Tron: Ares was never going to succeed at the box office

Someone asked what makes the original Tron so good the other day and, even as a fan of Tron, I could not come up with an answer.

I just think it's neat.

It was a product of its time. Had the story and certainly the same effects been released decades later it wouldn't have gone anywhere. That's where Legacy was able to succeed, they didn't just run with a sequel of the same stuff, they took what Tron started and added things relevant to a modern audience. I have yet to see Ares so I can't say if it brings anything new besides flashier graphics (maybe too flashy?)
In it's time, the special effects were mind blowing. We little boys were like, "OMG! Light cycles!"
- I feel like even today, the CGI is super impressive for 1982 (?).
- AFAIK quite a bunch of it isn't even CGI. Lots of creative lighting tricks and just very well done classic animation.
- I watched it at least 200 times when I was a little kid. Maybe I'm a bit autistic, maybe I'm a nerdgirl (probably both) but it was, and still is, one of my faves.
The original Tron was pretty groundbreaking as a movie released in 1982, at least from the visual perspective.
It spawned a bunch of derivative works - the animated show Reboot, the Matrix franchise, games like the CCG "Netrunner", books like Neuromancer and Ready Player One.
Nevermind all the technical hurdles they had to accomplish in order to generate these effects. No way you get to Toy Story or the Marvel franchises without the entry-level effort of Information International, Inc. or Mathematical Applications Group.
Surface level, sure. It was your standard "Computers Ate My Dad" silly Disney story. But it mainlined a certain flavor of SciFi/Fantasy and popularized animation techniques that have matured substantially since then.
- Unless the 3rd book I have yet to read is about being inside a computer system, Neuromancer is so far from being derivative of Tron, I don't know how it ended up on your list. 🤨
First tron is boring as balls with good visuals.
Legacy was entertaining while still boring as balls but that soundtrack may well be the best soundtrack ever made. Plus it has the most banging pinball machine release ever.
Back in 82 we weren't all carrying an internet link in our pocket. Computers were in arcades and sometimes at work (but only used by specialists.) Impossible to recapture that moment in time.
A decent background of the original Tron. https://youtu.be/4K4JGE3nPvk

It doesn't matter if it bombs, it's just really cool, striking visuals, and that's good enough for Disney. They just need an anchor property to use as inspiration for all the other things they sell - rides, toys, books, games, TV series, clothes, dishes, sheets, etc. Beyond that, it is one more attraction in the parks around the world, attracting tourists to stay in their hotels, and eat in their restaurants.

It doesn’t matter if it bombs, it’s just really cool, striking visuals, and that’s good enough for Disney.
...
They just need an anchor property to use as inspiration for all the other things they sell - rides, toys, books, games, TV series, clothes, dishes, sheets, etc. Beyond that, it is one more attraction in the parks around the world, attracting tourists to stay in their hotels, and eat in their restaurants.
- It's true, though. You market the shit out of the movie just to get people to watch Jared "Don't Ask What I've Been Up To On Tinder" Leto dress like an 8-bit gladiator and do some stunts.
  Then the movie becomes another advertising vehicle for the game. And the game becomes an advertisement for the Disney Park. And the park is stuffed full of adverts for the next movie.
  It's all one giant marketing ouroboros. From the outside, yeah, it looks crazy. But when you're being shit out and eaten over and over again, you're convinced that you're having a great time.
Fungible? Just barely more than a well-designed screensaver? "OK, the marketing's in place, now we need the product." "Sure, let's go hire some creatives."
Similar to op-ed about AI Music recently. It's basically background music.
Get the family together for a movie night. Doesn't matter what it is, you'll all be on your phones anyway. Disney's safe and reliable, Tron is just slightly edgy, hey it's got a soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails, that brings back memories...
- I love how EVERY article references the NIN soundtrack.
  Everybody loves John Williams' thrilling film scores, the guy has won more Oscars than anyone, but they never promote a new blockbuster movie by screaming that it has a John Williams score.

