Transcription
The most sophisticated security program ever written. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like you to meet Aries.
>> What? You did? What?
>> I'm I had to. Please. Please just hear me out. PLEASE.
[screaming and groaning]
>> INTRON. ARIES. Jared Leto. Uh-oh. Here we go again. Jared Leto plays an evil tech company security program who wants to live in the real world, but has one tiny problem. He can't survive beyond 29 minutes. And after having a change of heart, he joins forces with the leader of Kevin Flynn's old tech company to find the permanence code, which can make him real. And much like the character, the movie itself did not survive long past its birth. It flopped from its first weekend and ended up losing a fortune. Tough [music] times at Disney once again, which is sort of sad to hear because in many ways Tron Aries is the coolest movie of the year. It has the coolest music, the coolest color scheme, the coolest suits, the coolest vehicles, the coolest disintegrations, the coolest juxiposition of contrasting elements. It is so damn cool that you can basically call it a $200 million music video for the new 9-in Nails album. And [music] for that, I really enjoyed it.
But beyond that, as a narrative movie, Tron Aries failed badly. [screaming] And there are some easy answers as to why. They cast a weird cult leader guy who a lot of people dislike and actively avoid. They hired a director who doesn't have what it takes to save big franchises. Plus, this franchise has never been a mainstream box office [music] giant anyway.
But on the storytelling side, Tron Aries's failure can be explained with just one core word, artificial. Not artificial intelligence, just artificial. That's this movie's main flaw, that it feels fake, made up, not natural, like an artificially constructed product. The basis for the plot is not real and thus results in an unreal plot that you don't care about. the emotional and motivational elements that drive the story are not utilized enough to earn their existence and thus you don't really invest in them and the movie's entire point of existence is questionable at best because it doesn't build on the franchise but rather just leeches off its name. Isn't that right? CGI Jeff Bridges from 2010.
>> Yeah,
>> that is the failure of Tron Aries in a nutshell. Artificiality. So, let's transfer ourselves into this world to see how that happened. Despite all its coolness, why does Tron Aries feel like an artificially madeup movie with no real soul and how not to be the same?
The first artificial problem here is that the basis for the plot is fake and thus results in a plot that feels exactly that. Basically, the idea is that there are two rivaling companies looking to use Tron technology to bring digital assets permanently into real life for their own reasons. The Dillinger company [music] wants to create an army for profit while the income company wants to create food and medicine for common [music] good. And the issue is that neither side is a genuine thing that really exists. Yeah, we hear opening exposition about getting supplies for the less fortunate and whatnot. Feed the hungry, cure the sick, educate the world.
>> But that's not a real thing. Hunger and poverty and sickness do not exist here. There is not a single character in the movie who's currently hungry or poor or sick or in need of help. Yeah, we see Dillinger talking to whatever shady generals and investors about the manufactured army.
>> Aries is the ultimate soldier. It's full-scale war, 5 minutes notice,
>> but that's not a real thing. We have no idea who these people are or what they need an army for. There are no wars or rebellions or power struggle conflicts in the movie that would require a manufactured army. Meaning that this whole basis for the plot about bringing digital assets into the real world is fake. And the argument you can make is that well, it's fine because it's not the point anyway. The main point of the plot is about programs discovering humanity and purpose and rebelling against their creators. It's not really about investors or the poor. So why would those have to be real? Well, for the simple fact that if the basis for why the plot is born is not genuine, then neither can the result be. For example, imagine pirates but without Beckett and the East India Trading Company. Let's say they don't exist. Let's say there's just some mentions that maybe the king of England is somewhere and he wants Davy Jones's heart to fight piracy but isn't actually in the movie. Whatever. The main plot is about the fight against Davy Jones anyway. So, it would still work the same, RIGHT?
[screaming]
>> WRONG.
>> It would not work the same because the entire foundation for the plot and its stakes and the reason we fight hinges on Beckett and the company existing. We cannot let the heart fall into the wrong hands because Beckett will use it to eradicate piracy and freedom. And we see it happen. We see Becket [music] commanding Jones to paint pirates everywhere into a corner. We see the world [music] losing its wonder.
>> Still thinking of running, Jack? Think you can outrun the world?
>> The stakes are real. The world is real. The reason to fight is real. And therefore, so too is the plot born from them. That's what Tron Aries is missing. The plot is built on a foundation that doesn't really exist. It's like a placeholder that the writers forgot to fill in. An excuse to get to the cool fighting stuff because whatever.
>> Catchphrase. Catchphrase.
>> Well, they don't think one up yet. Although catchphrase is a catchphrase is a pretty cool catchphrase.
