I've had a lot of time on my hands lately. Typically I'd be spending my break catching up on the various award contenders for the coming season. However this years' sorry batch of nominees has been proving dull and few and far between. So I had some time to see Disney's rehash of the 1980's cult classic aptly titled Tron Legacy. This film was sort of setting itself up for loathing; it had the classic trifecta of cinematic sin: 3D, patented Disney family melodrama, and car chase action. And it may have been my heavy dose of decongestant and the delusional sick stupor I was in upon viewing, but I actually found myself enjoying this movie. It was by no means a "must see," something I will remember beyond this week, or a particularly unusual movie, but something allowed me to just sort of experience the whole thing for what it was: a sensorial dip into cyberspace. So after much contemplating and careful reading of the side effects of my over-the-counter medicine, I've come up with a few choice praises (along with some complaints, as usual) for the kid-friendly techno-romp:
1. 3D done right for once. Everyone should know by now that I'm refusing to give into this 1950's 3D revamp. And up until now, I have yet to see a film (Avatar included) that truly benefited from the excessive visual trickery. However, Tron's cyber world, lit in neon lines and ghostly trails, manages to create a world of contrast entirely defined by our three-dimensional visual relationship to space. Here, lines and light extend space beyond our often-flat 3d viewing experience to create an infinite city perfectly crafted for the twenty-first century technology driven world only imagined by the original's creators. It overtly contrasts this world to that of our own, shot entirely in 2D, which ultimately restricts the methodological uses of 3D to the world of technology, expertly extending this digression to the movie industry's obsessive dimensional extension for any action/horror/comedy/children's movie out there. Here 3D is reserved for the other worldly; the complex and indiscernible cyberspace only real to the extension of Jeff Bridges' mind.
2. Daft Punk as composers. Enough said. Why hadn't anyone thought of this earlier? (Though I will say they often encroached on Inception- like reverberating booms.)
3. Not a lot of acting. So often, the downfall of many Disney family pics is the assumption that their half-bit new face actor can actually manage to hold the screen and the drama for an hour and a half. Tron, which was make no mistake, heavy on father-son melodrama and monumental life speeches, managed to keep it contained to relatively short interludes. Even as we retreat from "the grid" to Jeff Bridges' dojo, 2001: A Space Odyssey-esque sanctuary, we keep the family drama to a minimum. The whole motion of the plot is really more dependent upon the classic phrase: "actions speak louder than words." So it becomes one grand gesture after another, feats for young Sam to prove himself, and ultimately set up a nice and tidy little end open to future franchises.
These three points are not to say that the movie was without faults. My third point really extends itself to the core problem of the movie: the dialogue. The cyber mumbo-jumbo justification and explanation of this world were half-baked (literally. we have Jeff Bridges circa The Big Lebowski) attempts at giving deeper meaning to the experiential action fluff that the movie really is. Acting fell short, with Disney's typical casting of a boy band look alike, forced to carry the weight of the movie on his shoulders. But, like I said, they seemed to steer clear of too much work for the young talent. Instead they let the fantasy of this space take over, allowed for the technology to showcase itself, rather than the other way around. I'd in the end say give it try if you're looking for a holiday escape. It's certainly short (thank god) than last years' head-ache producing reproduction of Pocahontas, and doesn't involve any awkward tail-connecting tree sex scenes between animated creatures. However, do be warned that this is something to been seen in the theaters only. It is not a movie that will translate onto the small screen or any attempt at reproducing the 3d experience in your own home. So if it strikes your fancy, get the hell up and get out there.
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