I loved Tron Legacy. Maybe it was the right movie for me at the time but I couldn't believe it did so poorly. Amazing visuals/art direction, amazing soundtrack, and decently solid story.

I loved Tron 2.0 from 2003.
- This was my introduction to the franchise.
It felt like I was watching a chapter out of a much longer book, but without the rest of the book for reference. Yes, cool visuals and descent acting and some fun action sequences. But it began and ended in such a way that I couldn't really understand what was going on and never landed at a satisfying end point.
Disney has a habit of doing this with a lot of properties. SW: The Force Awakens had this vibe as well, as though there was a bunch of companion material I was supposed to have worked through before getting to the actual movie. The last couple of Indiana Jones movies, too.
They don't know how to just make a movie. Its always got to be some snippet from an enormous vision of an end-to-end experience. It's not for me because I didn't re-watch the original before playing the game and solving the secret riddle that ships me a copy of the comic book that kinda sorta explains wtf is going on.
- as though there was a bunch of companion material I was supposed to have worked through before getting to the actual movie.
  Those movies are all sequels. There is companion material - the movies they're sequels to
I think the problem was that Tron wasn't exactly a super beloved, super popular franchise but it was like they expected it to be and marketed the movie like it was. I also realized I remember basically nothing about the plot and all my fond memories of the movie are the visuals and soundtrack. I almost think it would have been better if the movie had nothing to do with "Tron" and was just its own thing inspired by Tron, but then it would have never gotten the funding that it got.
I liked it too. It was basically just a long music video for Daft Punk with cool visuals. Looks like Nine Inch Nails does the soundtrack for this one, which I also like. I won't watch it in the movie theater (haven't been in years), but I will definitely torrent it when it comes out on home release.

I won't watch anything with Jared Leto in it. Ever.

I used to think the only thing I ever liked him in was Party of Five. Then I realized he wasn't even in that.
As someone who doesn't know who Jared Leto is: why? Is he that bad of an actor, or is there something else?
- For one, he's the leader of a cult where he cosplays as Jesus and allegedly sexually assaults people

if you're someone who can enjoy art partially made by not-so-great to awful people, give it a watch. NIN fucking killed it with the soundtrack, it looks awesome, the writing is weirdly decent (good writing in a TRON movie? wtf??), and the acting is better than it has any right to be. thoroughly enjoyable imo

my favorite franchise is Firefly so I'm used to stuff I like being made by awful people :(

