Movie/Album Review: Daft Punk Tron Legacy

As a huge fan of Electronica Kings Daft Punk, ofcourse I purchased their soundtrack to Disney's "Tron: Legacy" when it was released last November. My reaction was so lukewarm however I sort of put the album aside until I saw the movie, thinking it might not be fair to judge the soundtrack alone and that I may end up enjoying the music more if I had the visual counterpart. So when the film was released to DVD and Blu Ray this past Tuesday I jumped on it.

As for the album, the film didn't really help. While I was watching the film, the soundtrack was a little underwhelming even than. Most of the times, the backing soundtrack felt a little like generic "futuristic" elevator music and not the unique, infectious Daft Punk sound I was expecting. There's a scene early on where Sam Flynn is being chased by the police and the underlying score ("The Son of Flynn") is just a simple loop of a keyboard sequence and it never elevated or went anywhere although you'd think they'd match up the music to the action in the scene. And the sort of light electronic sounds heard on one scene sound way too similar to most of the other tracks on this soundtrack. There's a bit of a Daft stamp on them, but almost in the way of some lesser producer stealing their sound and producing really washed out and boring tracks instead. And there are even times when it doesn't sound like Daft Punk at all, the scene where Quorra is introduced ("Outlands") and she's driving Sam into his fathers secret lair sounds way too much like the Danny Elfman scoring in a similar scene in 1989's "Batman". For the most part, Daft's score is just too pedestrian and simple. It almost feels like they felt the pressure of doing a big Hollywood score and were scared to truly be themselves, which is a shame. Their cameo in the movie was cute though, and gave us the best moments from the score, the first single "Derezzed" and "End of the Line". Unfortunately, even after viewing the film, this outing was a big disappointment and I just can't wait for their next Real Daft album.

Rating: 2 of 5
Best: Derezzed, End of Line, Fall

The movie, surprisingly enough, was actually much better than expected. Even though I'm a child of the 80's I'd never seen the original "Tron" just heard of it (and seen film stills from it), but you imagine there was a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo but for all real purposes it was just a visual movie you'd watch for the special effects. In that way, "Tron: Legacy" is a success because it's truly one of the movies you can't take your eyes off. And there is a lot of dialogue about grid's and power sources and disks and a host of things viewers really don't need to know that much about, but the main focus is the visual aspect. The pretty amazing CGI and overall design of the computer world that Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) finds himself in after locating the office of his father Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) who has been missing in the real world for over 15 years. Sam, as much of a computer genius as his father who created a Microsoft-like empire in the 1980's (after the first "Tron" film), finds himself in the Grid and is immediately set-up to participate in 'Games', which is punishment for bad 'programs'. The 'Games' portion is probably the best part of the movie, he goes through a series of 'Air Hockey'-like games before he is set up for the Bike Race which takes the cake visually. It takes what has become classic from the first film and elevates it for the new generation and it is both aesthetically stunning and heart pounding, edge of your seat excitement. Sam is finally reunited with his father, (not Clu, the grid clone of his father) and the rest of the movie is their plan to escape the grid and get back to the real world.
Again there is alot of unnecessary chatter here, and the script generously takes bits from "The Matrix" and "Inception" to try to prevent plot holes, but it's all okay because the film is an exciting one which can be followed with the minimal amount of information about the Flynn's.
This is nowhere near a Great movie, don't get me wrong, but pretty much everything from the acting to the writing were on par and nothing to complain about. The one major complaint, and maybe just because it looked so weird, was the CGI-fication of Jeff Bridges for his scenes as the younger father and for Clu. The animators did a really good job for the most part, but they really haven't perfected doing a human in CGI and making him look 100% real. Which I suppose actors are happy about.

Rating: 3.5 of 5

Movie Review: Star Trek, The Best Sci-Fi/Action Film in a LOOOONNGG TIME!!!

