"Who are they?" "Obsolete data-pushers."

[jazzfish]

So I was pretty much blown away around this time last year when the first teaser for TRON Legacy came out. Because, dude, TRON. I'm not sure it's possible to overstate how much a part of my childhood that movie was, and this looked like TRON with nice crisp (computer-generated) graphics.

"What do you want with the Pentagon?"
THE SAME THING I WANT WITH THE KREMLIN. I'M BORED WITH CORPORATIONS.

Then the first trailer hit, the one that played in front of Inception, and... I got a little nervous. It was nice to see Alan again, and the arcade, and Dillinger's (still completely awesome) desk. But in general it felt like they were replicating the surface of TRON, the blue neon and shiny discs, and forgetting what made the spirit of the thing. Plus the new Recognizers are far too smooth. (Those of you who insist that TRON was all surface and no spirit can go sit over there in the corner with Michael Bay and everyone else who wants to ruin my childhood memories.)

"Oh man, this isn't happening, it only thinks it's happening."

I'm feeling a lot better now that I've seen this new trailer, though. Mostly because, to quote MGK, "EVIL COMPUTER JEFF BRIDGES! EVIL! COMPUTER! JEFF! BRIDGES!"

"Pretty good driving, hu-UUH!"
NO
"Who asked you?"

(I've watched it three times this morning, and that last ten seconds gives me the shivers every single time.)

END OF LINE

Comments

[salzara-tirwen.livejournal.com]

I still have no idea exactly what happened in either the original Tron or this one.. it was a video game that became sentient? and then what, snatched the guy and plugged his head into virtual reality?

[jazzfish]

Hoo boy. The plot of TRON, such as it is: Seven years ago, Ed "Evil" Dillinger ripped off the design for several video games from Kevin "The Dude" Flynn. Flynn got fired; Dillinger got made a VP. Flynn's been trying to hack into Encom's system and find the evidence that Dillinger ripped him off.

Meanwhile, Dillinger's created a program for Encom, the Master Control Program, that oversees all of Encom's operations. The MCP is sentient (in TRON, all programs are sentient) and is in fact trying to take over the world. (WITH THE INFORMATION I CAN ACCESS, I CAN RUN THINGS 900 TO 1200 TIMES BETTER THAN ANY HUMAN.) Alan "Captain Sheridan" Bradley, a programmer at Encom, has created TRON, a security program designed to keep an eye on any unauthorized processes and disable them. The MCP wants TRON deleted, so Dillinger is preparing to shut down Alan's whole project.

Lora, Alan's girlfriend and Flynn's ex, is working on a laser that digitizes things, effectively sucking them into the computer. (Don't think too hard about this.)

Late one night Alan and Lora and Flynn decide to sneak Flynn and Alan into Encom so Flynn can hack into the system from Lora's terminal using Alan's security credentials, find the TRON program, send it to Alan to get it up and running, shut down the MCP, and find the evidence. The MCP zaps Flynn with the laser and sucks him into the computer world.

There he meets up with TRON, who, like Flynn, has been condemned to fight in a gladiatorial arena for the MCP's amusement. In a move that still impresses me, Flynn uses his knowledge of the system to exploit a bug and break them out. And hijinks, as they say, ensue.

(I swear to gord it seems a lot less stupid when you watch it. Except for the laser, that part's pretty indefensible.)

[platypusgirl.livejournal.com]

I have to laugh = my initials are MCP. Perhaps I should try to take over things...

[mikailborg.livejournal.com]

The laser's one of my favorite parts about TRON. Why? Because of all the 'OMG, sucked into the computer / Internet' storylines I've ever seen, this is the only one that hangs a "hey, look, we've made a gun that sucks things into the computer!" over the mantelpiece in the first act.

No magic VR goggles or cell phones or 300-baud acoustical modems or household 120VAC wiring somehow gone horribly wrong. This movie says, "hey, maybe it's BS, but at least our characters made a digitizing laser ON PURPOSE."

In fact, the only two other positive examples I can think of just now are The Matrix and a late-seventies Doctor Who episode (which also called its network the Matrix).

[jazzfish]

Heh. Fair enough; I'll give them credit for providing a /reason/ (cheesy as it may be) for the "inside the computer" plot.

[mikailborg.livejournal.com]

Really, you should rent it. It's pretty, and has an excellent soundtrack. The plot's full of cheese, but the actors are skilled enough to treat it seriously, which makes up for a lot. iTunes doesn't have it, but Netflix might. It's a fun way to blow a couple of hours.

[rbandrews]

Someone at work has something that purports to be the script to Tron 2.0.

The thing I loved about the original Tron was that, since it came out before anyone really had a personal computer, it didn't use a bunch of programming puns and computer jokes. It wasn't this.

The new script, if this really is, can't say that. And, it doesn't make even good jokes. It looks pretty terrible. I'm hoping that the acting (it does have The Dude) can make up for bad writing, or that the bad writing isn't as bad as it appears in text, or something.

[jazzfish]

Ow. I think I regret following that link.

I am going to hope, seriously, that the script doesn't suck. Because, yeah, I actually enjoyed the writing in TRON. ("If you're a User... then everything you've done has been according to a plan, right?")

... hm. It occurs to me that about a decade ago they were kicking around a potential TRON sequel and marketing it under the name TRON 2.0. So maybe that's just leftover from then? Since now it's officially going by "TRON Legacy"...

[rbandrews]

That's what I'm hoping. Or that it's fanfic or a troll or something. I'll see if I can get a copy of it and post it.

Tron was great because it wasn't a computer movie. It took place in a computer, but it was a fantasy movie.

[jazzfish]

I need to watch TRON again and then have this discussion, because my recollection is that it wasn't a /painfully cheesy/ computer movie. "Bit-brain" (and Bit itself). "I/O Tower." "De-resolution." "RAM." It's like they took a bunch of vaguely-comprehended terminology and assigned it meanings that they needed it to have.

[rbandrews]

That's it exactly. They didn't try to map their story on to a bunch of computer concepts and puns, they made a believable world that worked for their story that had little to do with a computer. It made it not cheesy, which is something that no other computer movies can say.

[nixve.livejournal.com]

I am crossing my fingers and bouncing up and down with excitement. :)

[jazzfish]

Makes two of us. :)