It felt like I was watching a chapter out of a much longer book, but without the rest of the book for reference. Yes, cool visuals and descent acting and some fun action sequences. But it began and ended in such a way that I couldn’t really understand what was going on and never landed at a satisfying end point.
Disney has a habit of doing this with a lot of properties. SW: The Force Awakens had this vibe as well, as though there was a bunch of companion material I was supposed to have worked through before getting to the actual movie. The last couple of Indiana Jones movies, too.
They don’t know how to just make a movie. Its always got to be some snippet from an enormous vision of an end-to-end experience. It’s not for me because I didn’t re-watch the original before playing the game and solving the secret riddle that ships me a copy of the comic book that kinda sorta explains wtf is going on.
There’s a huge time gap between the original Tron and Legacy. The sentient computer protagonist and her tribe are just kinda revealed and then dropped. Maybe they had additional content planned for release and it died on the drawing board. But so much of the story revolves around the fighting, the in-movie world building remains comparatively threadbare.
Compare that to The Matrix or Jurassic Park, both of which do a better job of building out the world even within the context of conflict between the main characters and the various world hazards.
There’s a huge time gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, but everyone understands that you’re gonna be lost if you just jump into The Force Awakens blind.
I’m not trying to excuse bad writing, don’t get me wrong - there are definitely problems with The Force Awakens and with Tron: Legacy that should have been solved in the writing room, and even then they probably wouldn’t hold up to franchises like Jurassic Park or The Matrix. I just think it’s kinda funny that you pointed out that it feels like there should be companion material for these movies, even though there absolutely is companion material for these movies.
There’s a huge time gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, but everyone understands that you’re gonna be lost if you just jump into The Force Awakens blind.
They just reset the entire franchise to “Okay, but now the Empire is in charge again and the Rebels are on the run again and you have to beat the Death Star again”. It’s very easy to understand precisely because they abandoned the conclusion of the prior movie and just sent you back to the beginning of “A New Hope” again.
I just think it’s kinda funny that you pointed out that it feels like there should be companion material for these movies, even though there absolutely is companion material for these movies.
“We could have made six movies in between when Movie 1 ends and Movie 2 begins, but we’re hoping you’ll just pick it up off the backhanded remarks scattered around the 10’ mark” is weak writing.
The Matrix is great precisely because they spend so much time with the setup, but in a way that’s still engaging with the audience. Jurassic Park gives you some time to marvel at the dinosaurs and learn where they came from, even playing on the impatience to “Show them to me!” by expressing it with the characters themselves in the middle of the expository scene.
Yeah I already said I’m not trying to excuse bad writing. I explicitly called out that those movies have bad writing, and I explicitly called out that even if the writing was improved, they still probably wouldn’t be comparable to the Jurassic Park or Matrix franchises. We both acknowledge and agree that the Jurassic Park and Matrix franchises have better writing than Tron and Star Wars. That’s allowed. We’re allowed to agree on things on the Internet, I promise.
Literally all I’m pointing out is that if you watch the previous movies, you will be less lost than if you just watch the sequel by itself. I don’t understand how that’s a controversial point worthy of multiple paragraphs of response.
There was also a gigantic amount of content between Jedi and Awakens. Books, games, other movies, RPGs, so many toys and spin off ideas. This is a really bad example.
No? There’s no problem. I was just pointing out how it was kinda funny to say there’s a lack of companion materials for a movie sequel, a thing which, by definition, has companion material.
It felt like I was watching a chapter out of a much longer book, but without the rest of the book for reference. Yes, cool visuals and descent acting and some fun action sequences. But it began and ended in such a way that I couldn’t really understand what was going on and never landed at a satisfying end point.
Disney has a habit of doing this with a lot of properties. SW: The Force Awakens had this vibe as well, as though there was a bunch of companion material I was supposed to have worked through before getting to the actual movie. The last couple of Indiana Jones movies, too.
They don’t know how to just make a movie. Its always got to be some snippet from an enormous vision of an end-to-end experience. It’s not for me because I didn’t re-watch the original before playing the game and solving the secret riddle that ships me a copy of the comic book that kinda sorta explains wtf is going on.
Those movies are all sequels. There is companion material - the movies they’re sequels to
There’s a huge time gap between the original Tron and Legacy. The sentient computer protagonist and her tribe are just kinda revealed and then dropped. Maybe they had additional content planned for release and it died on the drawing board. But so much of the story revolves around the fighting, the in-movie world building remains comparatively threadbare.
Compare that to The Matrix or Jurassic Park, both of which do a better job of building out the world even within the context of conflict between the main characters and the various world hazards.
The sentient computer protagonist and her tribe are just kinda revealed and then dropped because CLU killed them all and she is the last one.
Flynn was planning to bring the ISOs into the real world
And then CLU betrays Flynn and kills all the ISOs except Quorra, who escaped with Flynn off the grid
There’s a huge time gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, but everyone understands that you’re gonna be lost if you just jump into The Force Awakens blind.
I’m not trying to excuse bad writing, don’t get me wrong - there are definitely problems with The Force Awakens and with Tron: Legacy that should have been solved in the writing room, and even then they probably wouldn’t hold up to franchises like Jurassic Park or The Matrix. I just think it’s kinda funny that you pointed out that it feels like there should be companion material for these movies, even though there absolutely is companion material for these movies.
They just reset the entire franchise to “Okay, but now the Empire is in charge again and the Rebels are on the run again and you have to beat the Death Star again”. It’s very easy to understand precisely because they abandoned the conclusion of the prior movie and just sent you back to the beginning of “A New Hope” again.
“We could have made six movies in between when Movie 1 ends and Movie 2 begins, but we’re hoping you’ll just pick it up off the backhanded remarks scattered around the 10’ mark” is weak writing.
The Matrix is great precisely because they spend so much time with the setup, but in a way that’s still engaging with the audience. Jurassic Park gives you some time to marvel at the dinosaurs and learn where they came from, even playing on the impatience to “Show them to me!” by expressing it with the characters themselves in the middle of the expository scene.
Yeah I already said I’m not trying to excuse bad writing. I explicitly called out that those movies have bad writing, and I explicitly called out that even if the writing was improved, they still probably wouldn’t be comparable to the Jurassic Park or Matrix franchises. We both acknowledge and agree that the Jurassic Park and Matrix franchises have better writing than Tron and Star Wars. That’s allowed. We’re allowed to agree on things on the Internet, I promise.
Literally all I’m pointing out is that if you watch the previous movies, you will be less lost than if you just watch the sequel by itself. I don’t understand how that’s a controversial point worthy of multiple paragraphs of response.
I’m sorry did you pay for the full hour or just the thirty minutes
There was also a gigantic amount of content between Jedi and Awakens. Books, games, other movies, RPGs, so many toys and spin off ideas. This is a really bad example.
Right? It’s hard to think of a franchise with more companion material than Star Wars
So you agree it’s not the time jump but the lack of any material covering the time jump that is the problem.
No? There’s no problem. I was just pointing out how it was kinda funny to say there’s a lack of companion materials for a movie sequel, a thing which, by definition, has companion material.
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