We went to a movie last night to which I was really looking forward. Tron: Legacy. You see, back when Tron came out in 1982, I saw it, I love it. Yes, I'm a geek. It was a cheesy movie in some ways. But it was innovative for its time. Computers weren't everyday things then. The filming was cool because the inside the computer stuff was filmed in black and white and colored with the neon lights. Light cycles weren't known then, they were invented in that movie. Everything was. And the story was about taking down a bad-guy who was the undeserved head of the company because he'd stolen from Flynn.
This "sequel" now, almost 30 years later is simply a disappointment. We've come a long way in film technology so it was visually well done. But the sad thing was that we as an audience have advanced 30 years and the world of Tron didn't. The inside the world of the computer of Tron is limited to what Flynn knew in 1989. It's a closed system and he is the creator and limited to his own knowledge of the world when he disappeared in 1989 (read 1982). Example: the first ad came out for cell phones in 1989 and they were big blocky things, ferheavenssake. But the audience of this film lives in a world of technological complexity in our everyday lives; of networks, of the Internet, of cell phones that are mini-computers themselves. The story of this movie is stuck in the 80s even when set in the present. It offered nothing new. The same things in the original Tron movie are in this movie in 2010: light cycles, the light ship, the Frisbee-like discs. Nothing new. Except that now the evil-bad-guy isn't the head of a corporation it's us and our flawed concept of trying to build perfection. That the important thing in life isn't building an empire, it's family. Really? It took (some) in Hollywood this long to figure out what we've been living all our lives?
Tron: Legacy may have found a new audience in the youngsters (and by the previews, that was definitely their intended market) but they've damned near destroyed the reputation of a cult movie favorite. The recent remake of Star Trek was clever to take a known world/story and put a twist to it that let them be free to be innovative in that world if they choose to continue to make movies in it. And believe me, with the passion of the Trekkers they took a risk but it worked. The makers of Tron ....... did not.
I'm working on the February issue today and doing laundry. I've started reading THE ELIXIR OF DEATH by Bernard Knight which I'll tell you about tomorrow.
Enjoy your Sunday....
Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster
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