Tron Legacy was a heavily hyped sequel that just released in theaters, but the movie has received terrible reviews from critics. A few weeks ago I posted about when the Voyage of the Dawn Treader received an early review rating of 63% (view story). The Dawn Treader reviews have dropped from the initial 63%, but the new Narnia film is still far better reviewed than Tron Legacy’s poor rating of 48%. Tron Legacy is direct box office competitor with Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Among top-critics Tron Legacy is rated at 31%, but Voyage of the Dawn Treader is rated at 50%. When The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe released in theaters it had a great opening and then had competition from Peter Jackson’s King Kong the next week. Several people expected Narnia to fall victim to King Kong, but The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe remained the #1 film. This week we will wait and see if Tron Legacy flops and Voyage of the Dawn Treader retains its #1 status. I was very excited for Tron Legay until I heard that it was an absolute bust. I recommend that anyone who wants to see Tron Legacy must first watch the original Tron. If you didn’t like or understand the 1982 original than you will probably not enjoy the sequel. Continue reading to see quotes from a few of the film’s reviews.
“There are two great potholes all sequels face and must avoid if they have any hope of succeeding. TRON: Legacy doesn’t stumble into them so much as jump head first without a parachute.”-Joshua Starnes Coming Soon.Net
“Tron: Legacy shows off a world where everything is eye candy, and absolutely nothing is brain candy.”-Laremy Legel film.com
“TRON Legacy is the Windows Vista of movies – it’s got a beautiful interface, some great bells and whistles, but it does have a few unsightly bugs.”-Clint Morris Moviehole
“Techie reboot is visually dazzling but short on story.”-Sandie Angulo Chen Common Sense Media
Not to put down TRON, but I hope this helps Dawn Treader do even better! It’s possible that critics will realize soon that the Dawn Treader is the best movie of the holiday season, so they’ll automatically “like it” more (than the competition). So far, most people have been anticipating TRON, but if it turns out that it doesn’t do well, people will start to think, “Hey, that Narnia movie doesn’t seem too bad….”
Also, they have Yogi Bear (another supposed competition for the Dawn Treader) at a horrible 13%! “How Do You Know,” starring Reese Witherspoon, is at 37%. However, both “The Fighter” and “Black Swan” are at 88% approval. But I don’t think that should be a threat to Narnia, because both of those movies seem to be aimed at much older audiences.
and they seem to only be in select theaters.
Sometimes I see
Sorry for double post. Computer glitch 🙂
Sometimes I see Narnia down in the 49% range, so 47% isn’t that pathetic….. Also, most people don’t care what critics have to say about a movie they care about/want to see. So even if Narnia IS the better movie (which I’m sure it will be), people like pretty explosions and pretty people in skin-tight clothes (even an older, slightly larger Jeff Bridges… Weird..). While I don’t think Tron will completely kill Narnia off in the long-run, it certainly won’t make the fight any easier.
This seems like a bit of a mean spirited article just to take a cheap snipe at a rival. Who cares what the critics think of Tron Legacy? Narnia is hardly faring any better in the critical or commercial stakes. Why should we take any delight that Tron Legacy is receiving bad reviews? It’s just spiteful and uncalled for. What goes around comes around.
I don’t think it was mean spirited at all. There are nothing but facts reported here, as well as a recommendation. Reporting how a rival is doing as far as reviews isn’t sniping, it’s reporting what is happening. Granted, Narnia’s only faring 1% better, but it just goes to show how close they are to one another as far as the critical mass is concerned.
I agree with Paul.
It is not a fact that Tron’s rating was “pathetic.” That is an opinion, and a pretty extreme one in mI think. I would call that “poor.” Far from “pathetic.”
And, again, VDT’s rating is currently just 1% higher than Tron’s.
the point was it won’t be big competition if people believe the reviews and might go see narnia instead.
But if people believe the reviews for Tron, they’ll most likely belies the reviews for Narnia and won’t watch that either. Then they’ll consider Yogi Bear for an alternative kids movie, see that sucked, and then go watch Tangled, the only decent rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes appropriate for kids. Either way Narnia loses to Disney
47% pathetic? The Last Airbender had an 8%. 😉 😛
Sadly 🙁
Look at the Golden Globe Nominated “The Tourist” and tell me it deserves any awards, if only based on Critical response (which I don’t buy into myself). 21%
Critics are really only there to be pessimistic, too bad their reviews sometimes control wether or not people see a film. I don’t think Narnia is going to have a problem anymore because goodword of mouth is definately floating around for it including commercials on tv and the radio stating it is the #1 movie on Earth.
