If by "stole" you mean "was practically force-fed", then yeah. And you're welcome.

Nice bit of reverse psychology there. Nobody leave me an iTunes review, either! Boy, how I hate those.

So, back when you recorded this (one of the few times I was unable to join the live chat), I decided to watch Tron Legacy for the first time. It was streaming on Netflix, through Starz, so I knew the opportunity to essentially watch it for free wouldn't last.

After watching it, I decided that was....fine. Alright. Nothing special. Had its moments. It was at least better than the first one, in that I didn't fall asleep or look at my watch or wish I was doing anything else. However, I've come to realize that both films share a lot of the same problems, in terms of structure, pacing, narrative through-lines and character motivations. What's more, is they share these issues almost verbatim. It's like building a fancy new modern home over the old one, using the same blueprints and doing it right over the original foundation, but being completely unaware that the whole reason you needed to try again in the first place was because the foundation and blueprints were problematic.

One example of this is the Solar Sailor. In both instances, it shows up at about the same time, moves like a snail precisely when time is critical and manages to bring the movie to almost a complete stop. It's weird. For years, I tried to figure out why in the first film, between the few exciting and memorable set pieces, the rest of it seemed so dull, uneventful and forgettable? A friend of mine cracked it for me about a year ago: Though the first film has a score, it's kind of stuffy, old-school and there are big stretches of the film where they just don't use it. It's too quiet and stale.

The sequel at least gets that right this time. Daft Punk's score, at least to me, is ultimately the best thing about this film. For being mostly electronic, it feels so alive, passionate and energetic. I for one will argue that yes, it deserved an Academy Award nomination. Maybe not a win, but at least a nomination.

My other favorite thing about the movie? Olivia Wilde. She played such an interesting character, and looked like she was having fun doing it, which was infectious, I felt.

The Real World: Tron

This is the true story  (true story) of one user picked to live in a grid and have his life taped to find out what happens when Clu stops being polite and the user starts getting real.

For serious, I thought Tron was just okay, but reallyu like Legacy, but don't disagree with the criticisms on the commentary. It's a weird one, I guess.

I guess Olivia Wilde (goddamn those eyes) cast a spell on many of us.

In IMAX, Tron Legacy was so loud that the seats literally shook.

I think I'd be okay with this movie if it had been, you know, entertaining. The plot could have been just as dumb, but if we got five more awesome fight scenes, I would have loved this movie. I would have acknowledged how terrible it was, but at least I wouldn't have felt like I wasted my time. Tron Legacy makes the mistake, for me, of being unbearably boring, and that's the worst crime it commits.

Squiggly_P,
I think you raise some good points, but I see some answers for your questions.
1. Clu being unmade by Flynn. I do not think Flynn was willing to take the risk of potentially being undone by the process. I operated under the assumption that to unmake Clu was to reintegrate Clu with Flynn and destroy them both. Whether or not that happened in the movie is unclear, but that was the assumption that Flynn worked with, making his unwillingness to act against Clu a little more understandable.
2. Flynn as a god in the Grid-I think it was Eddie who rightly pointed out that Flynn was a reluctant god. He did not go around making things and unmaking things because he did not want to abuse his power and cause another genocide like what happened to the isos. I think Flynn was afraid of his power, afraid of his creation and afraid of losing control.
Flynn said he created Clu to basically run things while he was in the real world. Flynn wanted to create the perfect system and empowered Clu with that directive. Simiarlly to WALL-E, CLu followed that diretive to its insanest point-that of completely dominating the system, which was the antithesis of Flynn's dream.

3. Weapons in the Grid-maybe the reasons they used their identity discs as weapons is because those were the first weapons programs used against other programs. All the weapons that were in the Grid were already there from the MCP program. Clu may not be able to make other programs, but he can reprogram them for his own purposes. Even when Tron was derezzed, Clu was able to take his programming and shaped it back in to Rinzler. So, even if programs are derezzed in the games, Clu could take the pieces and rebuild them in to his army. I think the point of capturing programs and deciding to "rectify" them means that those programs are already loyal to Clu.

I agree there are several plot holes, but overall I was satisfied with the movie. I think it did a better job than the original in terms of creating a dynamic story world, and having enough conflict to keep me interested.

One point that I will disagree with the panelists about Tron's sudden conversion back to being for the users. I think that the point was that Tron had not seen Flynn in many cycles, that Clu had reprogrammed him and was in control of him. When he finally saw Flynn, actually saw Flynn in person, it jump started his memory, like a flash back reminding him of who he used to be. I think his change may have been a bit timely in terms of pacing for the story, but it made sense to me.

We have a great episode about WWW exploring EXACTLY that. Also, a lot of fun, because everyone keeps making fun of me for having liked it at all. 

I vastly prefer our commentaries for the originals to the prequels. I think this is the opposite of most people. But you know, the prequels are a lot of pain veiled by joking, and the originals are just us discussing the stuff even nerds might not know about them and discussing their awesomeness.

And thanks, wrt TRON.

Teague -  I work in downtown San Francisco and decided to put the Tron Legacy soundtrack on as I walked to my office.  I worked 1.5 miles from where my bus drops me off, so i was able to get pretty locked in. 

Holy cow is that an amazing soundtrack to wander through the city.  Timing was perfect, lights where changing in sync with music, cable cars bells adding perfects accents.  Man, what a fun way to start the day...I'm glad you recommended it on the commentary.

I get dropped off at the Transbay Terminal (or Embarcadero Bart stop), but my office is right below Coit Tower...basically right by Pier 39 and all the tourists.  it's a bit of a hike.

I've never really seen the appeal of dubstep apart from when it comes to Youtube parodies & remixes.

(sorry John, was doing the reverse pyschology/brair patch thing)