TRON LEGACY IS THE NEW PHANTOM MENACE

TRON LEGACY blows harder than The Phantom Menace. Commercial directors should not be allowed to touch classic films. At least George Lucas ruined his own mythos. Joseph Kosinski would have been better off doing a fashion spread based on TRON. What disappointed me most, wasn't the fact that they ditched the character TRON altogether-it was that the new lightcycles drive like cars from the Fast and Furious. Meaning they no longer turn on 90degree angle but instead glide and spin out with a tire screech and halt for a product placement shot. Why? This is Tron. We're inside a program after all. Please don't let these folks near Logan's Run.

COMPUTER REALITIES - TRON 1982

As passionate as I am about analog effects, model making, and puppetry, I admit there have been occasions where I have exclaimed "Tron (1982) is the most beautiful movie ever made"!

After viewing Computer Realities: The making of Tron, I can't help but feel the anxiety of the special effects people of that time. To them, here comes The CRAY 1 Supercomputer, parallel with the plot of TRON,here comes MASTER CONTROL. Their fears are right on. 28 years later, computer graphics have not only taken over the movie industry, their impact on viewers have rendered the work of these special effects pioneers as "cheesy" or worse yet "campy".

Simultaneously, I find the CRAY 1 Supercomputer an amazing tool and can understand the excitement and the inspiration of the programmers working with it.

So when does technology go too far? How do we go from TRON to BEOWOLF (2007)? Is TRON the exception because it's self aware,as it is a movie about computing itself?

That said, I'm looking forward to TRON LEGACY, even though they ditched the old look. I trust Steven Lisberger, more than let's say, George Lucas. We shall see!