The grid is open and we’re diving headfirst into Tron Legacy. This week on Movie Wars, Kyle, Seth, and returning guest Evan Burke unpack Disney’s 2010 sequel that tried to resurrect a cult classic with neon, Daft Punk, and CGI de-aging.

We kick off with Evan updating us on Nashville’s Funniest Comic, the March Madness of stand-up that’s taken over the city with 96 comics battling it out for $3,000 and bragging rights. From the psychology of comedy contests to how audiences shape material, we explore why performing live is as much mind game as joke-telling.

From there, it’s all about the digital frontier. We dig into what Tron Legacy nailed—its breathtaking design, Joseph Kosinski’s architectural eye, and Daft Punk’s all-timer of a score—and where it stumbled with clunky performances and a bloated middle act. Seth brings the film history: Disney’s decades-long stop-start development, the wild “Flynn Lives” ARG marketing campaign, and the Comic-Con proof-of-concept that blew fans’ minds in 2008.

We debate the acting (Garrett Hedlund vs. Jeff Bridges), the tech innovations (light-up LED suits, early IMAX 3D), and why the movie sometimes felt more overstimulating than groundbreaking. Plus: Mickey Mouse Easter eggs, Michael Sheen’s scene-stealing Zeus, Cillian Murphy’s blink-and-you-miss-it cameo, and why this movie still survives more on style and score than story.

Finally, we preview Tron: Ares (out this week!) with Nine Inch Nails taking over soundtrack duties and speculate on what happens when programs cross into the real world.

Takeaways

• Comedy competitions test more than jokes—they’re psychological battles with the room itself.
• Nashville’s Funniest Comic shows how inclusive, unpredictable, and career-shaping stand-up contests can be.
• Tron Legacy dazzles with Daft Punk’s soundtrack, Kosinski’s visual design, and ambitious IMAX 3D world-building.
• Performances were uneven, with Garrett Hedlund’s lead role falling flat and Michael Sheen emerging as the standout.
• The film’s de-aging tech was groundbreaking for 2010 but doesn’t hold up compared to modern standards.
• Disney’s ARG marketing campaign (“Flynn Lives”) remains one of the most innovative hype machines ever for a sci-fi sequel.
• With Tron: Ares on deck, the franchise still sparks curiosity—balancing innovation, nostalgia, and spectacle.

Keywords

movie podcast, Movie Wars podcast, Tron Legacy review, Tron Legacy podcast, Evan Burke podcast, Nashville comedy, Nashville’s Funniest Comic, Daft Punk soundtrack, sci-fi movies, Tron Ares, movie sequels, film history podcast, CGI technology, IMAX 3D, Jared Leto Tron, Michael Sheen Zeus, Garrett Hedlund acting, Jeff Bridges Flynn, best comedy podcasts, film trivia

Foreign.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Movie wars podcast. I'm Kyle.

I'm Seth. And once Again, we've got Mr. Evan Burke back with us. Say hello.

Hi, guys. Fifth episode here, guys. Fifth episode. Is this a record?

Other than Drew Davis? This is a record.

Yeah, other than Drew Davis. But Drew's never done three in one day.

When.

You mean other than. How many episodes has he done? More than five?

Oh, yeah, he's done like 10, I think.

Yeah, he did the Snyderverse. He did American Psycho.

Oh, he's probably done 15 with.

Yeah, he's done.

He also did all five Crow movies.

He did the Crow movies.

Yeah.

Well. Well, it looks like we're doing Rocky trilogy after this creed with Evan Burke, so I look forward to hit all nine Drew Davis.

Evan is now trying. So this isn't even about the podcast or comedy for Evan at this point now it's about destroying.

You bet your ass it is.

And so you have been. We were just talking. You have been doing the. You produce the Nashville's funniest comic.

Nashville's funniest comic here in Nashville. It's kind of like our March Madness.

Where it's, you know, this comes out the day of the finale.

Ooh, October 4th.

Or like right around it. Yeah, maybe. Maybe like right after.

So, yeah, I mean, we, you know, it's just a fun way to get some friendly competition. We got a lot of folks in town that like to talk, run their mouth, think they're the best.

So it's an opportunity for people to put their money where their mouth is. $25 entry fee. Anybody can enter, no matter your experience level, no matter what.

Anybody that wanted to enter this year was able to enter because we had people drop. We had last minute people. So truly, 96 comics.

Damn.

Started eight prelim shows. 12 comics on each show. Yeah, it's been fun. So all the money goes to the winner. They get $3,000 grand prize.

Wow.

Which is awesome. We've done shows at all of the kind of local spots that do comedy. Our judges have all been really the.

The most prominent comedy bookers and entertainment book in Nashville in the region. Entertainment bookers.

I mean, I heard earlier today that three comics have already gotten bookings from judges, whether they advanced in their round or not. So it's been. It's been a lot of fun. So again, wonderful. Just one of those things where it's friendly competition.

I feel like things like that, they're kind of like a net neutral for. For everyone else. Like everyone that competes, even if you don't win. Right.

Like, if the New York Yankees don't win the World Series, does it make them not a baseball team? Does it make them any less of a contender next year? Anything like that? No. But, you know, the Cleveland Indians win the World Series.

Hey, sorry, Cleveland Guardians, when the World Series, it's like, hey, let's pay attention to them next year. It's a, it's a cap and it's a cap in their feather. Feather in their feather in their cap, you know.

Yeah.

So last year, Rob Wentz won. This year we're looking to crown someone.

Yeah.

A little behind the scenes baseball too. And you were, you were illuminating this for us before. But, you know, a comedy contest. Contest is the ultimate psychological aspect of comedy.

There's, you know, for those that don't do stand up, it's one thing to be funny, it's one thing to be a good joke writer. That's 30% of the battle. 70% of the battle, whether it's a contest or not, is knowing what room you're walking into, what audience you have.

If you're doing a corporate gig, who's not expecting comedy, and you walk in and they're drunk and they're like, make me laugh, you know, and, you know, or a room. And like with these. You were talking about like one comic brought the majority of the room.

Yeah.

And so knowing that comics taste and how he plays, you gotta then bend to the room.

Yeah.

And so for those that don't do stand up, there is an amazingly psychological component to doing stand up.

And sometimes the people that bring the most don't actively even do comedy and participate in the scene, but they tell all their friends, hey, yeah, I've been thinking about this. My big debut is on this night.

Yeah.

They get 20 to 25 people out there.

Yeah.

And you know, I like to call it, it's an any given Sunday kind of thing where. Yeah.

Depending on what the weather is, depending on who the judges are, depending on who did bring out the most people, Was it the young person who brought out the most people, making the demographics quite young, or was it somebody who's potentially kind of older?

Yeah.

You've got to tailor to that graphic. Was it somebody who might bring out a more conservative audience and they might want a cleaner type of comedy? Right. Any given night.

Some nights we've seen comics advance doing more of the spicy, dirty, edgier material and other nights we've seen where a cleaner comedy was more prioritized. So.

But I think that it's Been hard to predict, really, but I think that lends itself to the idea that really the only two rules of comedy that especially would apply to contests. Be clever and be funny. Yeah, that's literally it. That's all you have to do.

