TRON Legacy - Review

Its 28 years later... special effects have improved, film making has changed, and a fan-base has grown. Enter TRON Legacy, the long-awaited sequel to Disney's 1982 sci-fi classic, Tron.

As much I enjoy watching the original, I will admit that its not a perfect movie. It excelled in visual department with experimental cgi designs that were practically unheard of, creating a technological universe known as The Grid. It featured Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a game designer and computer genius whose ideas were stolen by an executive for Encom, a software company at which he was once employed. After hacking into Encom's mainframe to expose the scam, he is accidentally beamed into a computerized world known as The Grid. There, he fought for his life in a sort of computerized purgatory against malicious humanoid programs.

The premise was intriguing, the action scenes were fun to watch, and the visuals are still a blast to see. It was held back by a number of issues, including underutilized story ideas and an occasionally plodding pace. The movie was a moderate success, but failed to catch on with the mainstream aside from a small cult-following of mostly computer nerds. Now, 28 years later, when technology has taken over the world and nerds have taken over Hollywood, Tron returns!

TRON Legacy is set in 2010, 28 years after the original. In the time period, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) has disappeared. His orphan son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) has become something of a rebel, refusing to take his father's place as Encom CEO. After receiving a message from his father's office in his abandoned arcade, he goes to check it out. While investigating, he is accidentally zapped into the grid. The technological world introduced 28 years ago, has turned into a virtual dystopia, run by a corrupt program named Clu, a virtual copy of Kevin Flynn. With Sam trapped in the grid, he is forced to compete in barbaric video games while trying to find his lost father.

The original TRON is a movie I've always enjoyed. I wouldn't call it a "guilty pleasure" per se, but its one that's more or less appealed to a select audience... ie sci-fi/computer nerds like myself. TRON Legacy comes off as a bit more mainstream. The main character, Sam, is an adventurous and daring everyman with some hacking talent as opposed to the straight-up rebel computer hacker portrayed by Bridges in the previous movie. There's not as much computer jabber this time and the filmmakers come off as trying to please a broader range of fans. That includes fans of the original, fans of summer blockbusters, and visual effects aficionados. If there's one thing filmmakers should know, its that trying to please everyone is generally a bad idea. As a result, TRON Legacy suffers a bit on that front.

Ultimately, the movie plagued by almost the exact same things that hurt the original. The pacing is a bit off, some of the characters aren't the best, and the storyline contains a multitude of great ideas that ultimately go unrealized. The storyline tries to be profound, throwing in numerous references to religious and existential philosophies while trying to keep it accessible to audiences looking for a simple blockbuster. It works as a straightforward blockbuster, but the attempts toward profound symbolism come of as a half-assed effort. Plus, there are numerous hints at Disney hoping to turn TRON into one of their new franchises. That wouldn't be a bad thing if they didn't leave so many plot threads unresolved.

The biggest strength TRON Legacy has... the presentation! Displaying some of the most incredible and artistic cgi I've seen in a long time, TRON Legacy stands a good chance at winning the Oscar for best visual effects. It kept the same style from the original while updating them for a more modern age. The colors are still fairly monochrome, but all very pretty to look at. I can see why these visuals took well over a year to render. The 3D was quite impressive too. It wasn't quite Avatar level, but it did a good job at immersing you into the world it was presenting. Definitely worth the extra 3 dollars.

The sound design is one of the most creative I've heard in a while too. I love how it kept the classic video-game motifs from the original, while throwing in some modern touches. I wouldn't be surprised to see this one take home Oscars in sound design and mixing as well. I have to mention the all-electronic soundtrack by Daft Punk. Their beats fit the mood of the world created before us and add to the excitement presented. I'll be buying this soundtrack real soon.

Acting-wise... I guess the visuals kind of outshine the performers, but there were no particularly bad performances. I enjoyed seeing Jeff Bridges in duals roles as the aged Kevin Flynn and as the villain CLU (a digitally rendered younger version of Flynn). Bridges was a welcome addition, and certainly gave the movie credibility as a sequel as opposed to a reboot. Hedlund does a fine job as Sam. He brings good credibility to the action scenes and does well enough in the rest of the movie. Olivia Wilde (Dr. Thirteen from House) plays Quorra, a resident of the grid and ally to Flynn. I enjoyed watching Wilde. She does a good job during the action segments and looked like she was having fun making this movie. I wish she would demonstrate a little more emotional range, but for a movie like this, it didn't bother me much. I also have to mention Michael Sheen playing one of the most over-the-top characters I've seen in a while... just watch.

So that's TRON Legacy, the long-awaited sequel. Overall, its pretty fun. I enjoyed the visuals, sound design, soundtrack, and action scenes. The storyline and plot could have been substantially better, but I still found it enjoyable enough. Probably not good enough for repeat viewings, but its definitely worth the price of a movie ticket.

