I was able to re-watch the original right before we left so it colored my perception heavily. Also, I wanted to love this movie very badly; it's a cherished childhood memory.
The movie had either too much, or too little depth. The original had very little depth but I thought it worked very well. I could have used more action and less exposition or just a better fleshed out story. This movie falls squarely in the middle. The character Sam fluctuates between bad-ass and inept seemingly at will. I wish we could have picked one and stuck with it throughout the film. Jeff Bridges seems very much like "The Dude" and nothing like K. Flynn. I had only a few moments where the character seemed to say something I would've expected Flynn to say. Was this the fault of the director, the script, Jeff Bridges or a combination? Personally, I very much disliked the character of Zeus; I thought he didn't fit the world in any way. The fate of Tron left a very bad taste in my mouth. Bruce was underused considering how integral to the original story he was. They should have departed from the original completely, or had more ties with the original. I felt as though the script needed a bit more work before they filmed it. Was this pushed out by Disney instead of taking enough time to polish it? I really liked a lot of the updates. The world looked good; the new suits and discs were great. The gaming area was great; I really liked the new lightcycles; I wanted to see more of them. I thought Olivia Wilde nailed her performance. Hers was the best performance in this reviewer's opinion. The vehicles were all spectacular, and I think the visuals are the redeeming factor for this movie overall. I can also appreciate what they were trying to do in terms of story. Another thing that I appreciated was that there was nothing "Matrix-y" about this film.
I felt very sad after leaving and I slept on it before writing a review to make sure my opinion wouldn't change. Maybe the new mini-series' like The Walking Dead are spoiling me as a viewer, but I wanted better character development. I felt as though the story could have been vastly improved with a little better editing and tweaking. I didn't hate it and I would recommend that you watch, but it's not the masterpiece I was hoping to see.
The movie had either too much, or too little depth. The original had very little depth but I thought it worked very well. I could have used more action and less exposition or just a better fleshed out story. This movie falls squarely in the middle. The character Sam fluctuates between bad-ass and inept seemingly at will. I wish we could have picked one and stuck with it throughout the film. Jeff Bridges seems very much like "The Dude" and nothing like K. Flynn. I had only a few moments where the character seemed to say something I would've expected Flynn to say. Was this the fault of the director, the script, Jeff Bridges or a combination? Personally, I very much disliked the character of Zeus; I thought he didn't fit the world in any way. The fate of Tron left a very bad taste in my mouth. Bruce was underused considering how integral to the original story he was. They should have departed from the original completely, or had more ties with the original. I felt as though the script needed a bit more work before they filmed it. Was this pushed out by Disney instead of taking enough time to polish it? I really liked a lot of the updates. The world looked good; the new suits and discs were great. The gaming area was great; I really liked the new lightcycles; I wanted to see more of them. I thought Olivia Wilde nailed her performance. Hers was the best performance in this reviewer's opinion. The vehicles were all spectacular, and I think the visuals are the redeeming factor for this movie overall. I can also appreciate what they were trying to do in terms of story. Another thing that I appreciated was that there was nothing "Matrix-y" about this film.
I felt very sad after leaving and I slept on it before writing a review to make sure my opinion wouldn't change. Maybe the new mini-series' like The Walking Dead are spoiling me as a viewer, but I wanted better character development. I felt as though the story could have been vastly improved with a little better editing and tweaking. I didn't hate it and I would recommend that you watch, but it's not the masterpiece I was hoping to see.