New World Cinema: What Do You Think of *TRON Legacy*?

TRON Legacy, upcoming sequel of the 80's geek classic starring Jeff Bridges, which did a lot to introduce the concept of virtual worlds to a mass audience, has a new trailer:

I bet the original has a lot of fans who are reading this blog, but I remember it for having a great kernel of an idea that got lost in gummy pacing and lack of narrative drive. The new version seems to duct tape any residual affection for that movie onto a gleaming, Matrix-y exterior, and you have to wonder what the 18-24 demographic who comprise the core audience of any big studio theatrical release will make of this odd extension of a movie made during a time when most computers were less powerful than the smartphone in their pocket. I sort of wish the virtual world depicted in this movie looked more like the brain of Jeff Bridge's Dude Lebowski, full of phallic paraphernalia, Viking babes, and European nihilists with giant scissors. You know, more like Second Life.

Update, 9:15am: Ann Otoole reminds us that "rez", Second Life jargon for instantiating a prim object, originates from the first TRON film.

Comments

[Ann Otoole InSL]

I think the girl at 1:55 has a really nice look about her. :)

Should be a good movie. After all that is where "rezz" originated right?

[Tinsel Silvera]

I like what I have seen so far. I saw the original in the theater at the time and plan to see this one too. As for "gummy pacing and lack of narrative drive" you must have seen the movie with Roger Ebert. 8) I was a teen at the time and blown away by the movie. I think the 18-24 year olds will like it but it's my generation that will appreciate it the most. Tron comes full circle for us.

[melponeme_k]

The first one had little in the way of plot. But it was powered by a good looking trio of actors: Boxleitner, Bridges and Morgan. They made the flimsy move with nice special effects more profound than it was.

This new film threw all of that out to appeal to the teenagers who don't even know the original film and never think about it.

I still can't get over the fact that they killed off Morgan's character. She is one of the first female action heroines after all.

[nexus burbclave]

I'm looking forward to it. Ijust hope I haven't set my expectations too high. I'm also a bit surprised that there hasn't been more metaverse chatter around the movie Inception. The architect role in particular really felt to me like some of the better aspects of world building in virtual worlds.

[Adeon Writer]

Being a young twerp who never so the original, I'm guessing my opinion is null and void. But I do understand remakes never live up to the originals.

[Zig]

a movie made during a time when most computers were less powerful than the smartphone in their pocket

indeed, Hamlet — for instance, the Commodore 64 computer released the same year as TRON, had such specs as 64 kilobytes of RAM, a 1 MHz CPU and a 320 X 200 display capable of 16 colors max...

[comoro Infinity]

lol

[Doreen Garrigus]

Oh, Zig. You make me feel so _old_.

[cube3]

Movies defined by their computer specs... the darkside Lucas has won.

[Erbo Evans]

Selenalore says this movie is a "must see" for us when it comes out. I'm inclined to agree. It will be interesting to see the interpretation of the TRON world for the Internet Age.

Of course, it may just be me, but when I heard Bruce Boxleitner speak in these trailers, I thought, not of the original film, but of Captain John Sheridan of Babylon 5. :-)

[Crap Mariner]

*shrug* Forget Tron, ponder Inception.

-ls/cm

[Moebius Overdrive]

The film is looking amazing.

The young (cg) Flynn has some real facial problems. The mouth doesn't move quite right. I hope they fix it by December.

The rest looks flawless.

[Hamlet Au]

I think they're purposely making young (cg) Flynn looked messed up, as if he's a bad AI or something.

[LokiLoki]

From what i have read, the new Tron universe has evolved on it's own in a dusty old server and small part of the plot is about how the programs/avatars are breaking the program rules by seeking to be more like the Users, be more REAL.

So we will be seeing an evolved tron world.