praising with faint damnation
January 4th and I'm already passing my record of a single post for 2010... things are looking up for this blog...
I saw Tron: Legacy last week. In IMAX, and in 3D - I figured that if any movie deserved to be seen in such a fashion it'd probably be this one.
My expectations were mixed going in - the original Tron isn't any touchstone of my childhood, but I don't like remakes for their own sake. The movie itself had a Jeff Bridges-a-like that dances on the precipice of the Uncanny Valley, a soundtrack that scores approximately 12 out of 10, and visualisation of a world that is almost at a similar level… what’s not to like? Well, the same old action movie tropes that could have easily been avoided. Guns jam in the virtual world of the Grid at pivotal moments? Engines give out from... what, a lack of air flow? It's a bloody virtual world, you don't need normal logic. Trivial moments like this take me out of a movie experience that I would have otherwise dived headlong into. The movie could have been just slightly more brave or original and I would have thought it a modern classic. Instead, it pulled back from full-blown oddball insanity and settled for being (just?) an exceptionally well-dressed blockbuster.
I saw Tron: Legacy last week. In IMAX, and in 3D - I figured that if any movie deserved to be seen in such a fashion it'd probably be this one.
My expectations were mixed going in - the original Tron isn't any touchstone of my childhood, but I don't like remakes for their own sake. The movie itself had a Jeff Bridges-a-like that dances on the precipice of the Uncanny Valley, a soundtrack that scores approximately 12 out of 10, and visualisation of a world that is almost at a similar level… what’s not to like? Well, the same old action movie tropes that could have easily been avoided. Guns jam in the virtual world of the Grid at pivotal moments? Engines give out from... what, a lack of air flow? It's a bloody virtual world, you don't need normal logic. Trivial moments like this take me out of a movie experience that I would have otherwise dived headlong into. The movie could have been just slightly more brave or original and I would have thought it a modern classic. Instead, it pulled back from full-blown oddball insanity and settled for being (just?) an exceptionally well-dressed blockbuster.