>> The point is that for a plot to feel genuine, the foundation below it must be genuine. You should have shown the poverty and sickness that we're trying to cure with this manufacturing technology. You should have built one investor into a real character and established a conflict that we can't let them get a manufactured army for. Because at the end of the day, your plot is either genuine or it isn't. It's a real thing that the audience can really care about or it's not. You cannot build anything tangible on an intangible foundation. If the plot seed that you plant is fake, so too will be the tree that grows from it.
The second artificial problem here is that the main emotional and motivational elements that drive the movie are not given enough of a real form. At first glance, there is plenty of stuff in here that you should be able to invest in. The story is about an enemy program discovering humanity and breaking free of his programming. The emotional anchor is about a CEO finishing her dead sister's work as a way of coping with the loss. The villain side isn't straightforward, but involves a mother son relationship. And the main objective is to find a permanence [music] code to bring digital assets to life permanently. But looking closer, you can quickly see that all these central elements are like 2D projections with nothing tangible beyond the surface.
With the permanence code, for example, it feels 100% bogus, a fully arbitrary answer to a fully arbitrary problem. The basic gist is that manufacturing digital assets comes with a time limit of 29 minutes, after which they evaporate. It's why Dillinger can't sell soldiers to the army and why Encom can't make food for the poor because they don't last. That is where permanence comes in. [music] A piece of code made by Flynn that allows digital assets to live beyond those 29 minutes. And as you can already maybe tell, everything I just said is made up with no grounded rules or logic. Why do digital assets survive only 29 minutes? Why wouldn't the army be happy to have recreatable super soldiers 29 minutes at a time? And how much longer do the assets live after gaining permanence forever or not forever as is implied later?
>> How to be called the impermanence code?
>> I don't know. I barely even know how permanence comes to be or how it works. The hero goes to Flynn's old computer to do some typing.
>> Gigabyte of RAM.
>> And now she apparently has the code.
>> That's how he hit it. It's two lines.
>> Okay. What I'm getting at is that this whole thing feels made up. And although you can say that writing is always made up, it's not the same. There's a difference between building a realistic narrative and just inventing halfbaked stuff as you go. For example, once Dillinger finds out that the hero might have found the permanence code, he uploads Aries into Encom server to steal their files. And although it is a fictional written scene, it makes sense in and of itself. There's an understandable obstacle and a way to overcome it on screen that follows rationale. It plays within realistic rules with grounded logic. It has enough of a form to stand on its own. It's a pretty great scene. But with the permanent stuff, it's as if the writers are inventing all the rules and logic out of thin air. Yeah. Yeah. Digital assets only last for 29 minutes for some reason, but there's this code that makes them last longer. Why? Well, because I made it up and that's it. It's a madeup problem with a madeup solution.
>> Wait, are you serious? So, no more 29 minutes.
>> And this lack of building grounded three-dimensionality is what affects all those central elements. They're too shallow to get invested in. Aries goes on a path of becoming a real person outside his programming. But what is it that starts him down the path? Well, he sees Rain for the first time, and that somehow breaks his programming, I guess. The hero looks for the permanence code because it's a way for her to finish her dead sister's work. But how is the dead sister aspect resolved? It isn't. The hero finds the code right away, and then the dead sister is kind of forgotten about, except for a couple mentions later. You completed her work as a way to stay connected to her and now what? The villain has a relationship with his mom, but it's shallow at best and we never properly dive into the emotions or power dynamics or unresolved relationship issues that drive the dynamic. The movie just says they are big business mother and son and it's tragic and that's [music] it. Not enough there to really get into.
The point is that your elements will have three-dimensionality only when you create it. If the hero is motivated by her dead sister, then that motivation needs to be more present to the end and be given a real resolution. Like maybe the hero is doing this to bring a version of her sister to life or save her from a terminal illness because she can't move on from her. But then throughout the story, she learns to cope with the loss and eventually chooses to let her sister go. Because by then she has learned that having one go at life is what makes life precious. Now the element would have enough of a tangible form to latch on to to care about. But if you don't actually utilize your elements and instead just say they exist somewhere in the background, then no, nobody will care about a fake 2D background projection that you made up.
Another artificial problem here is that the movie doesn't continue the franchise's main ideas to earn its existence, but just kind of uses the franchise for its name. Basically, a lot of the Tron things that this movie sells itself with are not genuine. They exist, but only on the fringes. Yes, there are game companies and games like was always Tron's basis, but they're not relevant. We don't get into what kind of games this company makes aside from shortly referencing old ones. And it's a bit weird how we jump from a game conference scene to a scene about trying to figure out eternal life.
>> Boy, that escalated [music] quickly.
