TRON (1982) - ***1/2

http://www.getthebigpicture.net/blog/2008/7/27/comic-con-teaser-for-tron-2-now-online.html

The big surprise at this year's San Diego Comic Con, the Super Bowl for geeks, was Disney's unveiling of their teaser clip for TR2N, the sequel to their 1982 cult classic. Jeff Bridges, the protagonist from the original TRON, will return apparently as the villain who's gone off into the deep end of the mainframe with his IRON MAN evil beard, and is like now a digital Colonel Kurtz. The horror! The horror!

You know how with certain movies, the reviews always say the same stuff? With TRON, everyone writes that it is "a visual effects extravaganza that was a technological cinema milestone for a generation." What I'll add though is that for a film that was a box-office dud for Disney (so much that the vintage official arcade game made a bigger profit!)TRON left quite an impression on said generation, and you've seen them give homage from FAMILY GUY to Moby to KINGDOM HEARTS II to a Honda car commercial to the Tron Guy on YouTube to SOUTH PARK (Moses anyone?)

The picture was attacked at the time and still today by some as a shallow laser lightshow, yet surely if that was the case, would people still care about it, much less generate enough buzz to get a sequel produced?

Perhaps it's because TRON, along with WARGAMES and THE LAST STARFIGHTER, successfully translated the video game fantasy, where we the audience and our love and rather useless knowledge for gaming is delegated into a proxy hero who uses them to save the day. In this case, its computer programmer/game guru Jeff Bridges, who is hacking into the MCP (Master Control Program) mainframe of a corporation that stole his designs when the MCP atomizes him into the software as a hapless program set for deletion. Will The Dude escape in time?!?

Yet as a child, while I liked TRON and all, it was my least favorite of this "Gamer" trilogy. For a would-be summer blockbuster marketed to children under the family-friendly Walt Disney label, the first act of TRON is throwing people and environments into a static narrative, without quick linear explanation of who they are or what the hell is going on, and lots of dialogue. You know, plotting. Once the second act kicks in, TRON ties up everything nicely but with kids and their short attention spans, maybe that's why back then I always fast-forwarded my VHS copy (or "Skip Chapters" for you kids who only know DVD) to when Bridges entered the computer.

Watching TRON again with adult eyes, I was shocked to find that I actually enjoyed it much more now. The story combines two great spoiled plot devices of sci-fi fantasy: That of a self-aware super Artificial Intelligence trying to kill off humanity, and rebels within a fantastical setting trying to overthrow a tyrant. The script is forgettable, predictable, and its paper-thin characters are rather disposable, but dammit I found myself getting involved with this adventure once again.

Director/co-writer Steve Lisberger never did anything else worth a spit afterwards, but I must give him credit for making me sorta care about these cliches. I mean, with those poor programs from henchmen to prisoners killed or deleted, I really now feel like a Nazi for emptying my junk e-mail of pornography earlier today.

It's an understatement *cough* to say that early 1980s popcorn cinema like TRON was obviously inspired by STAR WARS (i.e. ripped off), but unlike say THE LAST STARFIGHTER, we must give TRON applause in trying for better or for worse, trial and error, pass and failure, to create on its own a unique visual aesthetic universe like George Lucas' masterpiece did.

The famed then-groundbreaking CGI animation is undeniably dated, but I say they're still enjoyably dated like Ray Harryhausen in that those old school effects still produce a sense of joy from within me. Take the legendary lightcycle sequence, still impressive and fun 27 years on, and just remember that they used editing to hide the fact that this was before they figured out how to combine moving CGI with live-action footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3ODe9mqoDE&feature=related

Would you believe that TRON was disqualified for the Best Special Effects Oscar because the Academy thought it "cheated" in using computers? And I thought CRASH winning Best Picture was ridiculous...

But what really surprised me, and doesn't get enough credit I suppose, is beyond the CGI. All the scenes within "the computer" were filmed in black & white, which were then traced with color by rotoscoping and photography in post-production. So as a result we have many bright livid garish lights contrasting with the dead gray blurry "ghost" faces of these electronic creatures, TRON just gives off a surreal as hell iconic visualization that was just intoxicating for my eyes. Then again, I guess this is what you would expect from an art direction designed by comic book artist Jean "Moebius" Giraud (he later stylized THE FIFTH ELEMENT) and famed futurist Syd Mead, who also worked on another summer '82 flop in BLADE RUNNER. My only complaint at this process is that since the backgrounds tended to be blue, the same color as the good guys, we get I think too many spots of unintended fading.

So yeah, it's nice to know that TRON was actually pretty good, and in fact I'm intrigued by this announced sequel, especially with news that PIXAR's John Lasseter is producing TR2N. If TRON was shot when most folks were technobabble useless, imagine that tale continued today when everyone is carrying around an iPod or drive with TomTom in their cars. Consider the utopian freedom of information promised in TRON failing into a nightmarish dystopia of slavery.

We won't get TR2N until summer 2010, but if that teaser shown at Comic Con indicates anything, to quote THE DARK KNIGHT: "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."