Ron Reviews TRON Legacy

Well, I wasn't sure if this movie would be good at all, but the trailers had me pumped up. So I went, I saw, and Awesome was delivered. I was captivated from the beginning and remained so throughout. Now I must preface this with the fact that this movie is right up my alley combining aspects of technology with the fantastical, but for the most part I can still admit it when a movie sucks (think Wolverine.) I saw the movie in IMAX 3D and the visuals -even in the trailers- were amazing. One of the coolest parts of the movie was how Jeff Bridges was two roles in the movie, Kevin Flynn and his ever younger computerized clone CLU. They did an excellent job on CLU who was 100% CGI. He kind of reminded me of Prince Charming in the Shrek franchise. But the greatness of this movie is not just in the visual. Each and every character was unique and drew you further into the story. I think Garret Hedlund did an excellent job as the lead and the stunningly beautiful Olivia Wilde made geeks everywhere have accidental boners. Now I’m not sure how many of us twenty-somethings saw the first TRON movie that was released back in the eighties, but I can assure you that this sets the bar at a whole new level. Everything has been re-imagined yet it still paid homage to the original story. Some things such as light cycles and identity discs remain, but new additions like some sort of seudo light saber Quorra (Olivia Wilde) uses adds a fresh look (and fulfills geek dreams.) This brings me to my biggest revelation on the movie. There are a TON of Star Wars parallels in this flick. Seriously, if you are a fan of Star Wars and didn’t see the parallels, shame on you! For those of you who haven’t seen the film stop reading now because this is your fair warning…

SPOILER ALERT

Ok first off let’s just point out that when CLU converts TRON into an evil program there is a parallel between Palpatine and Anakin. Now this also relates because initially he was good and the entire system was counting on him to be the chosen one, or savior. This is further evident towards the end of the movie when TRON collides his light plane into CLU’s just like how Vader saved Luke by intervening against the Emperor. Still not convinced? Ok. How about the scene when Flynn walks up to the light ship and says “I am taking this ship” In my opinion, a little too “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” Now there are more parallels a bit more obvious such as the use of light saber like devices and CLU’s ship (looks an awful lot like a Corellian Corvette.) Now to top it off here is the money shot - Kevin Flynn uses the force at the end of the film to defeat CLU. I mean it’s not called the force, but when you are all meditative and throw people around with your mind, what else would you call it?

Putting the Star Wars parallels aside, I think that this is a must see. It’s an enjoyable two hours of your life you will spend on this and truth be told, it didn’t even seem that long. Go see it and tell us what you think. If you’re not registered to leave comments, then kick it on our Twitter page JRAgressive or send an email to ProgressivelyAggressive@live.com

OVERALL: 9/10

John Reviews The Dark Knight #1

Batman: The Dark Knight #1 REVIEW
Review by John

Before picking up the debut issue of David Finch's Batman: The Dark Knight, I had been weighing my overall feelings on artists who write their own books. I've seen enough positives in the past year to not have as high of reservations as I initially imagined. J.H. Williams' Batwoman #0 showed a lot of promise and love for the character, and I personally have loved Tony Daniel's Batman run (with the obvious exception of the abysmal Battle for the Cowl). With Finch staying in the bat Universe, this book had all the makings of a success.

And y'know what? It's not half bad.

The story revolves around a childhood romance (at briefly insinuated one, at least) between Bruce Wayne and a new character, Dawn Golden. I'm not spoiling anything by saying that we've flash forwarded to the present and Dawn has gone missing, with Batman hot on the case. Finch delivers chance encounters with some lesser known characters in Gotham (one of which is delivered in a fantastic closing scene), and includes all the basic Batman checklist items required in a book such as this. Ornery Commissioner Gordon scene? Check. Batman beating on a random threat before getting into the real story? Check. Veiled threat lurking behind the scenes? You betcha.

With Finch's comments before the book's debut, stating he planned on keeping Batman's characterization "grim", he certainly delivers. Finch's take on the character seems to ignore the Zen-Master Batman that Grant Morrison has spent the better part of 6 years sculpting, so it is a bit of a shame to see our gruff, grumbling Batman again. But I'll admit it's still a guilty pleasure seeing Batman call a criminal "scum" as he grabs him by the shirt and pulls him eye-to-eye. Finch nails Commissioner Gordon's voice and has a solid read on the overall tone of Gotham, but the story itself is rather base. The beginning reminds me a lot of "Hush", with Batman's overactive deduction of a situation through internal monologue sparking memories of Jeph Loeb. The story itself, however, is a bit vanilla, and I really hope we see things amp up in the next issue.

Finch's pencils, combined with the always impressive Scott Williams on inks, is absoluely eye-popping. Finch packs a lot onto the page, and is refreshingly restrained with his splash pages. His hyper-realistic style would look very Ultimatum in the hands of a lesser inker, so the difference between Finch's early Marvel work and today is night and day.

Overall, another solid example of DC's artist/writer hybrids and a good start to one of two Bruce Wayne Batman books. But, with the impressive state of the current Bat Books, Finch is really going to have to turn up the volume on this series to stay in step with the competition.

OVERALL: 7/10