I think I should start off by saying I'm a bit of a movie buff. Especially when I was younger, but I enjoy the art in film making. I enjoy great writing and story telling, great camera work and overall Direction, and I enjoy a believable acting performance. That being said, I have been majorly disappointed by the Film Industry, and it gets worse and worse each year. It seems like instead of trying to paint a masterpiece, Hollywood seems to do the Paint by Numbers film making. Cliched scripts, characters, direction, predictable action sequences, you name it. It's to the point where you already know whats going to happen by just watching the first trailer. Of course there are still good movies that come out, but generally in the Summer Action Movie genre this is the case. And I've been disappointed year ("Spiderman3"), after year ("War of the Worlds"), after year ("Planet of the Apes").
So even though I was blown away by the Teaser Trailer, and the finalized trailer that came out earlier this year, I was still skeptical about the new "Star Trek" flick which is officially released today (or yesterday, if i don't end up posting this until Saturday). Let me cut right to the chase, this movie didn't disappoint at all. Not only that, but it really exceeded my expectations which is very rare in a big blockbuster Sci-Fi Action flick. It's the first time since maybe "X2" that i walked out truly satisfied and surprised that a movie was a lot better than I expected. "Star Trek" had everything you want in a movie... Genuinely suspenseful Action scenes, Amazing special effects, Perfect cast who all nailed their roles, Humor, a well-paced and intriguing storyline, and great Direction.
I'm a big "Lost" fan, and when I heard JJ Abrams was working on a "Star Trek" movie I got excited basically because of him. I watched the old episodes of "Star Trek" when I was younger, but wasn't ever really an official "Trekkie". When I heard he was doing a "Pre-quel" of sorts, I Netflixed the first couple of seasons of the series, and instantly became a fan. The show just really works on different angles... it's corny, but the story lines are great, the acting is a little over the top, but you get real great characters from it. This movie actually takes all the positive things about the series and corrects all the negatives. Like I said the movie is sort of a "Pre-quel" (I won't give away why I have that in quotations, you'll get it when you see it) following James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) from birth, to adolescents, to the Fleet Academy. They end up on the brand new Starship The Enterprise and get familiar with the crew. Zoe Saldana as just Uhura, Karl Urban as "Bones" McCoy, John Cho as Sulu, and Anton Yelchin as Chekov. Honestly, the plot doesn't matter that much. It was somewhat simple, but interesting enough to keep you interested and at times it was unpredictable, it was enough to not distract you from everything else that was working so perfectly for this movie.
One thing being the cast. Being a fan of the original series and of these characters, I have to say it again everybody nailed their roles. They all managed to keep the essence of the characters and not overdo it or mimic their performances too closely. Zachary Quinto had probably the hardest challenge though. The half human, half Vulcan Spock is an extremely complicated character to tackle. And Quinto definitely did a great job, not only in tackling those complexities, but also by being the stand out and scene stealer of a great cast. I also have to mention Karl Urban's McCoy, who made a very risky move of doing an almost identical portrayal of the character as the originals DeForest Kelley. His mannerisms, the stuff he did with his face and eyes, even the southern accent. The risk paid off, because he was the main guy delivering all the laughs (Intentional laughs by the way). Simon Pegg, who I find hilarious normally, was unfortunately underused in this movie but still delivers as Scotty.
My hat is off to JJ Abrams who did a flawless job of directing this cast, and delivering one of the most Visually amazing films I think I've ever seen. From the opening sequence, he does camera angles and some very creative action shots that I've never seen before. I would say the last movie I saw where I truly thought "I've never seen that before" was Paul Thomas Anderson's Masterpiece "There Will Be Blood". With "Star Trek", I had a lot of those moments. The first couple of shots of the new "Enterprise" and actually most of the action shots literally gave me chills. Alot of things that I don't normally like in film (lots of lens flares, shaky camera, rotating and leaning camera angles), JJ made them fit perfectly in this film. I know that the movie is fresh on my mind and I may just be hyped up now, but I truly feel like this would deserve a bunch of Oscar nominations including Best Picture. I know that won't happen (My only real wish is that JJ can get a best Director nomination out of this), it will undoubtedly sweep a lot of technical categories, but this movie was a really incredible piece of art. One of those instances where it seems everything falls perfectly into place to create something truly Extra Ordinary. And this movie is that.