You can be dirty and win over clean people if you're clever and if you're funny, like. Like you.

But also at the same time, if people are coming expecting Kill Tony levels of dirt, and you come out with Nate Bargazzi levels of clean, but you're clever and you're funny, you can win those people over.

Tron Legacy. Let's just do a quick overlay of the show or a quick review. We do a little bit of film history, which Seth's going to do for Tron Legacy today.

It's a passion project.

Absolutely.

We do randos, which are the most interesting facts from research. We do the questions, which are just questions written to generate conversation. And then we finish with the War Z, which is just four. Four categories.

And we do rapid fire. Yes or nos. Take us there. Yeah, with the history.

So before we get to the history, let's talk about our feelings for this movie. Because obviously I saw it in theaters when it came out. I actually got to go to a pre screening, which we will get to later.

So I got to see it a week and a half before it actually came out in IMAX 3D. And at the time, this was a movie, like, there had really only been two movies I had ever been this excited about for them coming out in theaters.

It was King Kong. Peter Jackson's King Kong was very excited to see that in theaters. And then this. This was such a trip to be able to see this at theaters.

Rewatching it now, I definitely remembered that the middle lagged a little more than I would have wanted it to. I thought the introduction to the world and everything leading up to Olivia Wilde's character Korra, picking up Sam from the games was incredible.

And I thought the finale, the third act in general, was really great.

But that middle act, I feel like, could have been tightened up by about 15 to 20 minutes, and it probably would have made this a significantly better movie. But what were your. What were Yalls thoughts just on the movie itself?

Go first.

Yeah, I mean, I, you know, like we talked about. I had never watched the Tron movies until I watched them Back to back in order to, to do these podcasts.

So, you know, if I'm putting it in the context of how did we, how did we recreate this world that people were excited about? How did we build on this, this franchise? You know, if I'm looking at it kind of like through the Jumanji lens, like, we loved the OG Jumanji Jumanji.

It was a game changing movie. How are we now going to apply that to, like today's.

I like that filter cgi. Right.

So I really liked it from that perspective to your point. I really liked what we set up at the beginning. We kind of just got right into it.

There's a certain level of assumptions that they, they want you to be able to make as a, as a, as an audience and as a viewer that's just kind of like, hey, we're not going to get you totally up to speed.

Like, well, I will actually, I'll explain why that is in a little bit.

But yeah, yeah.

So they kind of give you more credit as a viewer that's like, hey, you know where we're at? And we're gonna, we're not gonna kind of spoon feed you all of this exposition. So.

I really liked what they did by creating, like, how they showed Tron in this new world. Part of me would have liked to have seen them almost like recreate what.

They did in the 80s, but in.

You know, as opposed to fully updating.

Yeah.

And upgrading. But I understand why they did because again, this is like a new program.

Yeah.

Right. It's not the original because.

Yeah. This is the program that Kevin Flynn wrote.

Exactly. So. But no, I mean, I love the Daft Punk element to it. I will say, like the Jeff Bridges de aging.

It doesn't hold up.

It doesn't hold up in Olivia Wilde's makeup at times.

Yes.

You know, on. I'm like, there's, there's a few things where I'm kind of like, all right, guys.

Yeah.

You know, and granted, this was the first time that level of de aging had been done.

Exactly.

So this was, this was very revolutionary. Like, like motion capture technology on, on the face.

And, and, and I will say, for clues specifically, I feel like it did make him feel a little bit more like a video game character. So that was where I was able to forgive it for the whole movie. It is the very beginning and the, the flashbacks where Jeff Bridges is Flynn. That.

It's like, ah, yeah, that, that, that definitely doesn't look as good as like Luke Skywalker did when they did it in the Mandalorian, so.

Or even True Detective Season 3.

I didn't see, I still haven't seen.

That where they did it really well there too.

That's cool. But this, I mean, kind of like Tron itself did this did open itself up to new technologies. What do you think?

Well, I, one thing I wanted, and I said this about Tron was that I, I, I forgave the acting because they had a bigger vision and the acting wasn't bad. It just didn't. No one gave a performance here. I think, you know, we're years later, the technology is advanced. Yes.

They're still innovating in this movie, but I just wanted better performances somehow. The across the board, most the performances in this are bad.

Michael Sheen's my favorite.

Really?

Zeus, I think he's, I think he's the one standout. He's good character of the whole film.

Garrett Hudlin, who plays Sam Flynn was bad. Yeah, straight up bad. Distractingly bad.

See, I didn't think he was.

It almost felt like they were that, like this was a new guy they were testing out.

Yeah, he actually, he actually was. They, they went through a very extensive casting process. Went through thousands of actors.

Yeah.

Before they landed on him.

I mean, who else were they considering? They had to be. Have been considering people that actually they.

Didn'T say specifically in behind the scenes.

Staying power in Hollywood, but this guy, they, they did.

But what they said in the behind the scenes was they went through thousands of actors, some of which were world class household names, other people were completely unknowns and ended up settling on him.

Yeah.

I just thought every, every line was delivered with a snark.

And granted though, if your dad disappeared in a video game when you were 11, wouldn't you have a little bit of snarks in your life all the time?

All the time.

You kind of do now.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm snarky. I'm a pretty snarky guy. But Jeff Bridges here is bad. I, I just don't, I disagree. It's so bad.

Interesting.

The. I agree with you. Michael Sheen was the best performance in the film. But I, the performance is just, I was like, wow, the technology's better.

Some room to breathe with actually directing actors here. No bueno. I also, one thing that I struggled with is for some reason I talked about wanting to touch grass in the last one.

Yeah.

But the last one somehow still felt more tactile to me. It felt more physical. Like I feel like even though the technology.

Interesting you say that. Okay.

Yeah.

I actually felt there was more physicality even though the world. Like they had never done it before and, and the they. No one had ever done CGI like that before.

I still felt like there was more integration between the characters in the world and the environment here. I'm losing interest because I just feel like it's, it's. Maybe it's overstimulation. I felt overstimulated a lot through the movie.

There's a lot of things going on. A lot of, A lot of color.

And the first one, somehow, even though there was more saturated colors and it was more grainy, I didn't get nearly as distracted here. I'm just like, I'm glad I don't get. I don't get. What are they not aneurysms.

Oh, yeah. Epilepsy.

I'm glad I don't have epilepsy because I'm like, I would be having a seizure right now. And I just.

That's interesting because this actually had more practical sets than the original one did.

I didn't connect. I didn't. I didn't really connect with the, the physicality of it. I did, I did appreciate the bit.

The part I did appreciate most was that we got a little more into the outside world.

Yeah.

I thought the politics were interesting, but the only thing about the political aspect of like, in terms of political and technology, sense of the technology world is that the first one was so forward looking.

Yeah.

This one almost looked back. This one was like the first one looked way forward. This one kind of looked back a little bit. So it wasn't predicting.

Yeah.

It was like. So it's kind of weird how they had all this time and I'm not feeling like it moved the needle as much as the first one did.

I do think graphically it kind of took us into the late stage PS4, early stage PS5 era.

Yeah.