My Score: 3.5 out of 5!

Black Swan - Review

Darren Aronofsky, the filmmaker behind indie classics such as Pi, Requiem For A Dream, and The Wrestler brings us a new masterpiece in the form of Black Swan, a psychological thriller starring Natalie Portman.

Black Swan centers around Nina (Natalie Portman), a young ballerina in New York living with her psychotic and over-bearing ex-dancer mother. A perfectionist in every sense of the word, she dances for a local company preparing for their production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. The ballet features one lead dancer in dual roles... one as the graceful and innocent White Swan and the other as the dark and sensual Black Swan. With her innocent demeanor, Nina embodies the White Swan perfectly while having difficulty adapting to the Black Swan. A new dancer to enter the studio, Lily (Mila Kunis) is the polar opposite as Nina. She's a free-spirited and impulsive individual with a passion for sex, drugs, and junk food... perfectly embodying the Black Swan. With increasing pressure from her instructor, mother, and a new rival, Nina slowly descends into madness and mutilation while attempting to find the Black Swan within.

I'm going to start by saying this... Natalie Portman is by far one of the best actresses working in the industry today. Few performers come even close to matching her talent, grace, and beauty. She's already shown her ability to perform in movies such as Garden State, V For Vendetta, and Brothers. With Black Swan, she has truly outdone herself. By far the best performance of her career, Portman goes to seriously dark territory showcasing an array of expressions and emotional instability. She is all but guaranteed to receive an Oscar nomination and stands a good chance at winning as well. I can't think of a female performance this year as incredible as Portman was in this.

Mulis Kunis plays Lily, a rival dancer and embodiment of the Black Swan. Kunis is probably best known for TV work, namely for roles in That 70s Show and as the voice of Meg on Family Guy. She's shown she has some good comic timing, but until now all of her non-comedic roles have ranged from "meh" to just plain bad (American Psycho II anyone???). Here, she does beging to show more promise as a dramatic performer, going into darker territory than she usually goes. She does a solid job with the role and is really showing her range as a performer. Obviously Portman outshines pretty much everyone in the movie, but Kunis does a bang-up job (no pun intended) with some very graphic scenes that would probably make many actors uncomfortable. I look forward to see what Kunis will bring in future roles.

The rest of the cast also sell their roles efficiently. Barbara Hershey plays Nina's mother Erica. Both her and Portman work off each other really well and create a great mother-daughter dynamic that fits the tone of the film quite well. A typical trap among actresses playing psychotic mother roles is a tendency to overact (Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest for instance). Hershey has some memorable dramatic scenes, but never goes over-the-top.

There's also a memorable performance from Vincent Cassel as Thomas, the perverted director and ballet instructor. I suppose its not the most original character to grace screen, but he embodies the creepy character quite well... maybe a little too well at times. Finally their Winona Ryder is a smaller role as Beth, a dancer who was recently fired from the studio for being "just past her prime." Normally, I'm not a huge fan of Ryder, she's had a few decent roles but in a lot of her movies, she fails to impress. For Black Swan, she sure makes an impact in her limited screen time. I don't want to spoil too much... lets just say you'll have a hard time getting her out of your head after you watch this.

Out of all the filmmakers who are either still alive or working in the industry today, Darren Aronofsky is probably my favorite. Taking inspiration from filmmakers like Kubrick, he specializes in movies depicting the human psyche and a descent into either madness or obsession. Whether it would about hallucinating dancers, former professional wrestler (The Wrestler), drug addicts (Requiem For A Dream), or psychotic mathematicians (Pi), his films are as emotionally impactful as they are visually stimulating. Psychotic characters are no stranger to film these days but nobody in the business today portrays them as well as Aronofsky.

Its a little premature to say Black Swan is his best movie yet (I'll need to watch it again to make that call), but its probably his most visually enticing. Featuring beautifully shot cinematography, great dance choreography, perfectly timed editing, and some of the best use of cgi I've seen in a long time. Every shot was perfectly positioned, every edit was cut as the precise frame, and every moment of cg was used effectively. Best of all, none of the visuals ever upstaged the actors or story. They found the perfect balance of acting, story, and visual so that nothing felt like too much or too little... it was just right.

While watching this movie, I couldn't help but draw comparisons to the 1984 movie, Amadeus. The movie was a heavily dramatized depiction of the life and times of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, inspired and styled after the operas Mozart was famous for composing. Black Swan rides along a similar theme, only instead of an opera but more like a ballet (no duh!). The movie starts out graceful and slowly but builds to an epic and intense climax complete with the appropriate musical motifs. The score, composed by Clint Mansell features both original works and re-workings of Tchaikovsky's score. Its a flawlessly timed piece of screenwriting and music composition.

