significant connection to his father and the original series protagonist who remains the only likeable person in this.
Disney killed the franchise after this didn't perform, and maybe it's time it was put to bed. I waited so long for a sequel to Legacy, but it never really materialised, and clearly the will wasn't in the company to make one. Legacy's concept of the ISOs - the naturally evolved programs that represented a new form of life - had a sense of wonder to it. There's absolutely none of that here. I think the closest comparison I can make is to that of whichever was the second of the Jurassic World films (the only one I've seen, I don't plan on seeing the others) - they've replaced the awe of the subject matter with an utterly tedious step into the military industrial complex. I don't want to see all of the fun concepts the series created destined to become "ultimate weapons". There's absolutely no adventure here, no imagination. The positivity of the technology becomes a footnote in the film's epilogue.
Honestly I think I've made myself more annoyed that this is the direction they took with this film by typing all of this out. As the credits rolled I thought it was passable. Having realised it lacked absolutely everything I want from science fiction, I realise it was actually abysmal. I'm going to go and listen to the Legacy soundtrack for the umpteenth time and know I'll at least get the goosebumps it always provokes.
I didn't expect much from this, if I'm honest. It's barely even a sequel to one of my favourite films, 2010's Tron: Legacy, as it doesn't build on anything that film did - if anything it repeats some of the concepts but with none of the charm. I can't even call Jared Leto the worst thing about it, as he's actually more engaging than most of the rest of the cast, which is really saying something. I just don't understand what Disney are doing with their casting and direction; they have all the money in the world, but they can't seem to get performances out of anyone. Some of their TV stuff has been alright, but I've maybe seen one film from them in the last five years where the acting was anything approaching a highlight.
I had a small glimmer of hope when they announced that Nine Inch Nails were doing the soundtrack. I was never expecting them to be better than Daft Punk, but I expected a hell of a lot more than this. It's just so bloody dreary. It's not like any of it feels wrong exactly, it does fit the theming of the film, but Legacy's soundtrack really elevated that film as a whole in a way that NIN just didn't. There's absolutely no sense of wonder to any of it, no crescendo, no emotion of any kind. I think Trent Reznor did more for the film as F-35 Pilot #1.
They don't even land the aesthetic, because, as I predicted the second I saw that first trailer; they spend far too much of this film's runtime in the real world, and absolutely none of it makes sense. Tron works because it all happens in a fantasy environment; the entire plot of this film revolves around efforts to reverse Tron's entire premise, and bring virtual constructs into the real world, and the second you do that it all falls apart. What are the Light Cycle trails made of? Why do they persist in the real world? How does the Recognizer fly? What are the digital people made of when they're 3D printed?
And then there's the general tone-deafness of the plot. It's arguably a better story than Legacy, that was never going to be difficult, but it revolves around ultra-rich tech CEOs going wild with new technology, and killing innocent people in the process. Don't try to make me feel sympathy for a character that's channelling Steve Jobs just because she's not Elon Musk. Sam Flynn at least felt vaguely sympathetic, and he had a significant connection to his father and the original series protagonist who remains the only likeable person in this.
Disney killed the franchise after this didn't perform, and maybe it's time it was put to bed. I waited so long for a sequel to Legacy, but it never really materialised, and clearly the will wasn't in the company to make one. Legacy's concept of the ISOs - the naturally evolved programs that represented a new form of life - had a sense of wonder to it. There's absolutely none of that here. I think the closest comparison I can make is to that of whichever was the second of the Jurassic World films (the only one I've seen, I don't plan on seeing the others) - they've replaced the awe of the subject matter with an utterly tedious step into the military industrial complex. I don't want to see all of the fun concepts the series created destined to become "ultimate weapons". There's absolutely no adventure here, no imagination. The positivity of the technology becomes a footnote in the film's epilogue.
Honestly I think I've made myself more annoyed that this is the direction they took with this film by typing all of this out. As the credits rolled I thought it was passable. Having realised it lacked absolutely everything I want from science fiction, I realise it was actually abysmal. I'm going to go and listen to the Legacy soundtrack for the umpteenth time and know I'll at least get the goosebumps it always provokes.
Re: I Just Watched (Films)
For some reason I seem to recall not liking legacy. maybe it's due a rewatch to try to refresh my memory. Tron is on my top films of all time. It was so ground-breaking when it came out.
Did they do a 3D version of legacy? They must have surely?
Did they do a 3D version of legacy? They must have surely?
-- To be completed at some point --
Re: I Just Watched (Films)
I will happily admit that Legacy isn't a traditionally good film, the story's too simple and the characters a bit one-dimensional, but it's an aesthetic and aural masterpiece. It's a guilty pleasure film, but it's absolutely in my top 10.