As far as just the look of the grid itself. So in that way, I do think it kind of looked a little forward. But at the same time this one had that issue of having to satisfy fans of the original.

Right.

They couldn't necessarily alienate that group of people to make something brand new. So I think ultimately it, it had a hurdle it was never going to be able to. To get over as far as being as good or as magical as the original one was.

But I think as far as sequels go, and especially looking at it 25 years later, I think it stands on its own reasonably well as a movie, especially compared to most of the sequels we get today. Like, a lot of them just feel like ridiculous cash grabs and there's no, there's no love poured into them.

When you look through and we'll talk about a lot, especially when it comes to how this film was marketed before it came out. There was so much love put into making this movie, whatever it could be of the time.

And the original director came back as one of the producers and Jeff Bridges actually said that he wasn't going to come back until he found out that he was going to be a part of the.

Wow.

So, yeah, there was a lot of stuff that came together. Let's get to the history.

Bridging the gap, huh? Bridging the gap, Jeff Bridges. Okay, Bridge joke.

It would get brought up later in the 80s and in the 90s and people would have kind of ideas, but nothing really ever stuck. They never felt like they could do it.

But Disney brought on producer Sean Bailey and they began exploring it with a way more serious connotation. He went back and he was like, so here are the things that I remember 20 years later from the original movie.

And that's the suits were lit, light cycles, Jeff Bridges. And the screen looked like unlike anything I'd ever seen on a movie screen before. And he said, that's what we're beholden to.

And that's at the very least what we have to bring to these movies.

And before this, really the only like big digital movies that I can really think of were like Spy Kids and Sharkboy and Lava Girl, like where the entire. And I guess maybe like Sin City.

But it's like you didn't really have these movies that were so much of a digital Empire until Tron Legacy really came out. It was also one of the first movies that was shot in 3D for IMAX digitally.

Yeah.

So that begs the question, you know, it almost shows like they didn't want to recreate. Recreate the world.

Yeah, Tron.

They wanted to recreate the impact that Tron one had.

Yeah.

Absolute films, which is a totally different objective. Yeah, like what kind of a sequel supposed to be?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

That's kind of like. I think the jump from Terminator to T2 is very similar. Like James Cameron said, we're taking this up a notch.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So I think. I think this succeeds a lot there where it does take the old concepts and does take it up another notch, especially in the design.

That actually comes from Joseph Kosinski, who is the director. He actually came from an architecture background.

So that's one of the reasons why the updates to the ships and the light cycles and the physical architecture of the grid look so unworldly, but also grounded in reality, is because he was looking at things from an architectural standpoint. The script was initially called Tron. The next day, TRON 2.0 went through multiple drafts. They had tons of writers come through.

It showed Jeff Bridges as old Kevin Flynn, but then also showcased the very beginning of the de aging process, which. Which again, this was like the first time that had really happened and it was insane. I watched it earlier today.

They did shot it in Vancouver. Like I said, this was one of the first entirely 3D movies shot for IMAX. So that was crazy.

Jeff Bridges came on Once he saw that Bruce Boxleiter was going to come back for his role as Alan and the voice of Tron, but also that the old director came on as a producer. And then Daft Punk was recruited, which I don't know if you guys noticed. Daft Punk was actually the DJs in the end of Line club.

So that was a fun little cameo. This genuinely for me, top three scores ever created. For me, it's Lord of the Rings, Interstellar and Tron Legacy.

I think the score is the best thing about the entire franchise.

And hearing that in IMAX was just absolutely insane with that sound. But this is where Disney and the Tron team really, really looked forward was in the marketing for how they were going to put this movie out.

As their marketing, they launched a website called flynnlives.com and they started putting out this subliminal messaging everywhere that Kevin Flynn had disappeared. And. And this started a global campaign that got fans involved all across the world to try to figure out the clues leading up to Tron Legacy.

So the entire arcade was there. Everyone could go around and play. Literally like they, they made the games. They, they had the Tron game, they had the, the.

I forget what the spaceship where you're. The tank shooting the spaceships. Like that game, like everything from the original Tron. People started looking online and they literally had.

And this is where I remember vividly, they were dropping USB sticks in different cities and giving you coded messages on where you could find the USB sticks. And people were on Reddit and forums all over the place, communicating with each other, trying to figure out where it was.

And then one person would go and get it and would upload everything on the USB drive to the Internet. So this really like, it was absolutely crazy. Like the.

They would launch GPS coordinates and people had to figure out what these encrypted GPS coordinates met meant. And then that's how they got it. Space Paranoid. So that's the name of the game that I was trying to think of from the first.

That's a cool name for a video game.

Yeah.

So all of this leads to video files online of, of like a hacker talking about his conspiracy theory about where Flynn is and going through like mcom. You had Bruce Boxleiter who was Very heavily involved in these, doing interviews as Alan, who was the interim CEO at the time.

You had this just crazy story and that's kind of why you felt like you were kind of dropped in the middle of things. Like you still had enough information in the movie that you could watch it without knowing any of this.

But there had been 18 months of lead up to all of this, to where the end was announced, all of these IMAX fan events two weeks before the movie was coming out, that if you were part of this Internet cult of people finding all these clues, you got a pass to go to the pre screening of the movie in IMAX 3D in your city. And so going to that fan event, seeing people who had been going all over the country getting all the clues, it was just.

Wow.

And stuff like that. So I think that was one of the coolest things about this movie, was how global they made the.

The lead up to this so that fans didn't just feel like, oh, we're going to get a movie. They felt like there was something that really brought them back into the world of Tron.

So that wasn't too much distance from the first one, like, to they were able to successfully execute that campaign considering that it was that much time.

So that's why they started slowly releasing all these, you know, leaked files for people to really start getting interested. And I mean, it worked on my end. Like, it kept us that six months leading up to that fan event that we got to go to. We were hooked the whole time.

Every other day we're looking online at the updates on the websites and the forums, like, who's found what, what are the new files? Like watching the hackers released videos, like it was absolutely crazy. I don't think any other movie's done something like that since.

Wow.

Do you think the movie would have had the mainstream success that it had without Daft Punk being connected?

No, I don't. I think it would have stayed underground.

They probably would have cut the budget by a third, if not half, just because it probably would have been treated almost like a direct to DVD kind of movie.

Felt like most people when it came out, had the mentality that's like, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna get a little high.

Yeah, do us do.

Do a little drugs.

Yeah, yeah.

Kind of the same way people were like, with Avatar.

Yeah.

And I'm gonna go to like a. Like a Daft Punk like, video album.

Yeah.

Pretty much kind of what it felt like.

Yes. And I mean, I think to like.

Some cool, like, Disney game that, you know, it just like, that's kind of what it felt like. The way that they promoted it was very much like, you know, come for the soundtrack, stay for the visuals.

Yeah, yeah.

That's a whole subsect of moviegoers. I mean, hell, I went and saw the IT remake.

Oh, yeah.

And the kid next to me was stoned out of his mind. And when the first time they showed Pennywise, he literally had a panic attack. Had to leave the theater.

Nice.

And his eyes were glazed. And I was like, dude, amazing. And he saw Pennywise, he goes, what the fuck? And he like. And he's like. He kept saying, what the fuck?

