Tron Legacy is a 3D high-tech adventure set in a digital world that's unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), looks into his father's disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of fierce programs and gladiatorial games where his father has been living for 25 years. Along with Kevin's loyal confidant (Olivia Wilde), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous.
This movie sequel is 27 years in the making! With all the advances in CGI, blue and green screens, I'm sure this will be a hit with not just the older TRON generation, but also with the younger generation of kids and teens.
Something to look forward to in 2010, after some 27 years of waiting!
Maybe my expectations were a tad too high, but then again it's a Harry Potter movie, how can your expectations not be high for such a wonderful series? Although the tone, the gathering darkness and maturity of the movie was good, it was too disjointed, too many scenes were cut out from the original novel to begin with, leaving everything a mess.
I was particularly disappointed that the film didn't unfold itself in the usual way like the previous movies, where they slowly reveal the mysteries and answer them at the end of the movie. There was no mystery in this movie, only a lot of empty space and blanks left empty to be filled in. They just led us by the nose and we all followed them.
I had several friends who never read the book, and said that they didn't know exactly what was going on, but the gathered the story from bits and pieces here and there throughout the movie. I read the novel, I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, the development of the characters and how they matured and banded together through the darkness to fight Voldemort and his Death-eaters.
The movie lacked everything, it was almost like a hide and seek game, played in the form of guerilla-tactics. Death-eaters attacked, Order of the Phoenix fight back, Death-eaters retreat, Order of the Phoenix are too disillusioned with their losses they don't even want to talk about it.
Scenes that were missing or lacking or something:
1) Fenrir Greyback, he was just muscle, menacing and opened shirt to show his hairy chest. In actual fact, he was the werewolf who bit Remus Lupin.
2) Ollivanders, the wand maker, getting kidnapped in the beginning of the movie, yes, he was the guy whom the Death-eaters captured in Diagon Alley, the hooded fella. If you didn't gather the details by now.
3) The in-joke of the entire movie was the Millennium Bridge, aka the Wobbly Bridge. A friend of mine from the UK told me about it. When the bridge was completed and opened, and when people walked across it, the entire bridge wobbled and swayed, due to unexpected lateral vibration (resonant structural response). They had to close the bridge down 2 days after it opened and repair it. It reopened again later, but not before they got an entire platoon of military men to march across it, to make sure it didn't wobble and shake again. If any of you have been to London, the Millennium bridge is located near St Paul's Cathedral in the direction of the Thames. Crossing it will bring you to the Tate Modern and the Globe theatre nearby. It was called the Millennium bridge because it was supposed to have been opened in time for 2000, but because of the defect, it was closed and reopened later in 2002. The bridge was not in the novel.
4) I don't remember Bellatrix Lestrange taking on such a huge role in HP6, but Helena Bonham Carter is one fine actress, she did an amazing job of portraying wickedness and evilness throughout the movie.
5) The Battle Of The Astronomy Tower, where all the students were involved in one way or another to hinder the Death-eaters from escaping after killing Dumbledore, didn't happen. That was the ultimate let down in the entire move. Compared to HP5, which had a rather huge duel between Voldemort and Dumbledore, HP6 paled in comparison to having absolutely no duelling at all. Even the Quiddich match was a let down.
6) Felix felicis was not used by Harry to get lucky and get Professor Slughorn's memory, it was used during the Battle of the Astronomy Tower, to protect the students from the Death-eaters.
7) Ginny Weasley romancing Harry wasn't till book 7.
8) Dumbledore had no funeral in the book 6 chapter titled The White Tomb.
9) Bill and Fleur were not present.
10) The backstory on the Gaunt's or Tom Riddle's ancestors was cut out entirely! This made it very difficult to understand exactly why Tom was the heir to Slytherin.
11) The inferi in the lake look like Gollum, the only thing missing was them all saying "My precious" at the same time!
12) The Burrow was burnt and destroyed, probably to garner sympathy for the Weasleys.
God I could go on with this list, but I'll have to stop here.
If you were me, you would go back and read book 6 and enjoy it more thoroughly than I did with this movie. I hope that by doing a 2 parter film to book 7, they would cover all the destruction of the Horcruxes and leave nothing of the original storyline out.
Recommended only for the special effects and fans of the novel.
Leadership's a big myth really. That of the heroic leader. One who speaks charismatically, forcefully, drives change, sets the direction, pace, goals. Aren't you wowed by this type of person? If you are not, society is.
