Salt / Tron
Jul. 30th, 2010 11:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishPhillip Noyce (dir.), Salt
I went to see this because a) it was free and b) Kurt Wimmer (of "Equilibrium" fame) was the writer. I'd forgotten, or blocked out, that Wimmer was also responsible for "Ultraviolet."
I hated Salt and it took me awhile to figure out why: it's a decent action movie in which the antagonists, at least in the first half, are perfectly competent and there's genuine tension as to whether Salt will escape. The problem is an utter lack of empathy with the viewpoint character. Salt has no discernable motivation for the first half, and said motivation is rather icky once it's revealed, and also very little personality. She is hypercompetent, full stop. Hypercompetent but troubled can make for a good melodrama ("Equilibrium"); hypercompetent and snarky, assuming the character has someone to be snarky with, is often just fun to watch.
Too bad. With more character development I might have cared about the pleasantly twisty plot (featuring Russians as the bad guys!) and not snorted in quite so much derision at the "go get 'em!" ending.
Steven Lisberger (dir.), Tron
Nope. Still can't provide any objectivity towards this. It is, asrbandrews observed, a fantasy movie that happens to have a "computer" theme draped over top of it: sometimes well ("I/O Tower"), sometimes poorly ("Bring in the logic probe!"), and sometimes purely for amusement value ("Who does he calculate he is?").
I'm not convinced there's any character development as such (except for the MCP growing less subservient and more malevolent and megalomanic). Flynn does seem to start caring about things beyond himself and "the evidence" by the end, but I genuinely can't tell if he thinks he'll die when he makes that final leap, or if he sees it as a way to get kicked back to the real world. There's plenty of snappy dialogue, though, and that's enough to keep me watching.
Yeah. Great soundtrack, great visuals. I'll still happily watch Tron just about any time. And all the behind-the-scenes stuff, too.
I went to see this because a) it was free and b) Kurt Wimmer (of "Equilibrium" fame) was the writer. I'd forgotten, or blocked out, that Wimmer was also responsible for "Ultraviolet."
I hated Salt and it took me awhile to figure out why: it's a decent action movie in which the antagonists, at least in the first half, are perfectly competent and there's genuine tension as to whether Salt will escape. The problem is an utter lack of empathy with the viewpoint character. Salt has no discernable motivation for the first half, and said motivation is rather icky once it's revealed, and also very little personality. She is hypercompetent, full stop. Hypercompetent but troubled can make for a good melodrama ("Equilibrium"); hypercompetent and snarky, assuming the character has someone to be snarky with, is often just fun to watch.
Too bad. With more character development I might have cared about the pleasantly twisty plot (featuring Russians as the bad guys!) and not snorted in quite so much derision at the "go get 'em!" ending.
Steven Lisberger (dir.), Tron
Nope. Still can't provide any objectivity towards this. It is, as
rbandrews observed, a fantasy movie that happens to have a "computer" theme draped over top of it: sometimes well ("I/O Tower"), sometimes poorly ("Bring in the logic probe!"), and sometimes purely for amusement value ("Who does he calculate he is?").I'm not convinced there's any character development as such (except for the MCP growing less subservient and more malevolent and megalomanic). Flynn does seem to start caring about things beyond himself and "the evidence" by the end, but I genuinely can't tell if he thinks he'll die when he makes that final leap, or if he sees it as a way to get kicked back to the real world. There's plenty of snappy dialogue, though, and that's enough to keep me watching.
Yeah. Great soundtrack, great visuals. I'll still happily watch Tron just about any time. And all the behind-the-scenes stuff, too.