And he finally left the student and never came back.

That's hilarious.

It was like, dude, what did you expect?

Yeah, that was me in middle school. High school. That have been high school.

Yeah.

They're kind of doing a similar thing with Tron Aries, which is coming out literally later this week, you guys. So. Theaters October 10th.

Boom.

I'm when that's coming out. But Nine Inch Nails is doing the soundtrack for that. Oh.

So that'll be cool.

That'll be cool.

And. And.

And sounds like it'll be a whole new vibe.

Oh, 100%. And that's the point. That's exactly why.

Is because the reason they brought Daft Punk in is they wanted it to feel different from the original, but still have that electronic basing. And so that's why they brought in Nine Inch Nails and not even just Trent Reznor, but Nine Inch Nails as well.

Because they still want the vibe, but they want it to be a very different take on the music.

That's very cool.

Yeah, yeah.

One of my favorite bands of all time.

Oh, yeah. I'm. I'm very excited for it for a couple of reasons. Reasons.

Yeah.

Then the fourth one, it's going to be Wild Stallions.

Hell, yes.

And then the fifth, speaking of which, they're on Broadway. Whoever thought they'd see the Wild Stallions?

Oh, is there a band called Wild.

St. Keanu and Alex Winters are doing.

Waiting for New York.

Is that the play? Waiting for Godot?

New York, Broadway. Okay. I thought you meant downtown here.

Yeah, I was like, it's a callback. It's a callback to our. Our last episode.

Oh, absolutely.

Some Alabama would knock Alex Winters out down there.

Yeah.

The thing I'm excited about, story wise, for the new one is it kind of picks up directly where the legacy leaves off, where a program comes to the real world. And now we're going to. It looks like the next movie is what happens when all the programs come to the real world.

Interesting.

So, yeah, Jeff Bridges is still in it again, Jared Leto's leading it. So it should be a very fascinating movie.

Kind of like Westworld. What happens when.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, we love it.

So I'm not expecting it to be as groundbreaking as the OG one was, but if it's just fun, that's all I want out of a sequel. That's all I wanted out of this one. And I think it very much delivered on the fun aspect of it.

Yeah.

Rando, thank you for that. Great history, by the way. You were very detailed. That was fantastic. You lived it, man.

I did.

You lived it, man. And actually you covered a few of them to take it one step further with the Daft Punk being in the. The End of Line club. They actually.

The song that's playing, they wrote for that scene.

Yeah.

So it. That song hadn't existed and they said, actually we'll write the song specifically for the scene. And the other in there dancing and stuff.

It didn't even hit me until I read that Daft Punk did the soundtrack. I was like, oh, that might have been them. Because that's what they do. Right. They wear the helmets all the time. Do they do that live?

They did, yes.

They don't do it anymore.

They don't exist anymore.

Oh, they don't.

They.

A couple years ago. It was funny. They didn't do shit for. For 11 years and then put out a video where.

Where they self destructed and announced their official retirement even though they hadn't done anything in 11 years.

That's so daft.

It's so Daft Punk.

Yes.

And so did I. Don't. Did you pick up on another Mickey Mouse Easter egg here? So there's an Easter egg when they.

When Sam enters Flynn's arcade, you can hear the Steamboat Willie whistle for half a sec. Like half a second.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

So they had to get it in there somehow.

That's cool.

I would never have Known that because I'm not a fan of.

Fair enough.

But yeah, they. They had to get Mickey in there somehow.

Yeah, I love that. That's so good.

Yeah, they love that mouse, don't they?

That whole sequence of him opening up the arcade and like the 80s music playing and the lights turning on, like that was.

Those are my favorite parts of the movie.

I got chills.

Yeah, those are my favorite parts. I loved. I loved. Actually, that's one thing that this movie did better than the original Tron, was it. When it was in the real world, it was.

It looked great.

Yeah.

The motorcycle scene at the end, when they're driving, he says, I want to show you something. Like, those scenes are very well shot.

Oh, yeah. The base jumping scene in the beginning is so good.

Yeah, yeah.

Also shout out Killian Murphy for his 10 second cameo.

Yeah.

Love that as a slimy asshole.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Talking about the things we did in tech two years before this movie was made.

Dillinger Jr.

Yes.

And it took me a minute to know that it was him. I thought it was him. I was like, no, that's not him. And then they zoomed in. I was like, is that him?

Yeah. No, I had to look it up. I was.

I had to make sure because whenever his hair is long.

Yeah.

Well, he did Inception the same year.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

The first Despicable Me and Toy Story 3.

Wow.

Wow.

All came out. So this movie had a crazy in. Honestly, this movie probably needed a big marketing campaign to compete in this year.

And I mean, it made 400 plus million off $170 million budget. So not the greatest, but still it was technically profitable. And I think that has led to.

And I mean, Jared Leto was actually the one who led the charge on Tron 3. Like, he is the. The reason why this movie is getting made.

But I think it made just enough money that they were like, okay, we can justify continuing with the ip. And it did spawn a couple of video games and a TV show.

Wow.

And I think this one's probably going to be really awesome.

I think so too. I'm excited.

Yeah.

I've kind of. While doing this podcast with Seth, I've kind of like bought into the Jared Leto thing a little bit.

Yeah.

I mean, he's so good in Dallas buyers. I'm kind of like into the to the Jared Leto.

I can't wait to show you Mr. Nobody.

Yeah, I know. It's on the list.

Yeah.

Last rando. So there actually is a little nod to the original in young Sam's bedroom when he's a kid.

At the beginning, there is a vintage life cycle model in the room and it's. I didn't see it. I had to rewind and I was like, oh, that's cool.

Yeah.

So that's an. I think if you had to nail one image. To me, I don't know how you feel about.

You're the fan, but I think the light cycle is like the one thing that's synonymous. Like if you saw it, like, oh, that's Tron.

That's the number one thing. The number two thing are the, the. The space paranoid ships.

Yeah, those are cool.

Those are the, the two things visually. And I mean. Yeah, there's the light up suits and everything, which. The suits in this were actually like lit up.

That was, this was the first time they'd been able to put LED strips inside of the suits. They digitally 3D modeled all of the actors and then created each of their costumes molded off their bodies.

So that was another innovation they were able to do from the first one was actually have light up costumes. But no, I agree. The light cycle and the space Paranoid ships are the two things they had to nail. And I think they both nailed them both perfectly.

Yeah.

What do you think, Evan? Synonymous.

Yeah, I would say that.

Yeah.

The, the. The what, what is it called again?

The light cycle.

The light cycle, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it's just.

And the update to the trail, I.

Thought was so good.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, yeah, I mean, that's. I'm excited to see kind of what they do with that in the third one. Right.

But I mean, that, that first scene in the bedroom, especially where they show where he's got what, the little toy too.

Yeah.

Of.

Of Tron.

Yeah.

Right. Yeah. The way that they picked it right back up was.

Was great.

And kind of to show how that the, the events from the first movie kind of ended up having.

Yeah.

A direct effect.

Yeah.

Yeah, love that. The question.

The questions.

All right, this is big. And you can take the first one into account with this question. Who's the better user? Kevin or Sam?