I couldn't think of anything I didn't enjoy in Black Swan. These are actually my favorite kinds of movies... intense psychological thrillers with creative imagery, great performances, beautiful scores, and fabulous directing. I'm just going to say this... its not for everyone. I've recommended Aronofsky's films before... only to have my friends return the movies to me saying that they only made it about 10 minutes into them. This, like most of Aronofsky's films, is one intense and brutal piece of cinema. Not for the faint of heart, it includes scenes of self-mutilation, nightmarish hallucinations, and really dark subject matter. Personally I love seeing thrillers taken into darker depths, but I know they're not for everybody.

Overall, Black Swan is the best film of the year! Beating out notable contenders like Inception or Toy Story 3, Black Swan delivered on everything that I could want out of a psychological thriller. Definitely gonna be buying this one on Blu Ray!

My Score: 5 out of 5!

Julie & Julia - Review

It has been a while since I've reviewed a non-new release, or at least one that's not immediately fresh on people's minds. I actually was hoping to write about Black Swan, but unfortunately that movie only got a limited release this weekend as isn't playing anywhere in the Vancouver area (Seriously, you have no idea how much that irks me off). Plus, the number of chick flicks reviewed on my blog is somewhat low. So I thought this would be a good time to review a movie I had watched recently, Julie & Julia.

Julie & Julia is two stories in one movie. Both based on true stories, the first narrative takes place in the 1950s and follows renown cook Julia Child (Meryl Streep) detailing when she was writing her French cookbook that would eventually make her world famous. The second story takes place in 2002 and features Julie Powell (Amy Adams), a young aspiring writer working a mundane job who decides to enliven her life by cooking through Child's aforementioned cookbook every day and blog about the project.

Julie & Julia is one of those movies that is quite difficult for which to write a review. Its not bad, but it isn't particularly great either, yet still is not completely average either. The storyline is where this is most obvious. There's an inherent problem when you make a movie with two separate storylines... they often feel disjointed. Unfortunately, Julie & Julia does fall victim to this... albeit only moderately.

The Julia segments are filmed more like a biopic, detailing the life and experiences of a familiar public figure. The characters are entertaining, the set pieces are interesting, and it doesn't come off as particularly dramatized or glamorized (a typical flaw in many biopics). The Julia segments were an enjoyable movie in itself, and were definitely the better half of this flick.


The Julie segments are more of a romantic comedy... and an average one at that. I know its based off of a true story, and that it needed to follow its real life counterparts, but the characters just aren't particularly relateable, creative, or interesting. I suppose these were the everyday kind of folk that we, as the audience, are supposed to relate with and sympathize. The characters are believable, but believable doesn't always equal entertaining. Plus the ending and outcome of this particular storyarc ends on a predictable outcome.

The two narratives are only loosely connected, mainly via Child's cookbook. This is admittedly a clever way to connect the stories, as both Julie and Julia had never actually met each other, but by the time this was over, I couldn't help but feel like this movie would have been immensely better if they dropped the Julie story and just stuck with the biopic about Child.

What is one way to remedy a hit and miss storyline? The answer is, of course, good performances. Julie & Julia is a movie that I like to call "One Actors Shows." This is an otherwise decent or average movies that become immensely more entertaining thanks to the performance of one particular actor (Think Robert Downey Jr. In Iron Man, Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.). In this case, Meryl Streep is the actress who makes this movie special. Her performance as Julia Child is fantastic, and by far the best in the whole movie. She nailed Child's demeanor, personality traits, and her famous voice. She was a real blast to watch and was by far the best part of it.

Amy Adams plays Julie Powell and, despite being out-shined by Streep, does an admittedly good job in the role. Adams has a good range of emotions, some funny comic timing, and gets the job done. Again, there's just not a whole lot to her character, making it a bit of a challenge to give an in-depth critique. The same can be said for most of the supporting cast. Although, I did enjoy Stanley Tucci as Paul Child, Julia's husband. The two had great chemistry together and looked like they had fun in their roles. Not to mention, the Julia segments featured older, and seemingly, more experienced actors who could easily outshine the younger cast of the Julie segments. Again... the Julia storyline is just better.

Finally, there's some creative production design, some pretty settings, decent cinematography, and an tasty array of food. It goes without saying that a movie about one of the world's most famous cooks would feature a variety of tasty delights, and Julie & Julia certainly delivers on that front. You'll probably get pretty hungry after watching this.

Overall, Julie & Julia is a fun movie and definitely worth watching. It would probably blend in with the crowd if it weren't for Meryl Streep, but this is still a solid movie that's worth at least a rental.

My Score: 3.5 out of 5!