DH's review of TRON: Legacy is up:

[link]

Oh dear.

From io9, Tron Legacy is a colossal failure of movie-making

Back in 1982, Tron zapped us into a whole new world of storytelling. You can still feel the love, and excitement, on every frame of that movie. So it's sad that Tron Legacy turns those thrills into snoozes. Spoilers ahead.

I'm seeing it tonight in IMAX 3D, so it should at least be a good spectacle.

Besides, here's a counterpoint:

Tron Legacy: 60 Terabytes of Amazing on a 2 Gig Flash Drive:

It's pretty much guaranteed to disappoint, right? I know some were, but I couldn't pry my eyes off the screen for the entire running time of the movie, and of all the emotions I experienced in the theater, disappointment definitely wasn't one of them.

As I expected, I fell more on the Zach Oat side than the Charlie Jane side (colossal failure of movie-making, really?). It's a fun adventure story with some cool thematic elements, and even though very little about the Grid makes sense, I didn't really expect it to. I expected lots of awesome setpieces, and I got them, CRAZY BIG and in 3D!

Re: Dawn Treader, and Consuela's thoughts on the plot changes. I didn't hate the changes they made to the plot, not even the slightly odd concept of a great evil to be defeated. The problem with the book (which is my favourite of the Narnia books), for me, is that it doesn't always hold together very well. It aims for epic, but ends up feeling a bit unconnected. The changes made it work as a movie. This is what I really like about these Narnia films - they don't just film the books, as with the Harry Potter films, but they make movies. It works for me. I can see that they might have been trying to set up The Silver Chair, which I seem vaguely to recall features a lot of green (and is a truly pointless book that I can't remember very well), but I think it worked regardless of that.

I'll be interested to see if they can make a success of a movie of The Silver Chair. The BBC adaptations of the books, of which I was an enormous fan growing up, were great until they got to that one, which was a disaster. The book just doesn't appeal. Unless that's just me. But I think there's almost nothing to it.

But I think there's almost nothing to it.

But but but! It has Marsh-Wiggles and Giants eating people! Chases and escapes! Underground worlds with eerie people! Oaths that demand to be broken!

More importantly, to me, it has: -- Jill Pole, who is, unlike the other girls in the series, kind of a fuck-up, who changes and grows during the book. -- A defined goal: find and rescue Prince Rilian before his father dies. -- Actual discomfort and stress for the characters, who do not necessarily respond well. -- A series of challenges, which are defeated in unexpected ways. Aslan does not pop in at the climactic moment to fix things. -- Death.

I think, as a narrative, it's stronger than the first three books, although it's not as well-liked because it's less wish-fulfillment IMHO. Except for the end, which is totally wish-fulfillment: who wouldn't want a King back from the dead and a magical Lion to beat up your school bullies?

people keep talking about this movie but no one mentions the MOST IMPRTANT thing--how is Reepicheep? I loves me some gallant adorable Reepicheep.

Reepicheep is awesome. He's less funny in this one--they switched his voice actor from Eddie Izzard to Simon Pegg--but he has a wonderful relationship with Eustace, and is just lovely.

But but but! It has Marsh-Wiggles and Giants eating people! Chases and escapes! Underground worlds with eerie people! Oaths that demand to be broken!

Heh. OK, all good things. There are some redeeming qualities to it. There's a lot I don't like, though. I particularly dislike that it feels the most directly preachy of the books. Here's a set of instructions that you must follow to the letter, for no good reason except that Aslan says so and he is always right and therefore there is no better way to get things done.

Admittedly, this reaction may be illustrative of an epic battle for my soul between Liberal Christian Me and Former Evangelical Christian Me. Or just a long-standing distaste for stories influenced by St Paul's ideas. Which may be the same thing.

Reepicheep's good in this! I rather liked Simon Pegg as him. Bit more depth of character.

Here's a set of instructions that you must follow to the letter, for no good reason except that Aslan says so

Point, although the stories are pretty much full of various types of prophecy anyway, so I gave it a pass, especially since the reveals were somewhat unexpected.