Oh, I think Kevin's the better user. Yeah, absolutely. I think he. I think he kind of. He didn't have the benefit of.

Of knowing that something screwy happened with his dad and so he just was thrown in blind and then figured out that he had powers. That was one thing I didn't like, is that Sam didn't have any extra program powers.

Yeah.

Like. And it was all Kevin who had. Because at the very end, obviously, you see Kevin starting to use those powers. But I thought.

I thought it would have been interesting if Sam had been able to. To figure out that he had some extra normal powers.

Yeah.

What's interesting, too, is they gave him the Bruce Wayne treatment a little bit. It's like his father not died, but left. And he's got weird. He's, like, strangely athletic.

Yeah.

And can pull off a heist.

But he's also, like, literally owns billions of dollars in shares. He is the number one shareholder company. So, I mean, it makes sense that he doesn't have to do shit.

Yeah.

But he's.

Whatever he wants.

Like Bruce Wayne. He's reclusive.

Yeah.

He doesn't go to the meetings.

And just his annual drop in.

Just his annual drop in.

Yeah.

Love a good prank.

So that's actually something in. In the Flynn Lives videos, the year before, he is shown skydiving out of a helicopter and interrupting one of their launches.

And that was his prank the year before the movie takes place.

Interesting.

That's cool.

Yeah.

What do you think? Who's the better user?

I mean. Yeah. I mean, I think it's got to be Kevin. You know, Sam. I mean, Sam's. I mean, I'm still trying to process.

Yeah.

The whole. The whole thing.

There's a lot. There is a lot to this plot.

But I gotta go. If you're not going gears between the movies because you're going one to the other. It's a lot to take.

Yeah. So I don't know if I really have a reason why other than I really. Right. Wasn't it Kevin's house and.

Yes. Yeah.

What a sick house.

Yeah.

That first. So for me, that's it.

Is it because Garrett did not play Sam very well? Is that why I like him?

I mean, honestly, I mean, he just. He just didn't do it for me. I didn't believe him.

Yeah.

Everything is so on the nose. Everything's just, like, in the same pronounced tone, you know, Just didn't.

Maybe that's what happens when an architect directs a movie.

Yeah, that could be.

That could be. I mean, he's done some stuff. I mean, F1. A lot of people think that's the best movie of this year. I haven't seen it yet, but he directed that. He.

Oh, no.

The same director.

Same director.

Yeah.

So you're Going, Kevin. I go, kevin, too. I think like you said, he got dropped into this world with no knowledge. Sam kind of comes in. I. What I don't like.

And I'll take this from a cinematic point of view, is that the way they find out he's a user is when they. He was gonna kill him.

Yeah.

And he was gonna die. He lost that battle.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's like. And they spared him because he's a user.

Yeah.

I'm like.

Also because it's Tron. Like, Tron had, like that. That was kind of the breaking point where Tron started questioning.

And then later in the movie where he has that moment where it's like, I fight for the users.

Yeah.

But Sam isn't necessarily extraordinary. He's lucky.

Yeah.

You know, and I'm kind of like, is he special? Like, as a user? I just didn't. And Kevin is. They gave him so much power in the first one, and. And obviously here he's like, almost a guru.

He's almost got. I'm trying to think of the Star wars character.

He's Yoda.

He's. Yeah, he's got Yoda.

Like.

Like.

Like mantra and power here. He's more of a guru, which is Jeff Bridges as an actor. That's just right up his alley. I mean, he should have had mushrooms in a bowl somewhere.

I'm sure he did.

I do.

I genuinely think, though, my favorite moment is when he shows up at end of line during the fight, and then he just jumps down and everything goes dark for a second. Like, that is such a powerful moment.

Yeah.

Where he's like, no, I'm back.

I'm back.

It's so good.

I do like the hood.

Yeah.

The hood was kind of cool as much as I didn't. I had a hard time kind of sinking my teeth into the physicality of the movie. Him walk into that room with that hood on.

I was like, that's pretty cool. Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Also, the fact that, like. Like I said earlier, the. The number of practical sets that they built. Like they built the End of Line Club, that was one of the.

The four massive sets that they built. They also built Flynn's house, and that was lit, lifted 10ft off the floor of the soundstage so they could get the uplit glass and everything.

So cool again, that had another Star wars feel. What's the. What's the job of the huts?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's a lot of. I'm not saying they copied it, but there are so many Weird parallels.

Sci fi. At this point, it's. It's kind of unavoidable for there to be crossover. Like. Like Star wars is a ripoff of Dune technically.

Yeah.

Like there's just everything's going to borrow from each other. There's only so much you could do at this point. Some of it feels like Blade Runner, some of it feels like Star Wars.

Some of it feels like other sci fi properties that have been out there.

Yeah.

All right. This is a really fun category villain face off here. Oh, MCP versus Clue.

Oh, I definitely think the MCP was more terrifying. Yeah, he definitely felt more like a Darth Vader versus Clue, feeling like Kylo Ren. But I do think they're both good in their own right.

And I actually think the way the de aging hasn't quite lived up lends itself better to clu because I do think CLU should have felt like a video game character. And did he genuinely felt like. And again, this is where I say they kind of did look forward.

People weren't really doing so much of that photorealistic motion capture for video games yet. That didn't really start until a couple years later. Later. So.

But as a villain, he definitely comes more across as like a whiny protege versus the all powerful being that the MCP was.

Yeah. Love it.

I liked Clue.

Oh, okay.

I liked Clue just because you get. I like when you have that twin. The evil twin.

Yeah.

All about the evil twin.

Yeah.

Kind of the platonic mold.

Yeah, yeah.

Which, by the way, did you guys realize Clue is the same program from the beginning of Tron, who's in the tank and gets captured by the MCP and de resident on the wall because he won't talk.

Dude, I.

There was same program. There was so much in this plot. Like just reading it, like, if you read this plot on paper, you're like, huh?

Yeah, yeah.

But yeah, Clue is the same program from the beginning of the first movie that. That Flynn is. Is trying to hack into the mcu.

Okay.

Yeah.

This movie fell into the Marvel trap for me a little bit right towards.

It kind of created the Marvel trap towards the end.

And you're just kind of like, all right, I really liked the simple yeah, yeah, plot. Now where.

That's where I'm like the middle could have been cleaned up so much.

I liked Hulk Smash, but you are throwing in all the. All the subplots.

Yeah.

I don't need 30 movies to get the one movie.

Yes, I agree with you, man. So you go, Clue. Yeah. This is a tough one to answer because I think just the visuals of mcp, the way he talks, is very. Is. It's very frightening.

Like, it's very. It's crazy how intense it is.

Oh, yeah.

It's also got that wizard of Oz thing, whereas the guy, you know, it's got an old man behind the curtain. But that ending scene in Tron when he's rotating and he's, you know, sucking up all the air and doing all this stuff, like, that was really cool.

Yeah.

But the thing I do like about Clue is that. And I am always the sucker for the philosophical element of something. What he says at the very end is actually kind of haunting that you.

I did what you wanted me to do.

Yeah.

And that is actually really in line with technology. And it actually. What Clue does, he's doing what he was programmed to do.

Exactly.

