8mm Forum: TRON ... and Beyond

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on May 07, 2011, 11:56 AM:

Last night we decided to rent “Tron : Legacy”, and it helped me realize one thing in particular …

TRON … the original, was incredibly groundbreaking!

That’s not to say that TRON : Legacy was a bad film/story. Far be it. One of the greatest accomplishments in this film is how they were able to have both the Jeff Bridges of today (in his either mid sixties or early 70’s, he’s getting up there), as well as have a fully functioning Jeff Bridges of the 1980’s in the character “Clue”. The disc we rented didn’t have any extras, but I would assume that the young Bridges/Clue character was CGI with Bridges voice on it, but it was quite a nice coup.

However, the greatest problem with today’s science fiction is that … as the “Bare naked Ladies” correctly stated in song …

“It’s all been done/ Who Hoo Hooo!”

I see very few films that really startle me with their technical achievement. Many technicican’s in the film industry today say that with CGI, literally anything we can dream up is possible.

However, we KNOW when we are watching a CGI film, and I think that perhaps that is the problem. I may be incorrectly speaking for many on this forum (and humanity as well) but there is nothing special to this modern era of film-making, concerning CGI, from TRON : Legacy to Avatar.

When TRON came out in 1982, the industry was in its second (perhaps) special effects “watershed” period. Though 2001 did look good, STAR WARS was the beginning of special effects that truly awed us. Space no longer looked like a space ship on chicken wire or fishing line, clumsily dragged along an obvious spacey background.

It made you believe that those Star Destroyers were massive ships in reality, and we were awed and we really didn’t think about them being special effects. I have always had a slight theory that perhaps it is because at this time, special effects were still organic, but that is just theory of mine.

There were the aliens coming down to greet humanity in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, so realistic that we really wanted to believe in them. There was the amazement of Alien and then there was a far too realistic world of the near future in “Blade Runner”

There was the incredible fantasy world of “The Dark Crystal” around the same time and in this case, audiences couldn’t believe that they were witnessing a completely realized foreign world that only a few years earlier, had given the world Kermit the Frog …

… and then there was TRON …

With TRON we were introduced into a completely different world! This wasn’t merely a foreign world in outer space. This wasn’t a space opera, as fun as that was. This was completely different.

If you have ever seen what went into the making of TRON, it was incredible as to how they realized this computer generated world, before computers were even capable of doing so on film.

This now brings us to TRON : Legacy …

Perhaps it was injured to begin with, as we were already partially introduced to this world. When I watched it, I was hoping that this world would burst forth in a myriad of Technicolor marvels as only a film like this (or perhaps Avatar) could do. The potential for this film could have been grand.

Instead, it was dark, foreboding, murky and quite frankly, unremarkable. Even that which wowed us from the first film was tones down incredibly. Perhaps the only truly new and grand sequence was the “fighter sequence” near the end, which did introduce us to something new and for a few moments, my heart soared …

But mere moments …

As my wife said … “That’s pretty much a “one view” film”, and I’m sad to say I pretty much agree with her.

This is not to say that I am a jaded viewer, or nostalgic for the past. There have a a few films that have surprised me in the last ten to 15 years. “What Dreams May Come” was an absolutely stunning blend of CGI and classical special effects with an intriguing and in some ways, daring story. The same could be said for “Dark City”, which floored me two thirds of the way thru with a plot twist I truly had no idea was coming. Usually most of today’s films have revealed all the plot and by the third act are just rapping up the story. Not true of “Dark City”.

I long to see a film that will truly “wow” me, coupled with a story that is fresh and new. This is not an impossibility. My gosh, in each and every city and town, if there are 10,000 citizens, there are 10,000 stories, independent and yet interwoven. This can be done on screen as well.

This was my complaint with Avatar. Trivia: What was Avatar basically a remake of in CGI? Trust me, it was an original story.

Please, to all the Hollywood high muckity mucks … give us visuals and worlds that awe us and stories that truly surprise us!

Thus endeth my tirade.

OSI

Posted by Pasquale DAlessio (Member # 2052) on May 07, 2011, 01:47 PM:

Osi

Great write up. Tron:Legacy was a disappointment. The problem with todays CGI is that it makes the film look to much like a video game. Which I sometimes think is the intention if a game is to follow. I think directors take into consideration the after market of the film. Video games, DVD etc . when the film is shot. NOw, there is a exception to this in my opinion, and that would be AVATAR. The story, cinematography, CGI, live action , and creativity of set design was unsurpassed by anything I have ever seen. This film was to me, a cowbay and indians brought into the distant future. Well ahead of anything ever made. I hope the make a sequel.

[ May 09, 2011, 01:50 AM: Message edited by: Pasquale DAlessio ]

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on May 08, 2011, 05:45 PM:

By the way, I've heard that a complete restoration (or digitally remastering) of the original TRON is due to come out soon. Now, I wouldn't mind having that, though there was a pretty good 2 disc deluxe DVD edition many years ago.

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