Interesting read, nice to see a movie making this kind of effort.
On a side note: I watched this movie on a streaming site... (i.e., I watched it in poor quality).
That was a bad choice.
The plot, storyline, and dialogue is kind of weak. The visuals certainly are not. Watch this in high-res quality, and think of it as an over-budgeted Daft Punk music video instead of a movie, and you'll have a great time watching it.
I think in this way it was a perfect successor to the original. Beautiful impressive visuals (each for their time, remember) with a 'cyberpunk-lite' plot to provide a reason for those visuals.
As far as cyberpunk in media that dare actually include cyberspace aspects (so for example, not Blade Runner), I think it stacks up pretty well. The Matrix 'cheats' by explicitly declaring that their cyberspace was built to seem real, and Johnny Mnemonic, rather bluntly, falls on it's face when trying to pull it off (I do love that movie though).
Opinions are a very nebulous thing, there is no "right or wrong" in the subject. So while I disagree with all of those points (for reference: when I grew up Tron was in the same class of movies as the Star Wars trilogy and the Indiana Jones movies, I can't even begin to count how many times I watched them), those are nevertheless legitimate points for you.
There is objective vs subjective. Subjective: I thought the club scene sucked. Subjective: The vehicle scenes were not exciting. Objective: There's no reason to believe Flynn Jr is good at the games he's asked to play inside the computer. Objective: Holding a disc over your head in an i/o beam is not how you leave the computer in the universe of Tron.
You might enjoy Tron Uprising, the Disney cartoon, as a modern take on Tron. Brilliant sound and art design and the story makes more sense since taking place only in universe.
It is amusing though that pretty much everyone agrees that both movies have deep flaws. The disagreement seems to arise in whether the things the movies do uniquely correctly (or at least differently) make up for it. Not exactly a ringing endorsement no matter how you slice it.
>think of it as an over-budgeted Daft Punk music video instead of a movie
Check out the Disney cartoon Tron Uprising -- it has a similar but different visual style, a dash of Aeon Flux, and gorgoeus sound deisgn that builds directly off the Daft Punk soundtrack. The story is okay too especially as it gets much darker towards the end of the season.
Top Gear used a whole bunch of the songs from it over a season or two - I guess they bought the rights to use the soundtrack and wanted to get their money's worth ;-)
On a side note: I watched this movie on a streaming site... (i.e., I watched it in poor quality).
That was a bad choice.
The plot, storyline, and dialogue is kind of weak. The visuals certainly are not. Watch this in high-res quality, and think of it as an over-budgeted Daft Punk music video instead of a movie, and you'll have a great time watching it.