And it's obviously, it's. It's tyrannical, it's horrible. It's all those things, but it's. It's not surprising. With an unmanaged technology, shit gets wild.

And you're seeing that with AI so it's actually very realistic. So I give it a slight edge.

I actually enjoyed MCP more, but the philosophical dilemma of almost kind of like what you alluded to with this platonic mold element of who Clue is is pretty wild.

So I was not expecting that from either one of you.

Really.

That's really cool.

Slight edge.

Yeah.

But MCP is fun. I mean, it's. It's.

MCP is terrifying.

Yes. In its.

In its context.

Yes.

Yeah.

But I. I thought that was probably, in terms of the writing, the best thing they handled. I think it's a very diluted story.

Yeah.

But they handle clues like messaging very well.

Absolutely.

Second one. And I have a feeling I know where Seth's gonna go with this one. But did the sequel need to be made? That's always my question with sequels.

In my opinion. No, I don't think it needed to be made. I'm glad it was. I absolutely love that world. But again, it's one of those things.

It's kind of like Speed Racer for me. I am very happy. Speed Racer is a standalone movie. As much as I would love to go back into that world that the Wikowski's made as a standalone movie.

It's fucking perfect. It is beautiful. And with Tron, you always had that question. I mean, I still have the question with the new one.

As excited as I am for the new one, that question is always, is it going to hold up even a little bit compared to the others? This one, I think does hold up reasonably well. It has its flaws. It's not a perfect movie. There's a reason it's a 50% on rotten tomatoes.

It was very divisive. That's the thing people need to remember. Just because it has 25% on rotten tomatoes doesn't mean it's a bad movie.

It means it's very divisive among critics.

Is that what it got?

Literally, really?

Yeah.

So some people loved it, some people hated it. That's where it comes down to. And most of the problems they had with it were the same problems we have.

They thought the story was a little diluted, it was a little too long. And they didn't feel like the facial technology was as good as it could have been.

Even though at the time it was better than anything that had ever done.

So it's just a lot of it.

That's why.

Exactly. It wasn't used as tastefully as it could have been.

Yeah.

If they had relegated it to just that opening scene and then nothing but Clue, I think it would have been better. But they kept doing those flashback scenes and when you see young Jeff Bridges and Clue, it is a little jarring because young Jeff Bridges doesn't.

It hits that uncanny valley, which I think you needed for Clue, but not with a young Jeff Bridges.

Sometimes it looks like Hannibal Lecter wearing someone else. Hannibal Wattle, Hannibal Wagto. It looks like Hannibal Lecter wearing a face. Sometimes it kind of looked like someone.

I was like, is he wearing the face?

Exactly.

Did he cut off Jeff Bridges face and wear it?

They had a double and then they went and scanned Jeff Bridges face doing the dialog later. So it's the same motion capture technology they're using now. Wow. It just was the first stage of it.

What do you think?

Did any be made similar to Seth? No, but I'm, you know, I'm glad it was because it's a fun world.

Yeah.

The thing about it that, that I, you know, after the first movie and even the second movie, what are the stakes here?

Right.

Is it just a guy that's like, my technology's being stolen? What impact does this have on the world?

Yeah.

And I just don't know that that was communicated really in either movie.

I think the one thing that did get communicated in this one was Clue's army, because that was where he was like, no, I'm going to bring you to the real world. And that was really the only place where I felt like the stakes got raised, other than Sam trying to bring his father.

Yeah. Yeah.

But I think. I think that is going to lend itself.

Well, I think the third one.

Yeah.

I mean, kind of similar to the Matrix.

Right.

Where kind of the implications on what this means, you know, and kind of what it means in Westworld.

Yeah.

Right.

When.

When these things escape, get to the other side, Which I guess is what we're seeing in the third.

Definitely.

You know, so, yeah, I mean, this one feels like a stepping stone to what could maybe ultimately end up being the best.

Yeah.

Tron movie.

I don't think any of them are going to be the original, and I kind of don't want them to. Like, I just. Again, as long as it's fun for me, I'll be perfectly happy. Just don't suck balls.

Well, I think that this third one is going to be better than the second one, probably.

I think it might be because the.

Second one was fun.

Yeah.

But again, it definitely felt like.

It.

Wasn'T trying to pay tribute to the original. Right. Like, in some ways it was, but.

Like I said, I had a weird balancing act of paying tribute, but also trying to move things forward.

Yeah. And just, like, make a bunch of money, you know? Whereas the first one didn't feel like it was out there to make a bunch of money. You know, this.

This second.

The way that this second one was definitely promoted was we want to hit the mainstream with this, you know, that didn't feel like a priority in the first one.

Yeah.

I think there are genres that suffer from inventor's dilemma. The inventor's dilemma is the first one does something really new or something very innovative or specific. Jaws is an example of this. Where Jaws 2.

I really like Jaws too, but I understand why a lot of people don't. They're like, we've seen the shark.

Yeah.

So whenever, like, they're hiding the shark at the beginning of Jaws, too, it's like, oh, my gosh, is that a shark eating that guy's leg?

Yeah.

You know, and they're, like, trying to hide. It's like, we know it's a shark.

That was also the problem. Aliens had. Was seen the aliens, they were like, well, what do we do? Well, they ended up making the aliens weaker.

Like, they used more of them.

Yeah, well, there's more of Them. And weaker. So you just see them wiping tons of them out as. And so they stop being this scary force nature that they are in the first one.

Yeah.

And somehow like. Like the. The blood. The acid blood affecting people was very selective on who it splattered on.

When you're shooting them in the face with machine guns, it was like, oh, it hurt her, but Sigourney is fine.

Yeah.

But, you know, it's like we're just be really selective. So that's one of the things I think I struggled with is where this. And I know that it took another step technologically in terms of like the digital.

Yeah.

And how it was made. But I needed performances to also take a step up. And here somehow the performances took a step back. Even though we're.

You know, there should have been better acting here.

Yeah. So their own. I disagree.

I.

Well, I just was annoyed. I just. There's not a single besides Martin or Michael Sheen I didn't. I couldn't believe. And I'm a Jeff Bridges fan and I'm just watching him here.

I'm like, this is awful.

Yeah.

I wanted it to take a step forward there. I don't think the lore. And here's. Here's the limitation it has. And this is more of a personal limitation. I just think very darkly about technology.

I have very dark thoughts about it. I've been in the industry. I'm very not. I'm not excited about where it's all going.

Yeah.

And I say that as an independent person. That doesn't reflect the thoughts of anybody else that I may be associated with in the technology industry.

But the opinions of Kyle Castro do not reflect the Movie wars podcast.

Yeah.

And. And I think it's cool because there. There. There has to be movies out there that everybody can watch.

Like, not every technological movie needs to be Swordfish or Terminator. Like, there needs to be movies for family too. But I just throw to some dark notes that this movie doesn't hit. And. And it just doesn't.

It doesn't necessarily align with the. What really is like how dark technology is.

Yeah.

And it did. Once again, my favorite parts of this were in the world. In the real world. Not enough real world for me. I would love to just get a little more.

And I know it's all about this digital world and it's all about that.

Well, then you might love Tron Aries.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's all in the real world.

