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"I fight for the User!"
May. 2nd, 2011 05:50 pmThere was absolutely nothing on TV last night (kind of like tonight will be--there's just election coverage from about 8 PM onwards), so I raided my brother's stash of DVDs and pulled out Tron: Legacy.
Now, I loveloveloved the original Tron. Granted, I haven't seen it for years (and now with the release of the sequel, the original's been re-released on DVD, so I. Must. Have.), but I still love it. It was, for its time, well advanced as far as special effects. Plus, it had Bruce Boxleitner and Jeff Bridges, both of whom the 12-year-old me was crushing on.
So I was sort of excited about/sort of dreading the sequel. But damn if it wasn't a whole lot of fun!
The story goes that Kevin Flynn (Bridges) got sucked into The Grid, the world of Tron, and was basically trapped by CLU, his electronic alter-ego. He left behind a son, Sam. Fast-forward a few years: Sam's an adult, the major shareholder of his father's company, which has turned into a Microsoft-like megalithic tech company. Sam has basically dropped out of everything, only turning up to play a yearly prank on the CEO. Then Alan Bradley (Boxleitner, who, btw, is still hawt) turns up at his place with a story about having received a page ("You're still rockin' the pager!" Sam says) from his old partner, Flynn. Sam heads over to the old arcade, finds his dad's secret lab in the basement aaaannnd... gets sucked into The Grid.
What follows is a lot of pure fun & nostalgia for those of us who enjoyed the first movie, along with some wicked CGI effects, and a decent story. Yeah, OK, it's not anything you haven't seen before: orphan goes in search of parent, finds parent, has adventures... you get the picture. But frankly, you put Jeff Bridges in anything, and you're gonna come up with gold.
A couple of things:
First, the digitized, youth-enized Jeff Bridges. He's playing both the older Kevin Flynn (with a sort of Zen-hippie vibe) and CLU, which, since it's a computer programme, hasn't aged. In the extras, they showed how they did some of the work, which involved Bridges playing out the role of CLU, then having a body double imitate his moves, then the double's head being erased & replaced with Bridges's face. But it was kind of freaky, seeing both Bridges like that. Freaky-cool.
Second, Michael Sheen. OMG. Can that man not do something freakin' fantastic? He plays Zeus, a programme that can do anything, get anything--basically a fixer. And I swear he was channelling early David Bowie (or at the very least Labyrinth David Bowie). He absolutely killed in the role.
There's almost no Tron in Tron: Legacy; the role has sort of been filled by Sam. Though Sam is really sort of filling his father's role in the first movie, too. Tron does appear, but I won't say how or where or when, in case folks haven't seen it and want to.
But there are lightcycles. And I am happy. :-)
Now, I loveloveloved the original Tron. Granted, I haven't seen it for years (and now with the release of the sequel, the original's been re-released on DVD, so I. Must. Have.), but I still love it. It was, for its time, well advanced as far as special effects. Plus, it had Bruce Boxleitner and Jeff Bridges, both of whom the 12-year-old me was crushing on.
So I was sort of excited about/sort of dreading the sequel. But damn if it wasn't a whole lot of fun!
The story goes that Kevin Flynn (Bridges) got sucked into The Grid, the world of Tron, and was basically trapped by CLU, his electronic alter-ego. He left behind a son, Sam. Fast-forward a few years: Sam's an adult, the major shareholder of his father's company, which has turned into a Microsoft-like megalithic tech company. Sam has basically dropped out of everything, only turning up to play a yearly prank on the CEO. Then Alan Bradley (Boxleitner, who, btw, is still hawt) turns up at his place with a story about having received a page ("You're still rockin' the pager!" Sam says) from his old partner, Flynn. Sam heads over to the old arcade, finds his dad's secret lab in the basement aaaannnd... gets sucked into The Grid.
What follows is a lot of pure fun & nostalgia for those of us who enjoyed the first movie, along with some wicked CGI effects, and a decent story. Yeah, OK, it's not anything you haven't seen before: orphan goes in search of parent, finds parent, has adventures... you get the picture. But frankly, you put Jeff Bridges in anything, and you're gonna come up with gold.
A couple of things:
First, the digitized, youth-enized Jeff Bridges. He's playing both the older Kevin Flynn (with a sort of Zen-hippie vibe) and CLU, which, since it's a computer programme, hasn't aged. In the extras, they showed how they did some of the work, which involved Bridges playing out the role of CLU, then having a body double imitate his moves, then the double's head being erased & replaced with Bridges's face. But it was kind of freaky, seeing both Bridges like that. Freaky-cool.
Second, Michael Sheen. OMG. Can that man not do something freakin' fantastic? He plays Zeus, a programme that can do anything, get anything--basically a fixer. And I swear he was channelling early David Bowie (or at the very least Labyrinth David Bowie). He absolutely killed in the role.
There's almost no Tron in Tron: Legacy; the role has sort of been filled by Sam. Though Sam is really sort of filling his father's role in the first movie, too. Tron does appear, but I won't say how or where or when, in case folks haven't seen it and want to.
But there are lightcycles. And I am happy. :-)
