Tron: Ares

[Seto Kaiba]

6 hours ago, Big s said:

Sometimes a movie can make far more than it’s budget worldwide, but I guess other things like hardcore marketing can cost far more than the budgets  and I’d imagine that spending on that one was quite a bit. I remember a lot of commercials for it compared to the more recent film that seems to mostly just have a YouTube spot here and there. 

Sometimes, it's just that the producers oversold the movie's prospects in order to get funding and in so doing set the bar for "success" higher than was realistically achievable.

Sometimes, it's because someone else overpromised and underdelivered or just plain overspent and gave the executives cold feet. 

[TangledThorns]

Disney should check with this forum before they make another legacy film. I'm kinda sorta serious. 

[Dynaman]

The first thing they would have to ask is how to maximize profits.  With the movie business still going through the fallout from Covid and the unrelated drop off in Superhero box office (I think the drop off in Superhero movie take was due soon anyway) I'm not sure anyone can answer that.  From what I hear those that have actually seen the movie said it was decent and worth seeing at the theater - but getting people out to a movie takes more than that now.

[electric indigo]

You'd think that Tron is a pretty recognizable brand with unlimited merchandise potential across all ages. All it needs is a more compelling narration that A) roots it deep in the 80s retro game vibe culture or B) makes it more relevant in the recent tech/AI development background. Ares was neither, and the narrative failures finished it off IMO.

[Chowser]

Watched it opening night in 3D.  Yes I miss the OG actors and Legacy actors.  Not a fan of what they did to them, but it was a watchable movie.

I had the soundtrack a week before the movie came out.

 

[mikeszekely]

19 hours ago, electric indigo said:

You'd think that Tron is a pretty recognizable brand with unlimited merchandise potential across all ages.

And yet this is what they came up with.  At that price.

They're like a third of the way through the funding period, and they've got barely over 1000 of the 10,000 backers they need.  I think it's way overpriced... if these were retail figures, it'd be, what, $20 a pop for 3.75" figures, and say $40 per lightcycle (a bit high, but prices I might be willing to pay, for Flynn, Tron, Sark, and the lightcycles, but to heck with Yori and generic badguy program).  That's only about $180.  I definitely don't need a light-up base for $80 more.  Again, I'd have rather they had an actual Tron toyline with stuff from all three films... they I might get Sam, Quora, Ares, Athena, and Eve, a Legacy and Ares Lightcycle, one of those jet things Athena was flying around in, and some Recognizers.

[Big s]

32 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

And yet this is what they came up with.  At that price.

They're like a third of the way through the funding period, and they've got barely over 1000 of the 10,000 backers they need.  I think it's way overpriced... if these were retail figures, it'd be, what, $20 a pop for 3.75" figures, and say $40 per lightcycle (a bit high, but prices I might be willing to pay, for Flynn, Tron, Sark, and the lightcycles, but to heck with Yori and generic badguy program).  That's only about $180.  I definitely don't need a light-up base for $80 more.  Again, I'd have rather they had an actual Tron toyline with stuff from all three films... they I might get Sam, Quora, Ares, Athena, and Eve, a Legacy and Ares Lightcycle, one of those jet things Athena was flying around in, and some Recognizers.

Yeah, I’ve said in the 1/18th thread that these are way overpriced for what you get. The wheel on the front of the bikes don’t even roll. They’re simple no detail add ons to a small low detail figure. I still think the figure should be ten and maybe as a bike and figure set something like twenty to twenty five. I think they look cool, but not at the asking price 

[sh9000]

Hasbro's 6" Tron Legacy figures will probably not do well either.

[Magnus]

Which is a shame because I will buy every single one of those Legacy toys.  They look amazing. 

Tron Ares being a bomb could be seen coming from a mile away.  I sometimes feel like i'm on crazy pills when it comes to Hollywood.  

It seems so blindingly obvious what you need to do:  make a product that builds on the existing fanbase while bringing in new fans. 

You do this by having continuity throughout your films, not starting over fresh when you're already 3 deep.  Bring back the old actors.  Treat them with respect and care.  Bring in new, appealing characters that complement them, not override them.  Tell a fun story with no heavy-handed messaging.  These are kindergarten-level concepts. 

How are any execs at these studios actually getting paid?

[TangledThorns]

48 minutes ago, Magnus said:

Which is a shame because I will buy every single one of those Legacy toys.  They look amazing. 

Tron Ares being a bomb could be seen coming from a mile away.  I sometimes feel like i'm on crazy pills when it comes to Hollywood.  

It seems so blindingly obvious what you need to do:  make a product that builds on the existing fanbase while bringing in new fans. 

You do this by having continuity throughout your films, not starting over fresh when you're already 3 deep.  Bring back the old actors.  Treat them with respect and care.  Bring in new, appealing characters that complement them, not override them.  Tell a fun story with no heavy-handed messaging.  These are kindergarten-level concepts. 

How are any execs at these studios actually getting paid?

 

Sometimes I think its because of cocaine or money laundering. 