Honestly. Like when with the threat of them getting into the real world, I was like, that's where the movie's at.

Yeah.

I was like, that's not even the threat.

Threat. It is what happens. They start the movie by saying, we've brought these characters into the world.

Yeah.

Yeah. So did it need to be made? I think. But of all the things I said, the biggest thing is the. Is the innovator's dilemma.

It's just like you're really lost in the idea of how innovative the first one was here, that the. Yes, it moves the needle forward, but a lot of things have happened.

Yeah.

We've seen a lot of crazy stuff happen in film. I need better performances to go along with that uplift. And that's where I said, so.

No.

And, you know, honestly, like, I don't really have a lot of interest in seeing three. And you're saying, I'm sure. And I like Jared Leto enough that maybe I will.

But a sentence. I never thought you'd say, they're one.

Of your favorite bands.

Who. Oh, yeah.

Of all time. Yeah. Top 10. Well, yeah. Nine Inch Nails doing it. That is kind of cool. And every soundtrack Trent Reznor's done, like, it's perfect.

Seven Social Social Network. I mean, he's brilliant. Yeah, that might be a. You're right about that. That might get me in the theater.

Here we go.

But, yeah, I mean, I'm not going to the theater to see it, but I will.

Yeah.

Oh, no, I will. I will see it in imax because these seeing. That is.

The other thing is I do have the benefit of the memory of seeing it in IMAX 3D, and the fucking spectacle of it in IMAX 3D was at the time unlike anything that had ever been put on screen before. Yeah, like, genuinely, that was before Marvel really started kicking off. All you'd really had was Iron man and the Hulk.

Like, you did not have these gigantic IMAX spectacles in a sci fi movie like this at the time.

Right.

Oh, yeah.

So, yeah, that. That is something. I do have the benefit of that memory of just how insane it was in the movie theater.

Last question, last question. Who or what won the film for you and who or what lost the movie for you?

I know you guys are probably going to say the acting lost the movie for you. The writing is actually what lost the movie for me.

And that's where I feel like it could have been trimmed up by 20 minutes, 15 minutes, and it would have been significantly better. But genuinely, what won the movie for me was. Was just the overall product itself.

It's like, yeah, you can nitpick, and it's not even nitpicking, but you can have the issues that you have with it. But it's like the package itself was still so much fun, and there was still. It expanded on a world that I was interested in from the get go.

The fact that I got to see more of it and it still had the feeling of a Tron movie. Even. Even with its shortcomings, it still felt like a Tron movie. So that's really what won it for me was.

Was just the overall feeling I got from seeing it.

Okay, yeah, yeah, I'm going to go with what lost it for me. I'm going to go with. It was more the writing.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, really just went on a little too long, you know, the acting. I can deal with bad acting in movies. I mean, most movies have bad acting anymore. Yeah.

So.

Yes, that's the norm now.

Yeah.

So, you know, for me, this was, you know, it was more like.

Yeah.

The rioting towards the middle. I'm just like, okay, let's. Let's reel it in. Let's simplify it a little bit.

What wanted for me, I mean, I just think was like, you know, the special effects, with the exception of the d. Aging.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, and I wouldn't even say the de aging lost it for me. Like, how bad it was almost won it for me, if that makes sense. Like, I kind of was like, okay, yeah, something else lost it for me.

And maybe it was the way that it was shot, but there were just a couple of moments where I was like, y' all look like y' all are making a high school movie or something. Like, what is going on here?

Interesting.

So that took me out of it a couple of times.

Yeah, yeah.

I'll take it a step further. Yes, the acting, but the writing, the story is too complicated.

I think not only could have been a shorter, a little bit simpler, and I. I'm not a dumb person. I mean, sometimes I'm dumb, but I'm a technological person, and I should be.

I should be keeping track, but I just think there's so many twists and turns, and I'm always like. I asked myself a few times in the movie, like, did I miss something?

Yeah.

Do you ever feel that, like. Like, did I miss a detail?

That's what I felt like in this movie a lot.

Yeah. I was like, what are they?

And that's where I feel like it could have been tightened up.

Yeah.

Because I think. I think the plot, the general beats of the story were great.

Yes.

And the things that happen. Fine. But it's like. Yeah, it's that in between where it's.

It goes off on a little bit of a tangent that it probably shouldn't have gone off on, honestly. Weirdly, I think I could have done a little more without the development of Olivia Wilde's character.

I would have rather her just be a regular program and not one of these refugees that Jeff Bridges found. I thought that was a little bit of a weird tangent to go on.

Yeah. Adding the ISO algorithms was a weird. It was another addition to the lore. They just kept stacking it on.

Exactly.

Stacking it on. I. What won it for me was. This is a soundtrack that I will listen to 100. It's funny. I will never watch this movie again.

I will listen to the soundtrack on the way home.

Did your kids watch these with you?

I didn't. They weren't home.

Okay. I think you should watch them again one day with your kids, because I do think they are very fun family movies.

Yeah.

I agree. My. My daughters watched about 10 minutes of the first one with me, and they thought it was interesting. Oh, no.

Yeah.

But the soundtrack is amazing. And it's. I love that they. In the marketing, they played it into the lore.

Yeah.

And Daft Punk was such a. They had some. Just some crazy hits in our time.

Oh, yeah. They were top of the world at that point.

Right.

And the fact that they're doing it with Nine Inch Nails, I. That is something that is cool.

I love, like, bands or artists that pair like Eddie Vedder did with into the Wild, and now his voice is synonymous with the movie. And he toured on that soundtrack.

Yeah.

I love it. That's just a cool little thing. It's just a cool little thing. So.

I mean, as much as I didn't really enjoy watching this movie, the soundtrack was just the club scene. That song is the best song in the movie.

It's so good.

And I love watching Daft Punk dance to it in the little booth.

Like I said, especially with IMAX sound, like the soundtrack just beats your face in with such beauty.

Yeah.

So good.

All right, we ready for the War Zone?

Let's do it.

Let's do. Remember, Rapid Fire. Each host goes through four categories to figure out if we like or dislike the movie, it's cast, it's writing, directing.

And what used to be what's in front of us now is called film composition, which is sound editing, graphics, stunts, all music. Music. All the. All the things.

Yeah, Seth.

So Cass is going to be a squeak over for me. I know you guys didn't like him. I actually thought that everyone did. Again, a reasonably good job. I don't. I don't see what you're saying.

Especially with Jeff Bridges.

I thought he played his character the way he played it in the first movie and brought a little bit more of that old man, you know, like regretful of his past but hoping he can fix things. Maybe one day. But again, nothing stand out. I didn't hate Sam either. I thought he. Again, he was fine.

I thought he played the son of Jeff Bridges character. Well, yeah, but again, nothing. I would never be. Like, they got snubbed at the Oscars. No, they were all just fine. Michael Sheen really stands out. He.

It's funny, this movie made me think. Originally I thought he was Tom Hiddleston, but yeah, I think he was absolutely incredible as Zeus.

The writing, that's actually where I'm going to go under. I agree with both of you guys. The couple of tangents that went off on it was a little too long, a little too convoluted.

Could have been tightened up if this had been an hour 45.