Firefly made by awful people? I guess you mean whedon? Or are there others?
- Adam Baldwin has been pretty far-right/anti-feminism/anti-LGBTQ/anto-“woke” for a long time. He’s MAGA. He was even a GamerGater back in the day.
- oh god i hope it's just whedon
I have to disagree on the NIN soundtrack. I am a big fan of theirs but this was just a complete let down. There were maybe two notable tracks, and even then they were nothing to share with anyone. Trent Reznor has done way better music for movies in the past.
- I hate to say it, but I agree. It felt mostly like a Trent Reznor soundtrack with a few proper NIN songs added on. It wasn't bad, but it didn't live up to my expectations. Oh well, at least it got NIN back together for a tour. I thought I'd never be able to see them live again.
- First of all, check out !nin@lemmy.world
  Second, I like this mix that re-frames the soundtrack as an EP:
  Init/Shadow Over Me
  I Know You Can Feel It
  Target Identified/Infiltrator/As Alive As You Need Me to Be
  Who Wants to Live Forever?
  New Directive
  So you got the 4 lyrics songs, introduced by the instrumentals that echo them, and with a 5th instrumental song as the end credits. It's basically an EP, so you can compare it to the events/violence/witch EPs.
  It's a slight step down. With the previous EPs, I get the feeling Trent and Atticus had new ideas they wanted to explore. For this EP, it sounds like they were hired for a job. (hey nothing wrong with that, but the motivation's different.)
  "Init/Shadow Over Me" is ok, kinda standard. "I Know You Can Feel It" is probably the best of the four, though still just re-hashing older ideas. "Target Identified/Infiltrator/As Alive As You Need Me to Be" is a great song but I associate it too much with that trailer involving the guy from Morbius. "Who Wants to Live Forever?" really should be the best song, BUT by all the gods that woman's voice is so weak! Is that some kinda post-ironic thing they're going for that I just don't get? "New Directive" is just another instrumental, the person who remixed this coulda left it off. Tho I do gotta say I like how the instrumentals reference both Daft Punk 's and Wendy Carlos' soundtracks.
- Agreed that only 2 tracks are notable (Infiltrator and Target Identified), because the majority of the soundtrack is cinematic ambient pieces. Which, those are just ok (especially compared to Daft Punk whose ambient tracks were exceptional in addition to the action pieces Derezzed and the End Titles)
  I just like ambient music, haha. I do kinda wish there were more bumpin industrial pieces but if that was the entire movie soundtrack it would have gotten old quickly and made the entire movie seem like an overly long music video, I think. Also my mom wouldn't have liked it as much I bet, lol
  I liked it but I totally get why a lot of people were disappointed. Actually my sister agrees with you ("there wasn't enough NIN!" she said iirc)
- I do think the daft punk 2010 movie was nailed hard. This was more mellow and not memorable, though that is normal for most movies. I think the "pop single" track release promoted by the movie is a decent song, but its also a cheezy marketing stunt for it, and not "real sountrack" or well integrated into the movie.
  OTOH, I liked the mixed reality motorcycle game reboot.
- He's an elderly geezer now, not an energetic creative youth.
Soundtrack on the ~~Deadmau5~~ Daft Punk Tron was banging as well. NIN did the soundtrack for this one? How did I not know this. Gonna crank the sub to 11.
I know my next pick for family movie night.
- I'm 99% sure you mean Daft Punk, unless there's some obscure non-film Tron soundtrack that the internet is nearly completely unaware of.
I still don't want to encourage Leto to do anything. When he does things it's a 50/50 chance he'll do something reprehensible.
I'll wait until it can be watched through socialized culture distribution.
- 🏴‍☠️
You may have just convinced me to give it a watch. This is the first comment I find on Lemmy stating that the soundtrack was on-point and not shitting on the writing.
- I mean, the writing is still "wE gOtTa Go InSidE tHe CoMpuTeR!" because it's TRON, lol. But this one's plot was surprisingly straightforward and devoid of contradictions and inconsistencies.
  The original and moreso Legacy has some absolutely convoluted plot bullshit (especially with the ISO programs) going on that didn't ruin it or anything (at least for me because I'm mainly here for cool CG and Jeff Bridges) but a more self-aware writing team could have kept it tighter.
  The worst writing of the series was in that short-lived show where they un-self-awarely had Elijah Wood be corrupted by the One Ring. Er, One Frisbee. 🤦‍♀️

Jeff Bridges. Love him as the Dude (obviously) but also loved him in Tron. I think he’s actually a pretty underrated actor because of how famous he is in The Big Lebowski.

That doesn't make any sense.
- Thanks! I was half asleep when I wrote it!

Loved the first one, second one was ok, i refuse to watch Jared leto

Tron and Legacy both made double their budget, tron made 50 million on a 17 million budget and Legacy made 400 on a 170 million budget.

I would only consider a movie a bomb if it fails to make it's money back...

Something like Speed Racer (2008), which is an awesome movie, but only made 93 million on a 120 million budget.

Tron: Arse would be a better name for the new installment

Is there a single devoted fan of the Tron series? I legitimately can't remember a single person actually caring about it. That and Avatar. Did anyone actually care about Avatar?

