Re: Forget TRON: Legacy - give me the sequel to Buckaroo Banzai!

On Dec 22, 2010, at 7:06 PM, Johne Cook wrote:

> Tron: Legacy
> I know that as a geek of long standing I'm supposed to look at the $46
million opening weekend
> of this film as a vindication of my lifestyle choices. Some wit online
noted that Tron was like
> Twilight for nerds, and, God help me, I can't fault that assessment.

Darn it...that was exactly my assessment after seeing it last night, I
even commented on that to B and the kids.  I thought I was being original!
 Ha!

If Twilight is a fantasy for narcissistic teen American princesses who
must be center of attention (and I think it is)...then Tron: Legacy is a
similar nostaligic fantasy for the geeky guy still reveling in his 1980's
teen years.  Needless to say, I loved it!  :-)  I think this film
accomplished exactly what it set out to do, and I'm a little more
sympathetic to Twilight now as well.

I can see why the critics and anyone who thinks too deeply panned this. 
If you watch this film with the primary intent of looking for flaws you
will find them in spades.  And yes, on a critical level, I should expect
more of film.  But at a visceral level, this film had me reliving my glory
days, when I thought I could program the world.  And while it satiated my
need for teen coolness, it also critiqued itself as well (unlike
Twilight).   It acknowledged the limits of mans ability to create, that
there exists creative powers outside of man (with the iso), that the human
need for family bonds is more important than getting lost in the
technology and we must be on guard against it.  Other than that, I don't
think you should think too much.  Like a teenage boy, just give in to it
and revel in the geeky coolness like Napoleon Dynamite would.

And Paul, the concerns you expressed about the need for digital world
relating to the real world didn't bother me so much.  Rather, I saw the
digital world being more related to the mind of Flynn (as it was his
creation) than the outside world.  It related to the outside world only in
so much as the outside world related to Flynn's 1980's mind.  And the film
acknowledges this with reminders that Flynn's only references to the
outside world is from the 80's (the WarGames reference, and others). 
Having no other inputs to the outside world, over time the digital world
became more a creation of Flynn (and CLU).  My daughter commented that she
thought Cora was unnecessary to the plot, but I found her to be the
necessary miracle to bring Flynn to the enlightenment that he was not god.
 Also, she was smoking hot.  :-)

regards,
-Lance
(looking for a light up Tron suit on craigslist)



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