I think it would have been a perfectly wonderful sequel with maybe a couple of qualms here and there, but I think tightening everything up would have been way better. So I am going to go under on that directing, though.

I think the vision that Joseph Kosinski brought to this was a very appropriate step forward for the world. I think how he took the old elements and brought them into the new age of what video games looked like.

I thought he did such an incredible job again at the time. And I have the benefit of looking back on this, there was nothing else on screen that was the. Like this. And so it's.

It's an absolute yes for me on directing. And then obviously say what you want about. About the de aging. It was the first of its kind. It was as good as it possibly could have been at the time.

So it's fine for me. Like, yeah, looking back, it's not the greatest. It does take you out of it a little bit, but it's fine for when it came out.

But overall, the rest of the visuals and especially Daft Punk soundtrack is. Is 100% win for me on. On the Composition of the film. So, yeah, it's a three to one for me.

Yeah, it's a three one for me. In the opposite direction, though.

Okay.

Okay. Acting.

Boop.

Boop.

Just, you know, let's get a couple of big names together. Let's get the guy who was in the first one. I mean, just, you know, the classic Disney model of, you know, I don't know.

I just, the acting didn't do it for me. Nothing about the acting to me really carried this movie. It was, it was all, you know, everything else. So maybe it wasn't a three to one.

It's a tie to two. Two.

Okay.

Writing. Boop. Again, just long, complex, too complicated.

I liked elements of it, but really, no, they needed to keep it a little bit more simple, a little more straightforward.

Yeah.

Again, it turned into like a Marvel movie where it's like, let's kind of, you know, turn this into a real technical thing.

Yeah.

Directing. I'll go thumbs up.

Yeah, okay.

I'll go thumbs up on the directing. Directing. I really like the way the movie began, the way it was presented. I liked the kind of going back and forth between the worlds.

I think the, a good director will save bad writing.

Yeah.

You know, so I think the only reason the movie was palatable really had to do with the fact that, you know, the director came in and make something out of it and then composition. Yeah. That's getting thumbs up.

Yeah.

To your point, that's really what sold the movie.

Yeah.

Right. It wasn't the. No one's, no one's going to see a Jeff Bridges movie. Like we go see a Leonardo DiCaprio movie.

Yeah.

Like, or a Daniel Day Lewis movie or a Christian Bale movie.

Yeah, Right.

It's like, he's just the guy.

Yeah.

He's the dude, you know, he's just the dude that got the role many years ago and gets to do it again.

Yeah.

Right. This is one of those things that probably back then he took on the role being like, this is going to be a mistake.

Yeah.

Or it's just gonna be a fun experience.

Or just gonna be a fun.

But.

But then it ends up being like, oh, I guess I'm now my likeness as part of this franchise. Right.

So he is gonna be in the new one too.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Right. So. Yeah.

Wow.

Bridging the gap.

Yeah.

I'm gonna say that joke again.

Yeah.

Cast. I don't know. I can't belabor it anymore. Just not a single besides Michael Sheen. Not a, a performance. I, I, I like here. Sam Is, I think, malpractice.

It's. It's. It's malfeasance. It's an HR violation. It's bad, bad news. And I feel bad because I'm sure he's a nice guy as a person, but not good.

Everything had one note. Everything was kind of on the nose. I just didn't see a lot of range. I just needed one performance to kind of like. And it wasn't there writing.

I mean, we've belabored this. I mean, just throwing things at me. I'm just like, whoa, could have been shorter. You know, it did have a couple of zingers.

Like the first one that were good.

It was still very funny.

Yeah, it has that little bit of comedy.

I enjoyed that. But I agree with you.

All the rest of it, little bit of comedy, good. But I just, man, like, I. Just a little bit simpler, a little bit shorter. The story's already super. It could be very interesting.

You don't need to dilute it because you've already got the visuals. But I feel like. I don't know why they were just throwing the kitchen sink at me. You know, plot wise, directing.

I mean, I'm like, trying to figure out, like, you know, how to score this, because a lot.

He didn't write it at all. He was not involved in the writing whatsoever.

You know, for me, it's comparing it to Maverick, you know, which Kaczynski did as well. I've seen him organize his thoughts in a very strong way and. And show me something very convincing with action and with. With good dialogue.

You know, the. The things that made it to the final cut here are. It was kind of vexing to me. Interesting.

I don't know how many of those choices belong to him because so much of it is digital. But you said there's a lot of practical sets.

Oh, yeah. The. The vast majority of, like, stuff they're standing on is.

Yeah.

I'm just. I'm trying to not be so negative, but I am going to go, no, I just. There is not.

The first one had so many memorable images and so many decisions made and crucial decisions that change film here, Here. I'm just not. I just don't know takeaways. I'm sad. I want to be positive.

See, the visuals is what I remember, remember.

And I'll talk about that in the last category. It's a no. Because at moments it was a no. It was cluttered. It was so cluttered. The soundtrack is amazing.

Like, if I could just score the soundtrack alone 10 out of 10, dude.

Yeah.

But that last scene where they're flying and running into each other, I just kind of found it a lot to be cluttered. And I use the word over stimulated. I'm over stimulated a lot. And it's just. It's overwhelming at sometimes to kind of keep up with all the.

The things going on on screen. There's not a lot of physicality, which is funny that you say it's more sets and it's more practical than the last one.

I found it to be less tactile than the last one. I thought the last one was a.

Little more because, like, all the costumes were real.

Yeah.

All lit up on, like, on set, like.

Yeah. Yeah.

So maybe it was sound. I don't know. There was some weird disconnect between me and what I was seeing on screen. When they were fighting, when they're.

When they're duking it out, when they're flying around, I just felt disconnected from what I was seeing.

Fascinating.

So it's a clean. It's a dirty sweep, I guess, is the opposite of a clean sweep. Again, I. I will be.

I will dote on the soundtrack to make sure I leave on a positive note. What a great soundtrack. More directors should partner the way David Finch has partnered with Trent Reznor.

Yeah.

You know, the way Eddie Vedder did. I mean, that is a winning thing for a lot of things.

I have a very strong feeling Jared Leto is the one who really, like, pushed hard for Nine Inch Nails to come in.

Is he buddies with Trent?

I mean, they. They've definitely, like, been around the same spheres together, so.

But, I mean, like I said, Jared Leto apparently is the only reason that this movie has. Has gotten off the ground.

Interesting.

That dude went from almost retired to reviving a franchise.

Yeah.

That's funny. Well, this was a blast.

Absolutely.

This was a light cycle blast here.

You got any October dates?

Boom. Yeah. October 17th, Nashville Comedy Loft. Come check it out. We'd love to see you.

And you're in. They don't May not remember last time. What's your special called again?

Twice removed on YouTube, Evan Burke, B E and Spotify.

It's on Spotify.

It's on Spotify. Yeah, I think it's Spotify, Apple Everywhere.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's a great special. It's a great special.

It was number one on Apple when it came out.

Yeah, it was. Duh.

Not anymore, but yeah.

Yeah.

Time changes all things.

Yeah.

Anyway, this was a blast. I'm Kyle.

I'm Seth.

I'm Evan.

Osta la Vista. Programs Movie Wars.