But behind the heroism, charms, persuasions, coercions and intellect of this type of leadership, do not be fooled. It's all about the ego! To be sure, all such leaders have noble goals and have achieved much for their flock, but it all boils down to their ego, and personal interests and hidden wantss.
For millennia, we've admired the likes of Alexander the Great, Qin Shi Huang, Genghis Khan, Julius Ceasar and many contemporary more impressive leaders. After all, the military admires the myth of the heroic leader, and rewards those who show it. The answer was provided by Lao Tzu in this definition inscripted on the banner:
"The leader is best, when people are hardly aware of his existence, not so good when people praise his government, less good when people stand in fear, worst, when people are contemptuous. Fail to honor people, and they will fail to honor you. But of a good leader, who speaks little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, the people say, we did it ourselves."
What's true 3000 years ago is still true today. In an article of the latest Harvard Business Review of "Managing in the New World", an author contends that leadership today, should really be communityship.
That's right. It's communityship. Not your damn ego, masqueraded as service to the community.
That being said, only 4 people in history qualified. Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Krishna. They were Enlightened leaders.
The third season of Torchwood happened over 5 days. I must say that watching the entire season of Torchwood in 5 days was a real treat! It was like watching a DVD collection for all their previous season's 12 or 13 episodes. They should do this for every season!
Let's get to the likes and dislikes I had for this season, and I'm trying NOT to reveal too much because I don't want to spoil it for my friends in other countries who have yet to watch it, although spoiler information is already freely available on many websites.
Anyhow, it started off with the usual intrigue. Children playing and then suddenly coming to a standstill, then they start chanting in a monotonous voice that "We Are Coming". A former group of aliens called the 456, for the frequency they communicate on, broadcast their return to earth through all the children of earth. Because of the frequency in which they broadcast, the children literally stop what they're doing and are words are communicated through them.
A government conspiracy to cover up what they did the last time the 456s were on earth. They demanded a gift of 12 children and the children were given to them, in exchange for an antidote for Indonesian Flu. In order for the present not to know, those previously involved were executed. Jack Harkness was one of them and well, they wanted to kill a man who cannot ever be killed. They also blew up the Hub, which was Torchwood central in Cardiff.
The thing I like is the realism in Torchwood. Emotions are felt, actors actually have tears flowing, or show distinct disgust. No holds bar, they're not afraid to kill of characters, yes, another member of Torchwood bites the dust and I must say, I was disappointed that they got rid of this person. It was rather sad, because although it was not pointless, it appeared so. The writers were not going to give you the Star Trekending in which time reset and everything went back to the way it was. No, that was not what they wanted, because in real television, if you want impact, you have to either kill someone off or you have to have characters make tough decisions that affect someone else, sometimes even resulting in their death. It's almost like watching Lost, but without the draggy flash-backs or flash-forwards. Morality was tossed back and forth, but when the time came, they didn't have a choice, so sacrifices had to be made, regardless of the final decisions. Kill the one to save the billions.
Also, not to forget, after watching Day 1 of Children of Earth, you would think that Captain Jack Harkness would try to rebuild Torchwood, after losing 2 members in season 2. There were Torchwood potentials like Dr Rupesh Pantajali, Lois Habiba and even Agent Johnson. But by Day 4, I realise that reforming Torchwood will not be happening. It was just too painful to watch the events on how Day 4 ended.
However, through it all, we were strung along through the suspense of having a group of aliens calling themselves the 456 only appear in the 3rd episode onwards. Most of the time, they appeared in their toxic smokey environment, so we never really got a good glimpse of them. I was hoping they came up with something more original, spend less on the number of people recruited for the series and more on the special effects or customes for the alien. And come on, a better name than 456 would have been more appropriate, or maybe because they're drug dealers, they didn't want their species name to be revealed, for fear of the Shadow Proclamation (only the true Doctor Who fans know what I'm talking about)!
Plenty of unanswered questions to go around. Did they just get rid of one of the 456 aliens or the entire species? Where did they come from? How did the aliens arrive, by transmat or by spacecraft, if so, were they destroyed in their spacecraft, or will they come back again? Will we see Captain Jack Harkness again? Will there be a 4th season of Torchwood or is this their last? I couldn't help thinking that they had a low budget and couldn't do too many special effects. Most of the actors were new, fresh faces, but did good debuts, so probably low-budget again. Not too many recurring roles, cos they would be expensive, on top of all the children they had to recruit to say those words, or scream in unison!
We shall have to see what the next season (if there will be) of Torchwood will bring...