>> The game stuff is there, but not really. Yes, there is a power struggle for the future of Encom like in Tron Legacy, but it's nothing like Intron Legacy. What used to be a power struggle within the company over its direction has now turned into a race between two people in different companies. Dillinger used to be Killian Murphy working for ENCOM.
>> The idea of sharing our software or giving it away for free disappeared with Kevin Flynn
>> and now he's a CEO of another company that apparently has existed for generations.
>> That escalated quick.
>> The company power struggle is there but not in a way that would further develop what it used to be. It's not really about income anymore. Incom as a company and business is no longer relevant. Yes, the heroes from Tron Legacy do exist in this world, but they may as well not. They're not present at all, and their presence is not felt at all, and we only know about them because of a couple quick mentions.
>> After Sam [music] Flynn resigns for personal reasons.
>> Is that it?
>> I think so.
>> They exist, but not really. There's more examples to say, but what I'm getting at is that this movie does not push earlier ideas further, but just kind of includes them while doing something else. Look at Flynn's scene for example. Yes, we go to the old Tron version and Flynn is there and it's all very radical, but nothing more. It's a certified cameo where we see old stuff and hear the old hero say things as he hands out the mcguffin. It doesn't even connect to what happened in Legacy. The past is barely mentioned and the scene mostly consists of Flynn gushing over Aries.
>> That's very good. Classic humor, man. Very good, man.
>> Love that you keep surprising me.
>> I exist in this moment because you do.
As a whole, even if Tron Legacy didn't exist, nothing significant about Tron Aries would change. And why is that a problem? Well, it comes down to the question of rebooting versus soft booting. When you reboot a franchise, you go in to rebuild it from ground level. And since the filmmakers here didn't want to do that, they chose to soft boot instead, which means building on top of the past. But the thing is, when you build on previous movies, you actually have to build on what the previous movies did, continue that work. As much as the new Jurassic movies have their problems, Jurassic World did do a fair enough job carrying the torch further and found success. And Tron Aries fails to do that. It just kind of features prior work on the outskirts to leech off of it. It pretends to be something it's not to try to cash in on the franchise name. And look, some things are beyond control. You're not going to get Killian Murphy or Olivia Wild to come back. Understandable. But god damn, at least continue the main ideas. For example, a big thematic part of Legacy was the idea of moving on. The hero couldn't get over his dad disappearing and was stuck in life, still hoping to find him one day. And that's something this movie could have taken further. Instead of a simple cameo, Flynn's scene could have been a next step in that. You know, once Aries gets the mcguffin and is about to leave Flynn, he would realize that, "Wait a [music] minute, if I leave, you will cease to exist." since this copy is all that's left of you after what happened in Legacy. And to that, Flynn could verbalize the ultimate lesson that Legacy was building up to. Hey man, the key to life isn't to worry about it ending. It's to live it. And I already lived mine. [music] Tell my son I said hi. Just an example, but it would work as a retrospective conclusion to what Legacy was going for, but couldn't do in the same retrospective way because it ended more in beautiful tragedy. And then you can actually play the lyrics written for the scene since apparently 9-in nails understands the theme better than the filmmakers. [music]
The point is that there's a right and wrong way to boot softly. Either you continue the work of the past to new levels to earn your existence or you just use the past without even justifying your existence. And if you choose the latter, no amount of visual or musical coolness can hide the truth about your movie that it was made not because it needed to, but just for the sake of making it, because why not?
All that being said though, tell them human Jeff Bridges from 2025.
>> 9in nails, man.
[music]
>> But it's one last thing before Christmas break. Let me ask you this. Do you sit down a lot? Are you seated when working or gaming or studying? Do you do it so much that at times it gets uncomfortable? Well, that's a sign you're a real human. And I feel the same way. Each day I do hours and hours of editing and writing and even some gaming. And often I sit down for that. Please no more, begged Filmentoto's back.
>> I can't I can't do it.
>> But not to worry, for I have the permanent solution. Today's sponsor, Flexispot. Flexispot knows that people are individuals of all shapes and sizes. So they made their chairs not only ergonomic, but also highly customizable. You can tilt the 3D headrest. You can lift and lower the back rest. You can modify the lumbar support. You can change the seat depth. You can adjust the armrests, foot rest, everything.
>> It's even bigger than any of us could have imagined.
>> Doesn't matter if you want to sit legs cross like a monk or lie back like your favorite YouTuber. You can. And with the soft, breathable seat, you're going to be comfortable way beyond 29 minutes. Right now, Flexispot is running a big end of the year deal. So, check out their site to find the right model for you. You get a $50 holiday discount by using code C750 at the link below with a 10-year warranty and a 30-day free return policy. Very nice. And see you guys next year.