I love this! I root for the Narnia movies the way some people root for football teams. Of course I want the competition to lose! When I heard VOTD only made $24 million my heart was crushed. But if it beats Tron this weekend, I’ll be very happy! 🙂
VDT’s rating is currently at 49%. Tron is at 48%. So, by this article’s standards, both films’ ratings were “pathetic.”
Oh, and the original Tron is almost impossible to find. For an affordable price at least. If you can find it for less than $60, post the link!
Allegedly Disney had the original pulled from the shelves because it didn’t test screen too well and they were fearful that its presence would reflect badly on their new movie. Though Disney do systematically remove their own DVDs from store shelves all the time anyway as a matter of practice. It’s to ensure that their DVDs are never left filling up the sale racks or bargain bins and therefore helps them to protect the integrity of the Disney name brand.
I’ve got a copy of it sitting on my shelf upstairs. It’s terribly boring, but I bought it one day randomly thinking that it might be something that I’d be interested in. I’m still hoping to one day make it through from beginning to end.
My friends and I were actually saying we wanted to see the second one but then we all realized we have never seen the first.. and none of us own a copy of the original.
I agree with some of the others that it was uncalled for to call Tron’s rating “pathetic” considering how close it is to Dawn Treader’s score. However, I am glad for the news in general about Tron, since it is Voyage of the Dawn Treader’s biggest competition.
I noticed that Dawn Treader is doing much better than Tron among the “Top Critics.” VDT is now at 50% while Tron is only at 31%.
At any rate, I do hope Tron is not a blockbuster, simply because it will take away a lot of Narnia’s business if it is.
I must admit that the use of the word pathetic does seem a bit mean spirited considering Dawn Treaders rating but we must keep in mind that on the eve of the VDT release it was still (barely) fresh, so TRON has yet to fall to it’s truer rating.
Even though this has a small chance of happening with Yogi Bear, I would remember the big success of the annoying Alvin and the Chipmunks( which sadly made more than The Princess and the Frog, one of the only good things now from Disney). But then again, Yogi Bear doesn’t have a raised pitched singing voice, so that might be a drop. And Gulliver’s Travels looks extremely lame, so I think if parents see that Dawn Treader has no toilet humor, except maybe that remark made by Eustace talking about Ramandoo-doo’s Island, they would prefer something that at least isn’t annoying, and has a good talking animal.
Haha “Ramandoo-doo”…. =) Totally made my day.
Oh good…I’m not the only one that found that simply hilarious!
dude i totally forgot tron was coming out thanks for the reminder i am seeing it with my friends
dude! dont see it THIS weekend- youre hurting narnia!
has anyone seen TRON, and if so, how was it?
I’ve never put much stock in critics, there are movies they hated I liked, or even loved. And vice versa.
http://blog.boxofficespy.com/2010/12/tron-legacy-midnight-box-office-gross.html
I don’t know guys, but Tron: Legacy might just be a hit. $3.6 mil from midnight showings.
Please, please beat this VDT!
This article is a snipe. Although some say it is “just the facts,” this article is loaded with an subtly biased tone toward VDT. Perhaps it’s because it is a Narnia fan site. But really…
David Sutton says, “I recommend that anyone who wants to see Tron Legacy must first watch the original Tron. If you didn’t like or understand the 1982 original than you will probably not enjoy the sequel.”
You don’t have to watch the first at all to understand this one (And if anything just go to Wikipedia and look at the plot). I actually feel that you shouldn’t watch the first one. If you try to watch it now you may die of boredom.
I usually listen to RT, but really, this is one example of a time you shouldn’t. It is a visual and auditory masterpiece. It is more than a movie, it is an experience.
I’ve read every book from the CoN, and I loved the old original made for TV movies back in the day. Good movies so far now as well. But really, to try to bash another movie like this is uncalled for.
I had a feeling Tron would be more action than story. Later I had a second thought that it might be good, but now it seems it really isn’t all that it seems. Anyways go Narnia!
I just wanted to respond to everyone who viewed this article as a cheap shot at Tron Legacy. I have been equally critical of the poor reviews that Dawn Treader received when I posted an article about that. I changed the wording from “pathetic” to “poor” because that was a common recommendation. This topic is very relevant to the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I have reported only on the facts associated with the reviews. I included two quotes from “fresh” reviews and two quotes from “rotten” reviews to give a balanced assessment of the reviews.