I wouldn't call myself a fan of the series, but I really liked Tron: Legacy. As a package I just thought it was a great experience and I was eager for more at the time.
If it wasn't for Jared Leto, I'd probably have given Ares a shot. But I have zero interest with him as the main character.
- Oh shit, he is the main character? Sorry, live under a rock and didn't even bother before to check what role he has. Guess it is a nope from me too then.
- Understandable, I can see where you're coming from.
I was a devoted fan of the first Tron film, back when that was all there was.
Now that there's a franchise with multiple films, shows, video games, etc., I'm still a devoted fan of the first Tron film and that's all.
- The OG tron arcade game was my jam.
- It’s Whoville for nerds!
- give Tron 2.0 a shot if you like FPS. solid, fun game.
  some of it's repetitive but haha frisbee go brrrrrr
- I haven't seen it, and I don't know anything about it. Only reference I've ever seen to the franchise was in the second Wreck it Ralph movie (the shit one).
I’m a huge fan of TRON. I have a sealed vhs of the original, all the games, I even got the stupid $100 preorder statue for TRON: Evolution. I can admit the stories aren’t great, but the atmosphere and aesthetic is something I’ll never get enough of.
Avatar is great. One of the few mainstream films to directly challenge anthropocentrism and colonialism. The films are some of the highest grossing of all time, so I'm not alone in appreciating them.
- I know that they made a fuck ton of money, but the appreciation just seems hollow from most people. I don't remember anyone I know seeing the sequel or caring about its existence. I guess it had to have been seen by a lot of people for it to make that much. Maybe most people forgot about it the next day? Hell if I know. Fair enough opinion.
- It’s not exactly an original plot. It has the same plot as, off the top of my head:
  Dances With Wolves
  Fern Gully
  Exodus
  The Lego Movie
Tron fan here. The movies are about how software should be free
The first one was absolutely kick ass if you were an eight year old video game/computer nerd when it came out.
I used to work with a guy that swore he thought Avatar was one of the greatest movies ever made, he owned multiple copies on different formats
- I judge movies and books by how much I remember the next day. I'm not too bright and easily excited, gotta sleep on it.
  Avatar was awesome on the big screen. Totally forgotten the next day. Watched it maybe twice more, pretty sure it's on the server, still don't remember it.
- Huh. I mean, I'm sure it's a decent enough movie, but it just completely lacks any cultural impact. It's not known for anything besides blue people.
Avatar had Banshees from StarCraft in it, that shit was amazing
Tron, yes, unless we have pretty different opinions on what constitutes devoted. I had a watch party in prep for the first sequel coming out. // Avatar, I low key hate that movie but I still think this sounds almost sarcastic when asked. I mean it has its own dedicated section of Disney World. That's not something they did lightly. Things have died down some but people were obsessed.
- Wait really, since when? And I don't think that Disney really knows what consumers want. They've had quite a few massive flops in the past few years, and not nearly as many hits as they should've. The true success of a franchise is in the number of ao3 tags and fan theories. I have never met a person that cares about the blue people, or ever did. I assure you, I'm not being sarcastic, just flabbergasted.
The last airbender or the blue people?
Airbender rules. Blue people no one seems super high on but also those movies make billions so idk
- Blue people, ofc.
The second Avatar was actually decent. And I honestly went into it wanting to hate it lol
- I've only seen like the first 20 minutes of the second Avatar, but from that it seemed like it was just the first one, but again. Like, even the villain was the same guy from the first one, resurrected by the blue cat people's earth magic. Is there actually a twist that makes it worthwhile, or is it really just Big Cat People 2: Electric Bluegaloo?
I know some. He's still salty it didn't win any awards that year. Yes, the first one, over forty years ago.
I liked the move though. Fun. Award shows are just Hollywood circle jerks, so cares if Tron didn't win anything?
I love avatar, it rocks

All of this had happened before, all of this will happen again

Slow your roll battlestar irony.
- There is only one true God, Gaius.

First two were good. Haven't seen the latest, but not interested.

@Hammerjack it is sad as I’ve enjoyed each one more than the previous.

jared leto is probably the reason, so much so hes the only one on the front cover, and no women wants to be nex tto him.

I fee like these movies are aimed at someone like me, a tech nerd that loves action movies and rides a motorcycle. But somehow, these movies don't resonate with me at all. IMHO the plot is weak, half of the time the movie doesn't make any sense, it just feels like a random vibe movie which just isn't for me.