[mcfly50]

[Bolt]

Lol 

Just got back from seeing a matinee with my son. It was pretty fun on the big screen and wasn't as bad as i thought it might be. The soundtrack is absolutely great at volume and the visuals are too. The plot left a lot of room for sequel potential and other stories to continue. It definitely felt more like this was another story about the grid and not an actual continuation of Legacy. 

Spoiler

The only real connection is Encom but mostly in name.

All in all, well worth the matinee with my son. 

[Big s]

5 hours ago, Magnus said:

How are any execs at these studios actually getting paid?

I’ve been wondering this about almost every Disney production. The moment you think they may have learned a lesson, they go right back to messing things up again. Kinda like a junkie that seems like they may have turned things around after rehab and asks to borrow some cash, but it turns out that they just want to buy more smack. And once you think maybe they’ve reached rock bottom then they make Iron Heart

[M'Kyuun]

My wife and I went to see Tron: Ares this past weekend. It was neither great nor terrible, but I found it an enjoyable escape. It told its own story within the Tron universe with some nice homages to the original film and the briefest of references to Legacy. The visuals were certainly beautiful, as one would expect following Legacy. The mid-credits scene makes me hope this does well enough to justify a sequel, as what it promises has more to do with legacy than Legacy.

[TangledThorns]

Watched the original TRON on D+ last night and for the first time it felt dated and kinda lost my nostalgia for it too. I think ARES is to blame for that loss of nostalgia.  

[mechaninac]

50 minutes ago, TangledThorns said:

Watched the original TRON on D+ last night and for the first time it felt dated and kinda lost my nostalgia for it too. I think ARES is to blame for that loss of nostalgia.  

What modern Disney does to all IPs under its umbrella has that effect on all the OG stuff.  I, for one, find it extremely hard (more like impossible) to watch the original and prequal Star Wars trilogies precisely because of the extreme bad taste the sequel travesty has left in its wake; same goes for Marvel... not even the good stuff predating the Rat is any fun to watch anymore.  It's a real shame that in their arrogance they broke the chain of good will, wonder and nostalgia that built those franchises into the juggernauts they once were.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, TangledThorns said:

Watched the original TRON on D+ last night and for the first time it felt dated and kinda lost my nostalgia for it too. I think ARES is to blame for that loss of nostalgia.  

It’s kinda like that for Indy and Star Wars and Willow and even the early Marvel films that aren’t nearly as old. Once the mouse 💩s on things, it’s kinda hard to go back and enjoy things from better times.

[electric indigo]

We may not get another Tron movie, but we're moving closer to the Lightcycle.

 

[M'Kyuun]

11 hours ago, TangledThorns said:

Watched the original TRON on D+ last night and for the first time it felt dated and kinda lost my nostalgia for it too. I think ARES is to blame for that loss of nostalgia.  

Responding, too, to @mechaninac and @Big s's posts, sequels generally don't erode the enjoyment I feel for the original films. Tron, of course, looks dated; that's an inescapable fact, but it's also part of its charm and I'm not bothered by it. Same goes for many 80s movies oozing with practical effects, many of which don't look so great to the modern eye. Perhaps I've a greater tolerance than most, but I can still enjoy a lot of pre-CG sci-fi and horror films (Tron takes the prize for being one of the first heavy-CG films from the 80s, along with The Last Starfighter). I have a great deal of respect for the practical effects artists that conjured up ways to make writers' and directors' words and visions come to fruition in a tangible fashion for filming. It's becoming a rarer art these days, but there are still directors who choose to use practical effects over CG whenever possible, and I think it makes a difference when seeing a real model as opposed to a CG creation, be it a ship, a creature, a miniature cityscape, what have you.

Anyway, I hope someday you'll find your way back to the OG films without the bitterness of whatever company, director, studio, etc has done to sour your view of them and simply enjoy them for their merits. 

[Big s]

28 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Responding, too, to @mechaninac and @Big s's posts, sequels generally don't erode the enjoyment I feel for the original films. Tron, of course, looks dated; that's an inescapable fact, but it's also part of its charm and I'm not bothered by it. Same goes for many 80s movies oozing with practical effects, many of which don't look so great to the modern eye. Perhaps I've a greater tolerance than most, but I can still enjoy a lot of pre-CG sci-fi and horror films (Tron takes the prize for being one of the first heavy-CG films from the 80s, along with The Last Starfighter). I have a great deal of respect for the practical effects artists that conjured up ways to make writers' and directors' words and visions come to fruition in a tangible fashion for filming. It's becoming a rarer art these days, but there are still directors who choose to use practical effects over CG whenever possible, and I think it makes a difference when seeing a real model as opposed to a CG creation, be it a ship, a creature, a miniature cityscape, what have you.

Anyway, I hope someday you'll find your way back to the OG films without the bitterness of whatever company, director, studio, etc has done to sour your view of them and simply enjoy them for their merits. 

I guess another example that predates the Mouse acquisitions would be the alien movies. I liked the first and second films, but the third movie kinda diminished my enjoyment of the second film. Knowing that everything was for nothing kinda made it less ent for me. I took a few years and try my best to pretend that they didn’t just ruin the ending to one of the greatest sequels of all time