Some might
consider this old news because it’s only been around for a couple of days, but since CHUD is the only place worth going on teh Interweb, you should know that there’s an excellent fan-made
trailer for the original Tron on YouTube right now.
DrewboiX’s remix is exciting and epic and by the time it’s over I’m so pumped I can
hardly decide between replaying it immediately or throwing in the
20th Anniversary DVD and watching the whole movie.
What I like most about
this trailer is that it underscores just how special and ahead of its
time the original Tron was. When Steven Lisberger brought the film to Disney in 1980, computers at home were still a
novelty, forget about the basis of a major motion picture.
The film itself became a novelty – a cyberpunk adventure about
a man inside a computer, filmed in 70mm black and white and then
hand-tinted (as many as 30 composites in a single frame) and intercut
with computer generated graphics. The look – co-designed by Jean
Giraud Moebius and Syd Mead – was unlike anything in this world or
any other. Excepting the real-world bookends, the entire filmmaking process was so unique and ambitious that it’s
never been repeated to this day. By that standard, if any movie truly
stands alone as a singular work of art, it’s Tron.
And the story. Propping up the light
cycles, the discs, and the landmark effects is an
incredibly deep and philosophical narrative. Assuming the whole “User”
metaphor is understood, here’s a quote from Lisberger in a 1999
interview with journalist (and two-time Jeopardy champion) Greg
Lindsay:
“…Every Jungian metaphor in that
film is intentional. Every single
one, okay? The discs are mandala symbols of the process of
individuation. The users are the perfect self. The question is
whether we are capable of becoming our perfect selves. The electronic
world is the subconscious, the unconscious. The real world is the
conscious world.”
Whether or not it was his original
intent, these underpinning themes make all the difference
between a forgotten box-office flop and a timeless classic. Some of the
best science fiction works in this way, as an allegory for the human condition.
I’m doubtful that we’ll get anything as substantial out of the new film, despite Lisberger’s
involvement. It’s a different world we live in now, with different
cinematic aesthetics and different expectations from the audience. Even at the bare-bones marketing stage, Tron Legacy doesn’t seem to be about extending into the realm of the invisible –
it’s all about the visible. The fact that Flynn, Alan Bradley, Flynn’s Arcade,
and the “Tron” arcade cabinet (which didn’t even exist
in the original movie – TRON was a corporate security program)
appear so plainly in the Legacy teaser trailer feels more like fan
service more than it does the desire to say anything new about our relationship to technology.
I’d like to be wrong about that,
though. I hope I am. I really do love the original Tron, and I’ve been waiting years for a sequel. Even if Legacy fails to live up to my
impossibly bloated expectations, at least I’ll have the original film
to go back to.
End of line.
[I nabbed all the screencaps from Amoeba
Music’s Amoeblog, where their visual breakdown of the film really drives home what a gorgeous piece of art Tron really is.]
15 comments
HOLY [enter expletive of your choice]!!!!!, that was better than trailers made by so called professionals of the last decade!
Great film. Great trailer. Great article. If DrewboiX isn't making trailers professionally by now, then he must not have been marketing himself very well up to this point.
I'm trying to come up with a joke about the "chip" on the Tron guy's shoulder. Help me, internet!
I don't want to be a troll, but fix that first paragraph, please. Pretty please. This is where not wanting to be a troll conflicts with my feelings about how TRON is remarkably shitty. If ever there was a movie that underscores the great divide I experience with other 'geeks', dis is it. Disappointed me even as a child, when I could sit through Beastmaster and The A Team and feel rewarded. I actively hope this movie flop(py discs)s. Calling it cyberpunk is a slap in the face of William Gibson amongst others. Stop that. PS- fix the capcha, or get rid (again) of the comments. I don't want my favorite movie site turning into an even bigger laughingstock.
That was a great distillation of the movie – in fact it acts as a good primer that the original release could have done with to get people ready for the experience. I hold out hope of a deeper message in Legacy as Flynn Snr seems to be going through some kind of dark journey. #4: Nobody's done "cyberpunk" right yet, though the first Matrix came close. Gibson in particular is just massive wank, so give it a fucking rest.
Better. Lose the passive aggressive opener, or at least correct the typo in it, and you have a real article here.
That was awesome. I actually just showed the movie to my kids for the first time about a month ago. Both of them (9 and 11) loved it! They've watched it about 5 more times since. We're pretty stoked for Legacy now. Brings back some good memories of my youth!
Great googly-moogly! That was great! Somebody hire that guy. He managed to make a rock solid trailer that doesn't spoil anything.
Great article Iain. Plaiin and simple. Don't listen to these shitheels nitpicking on the structure or grammar. You're doing a good job so far.
I can never make sense out of the sentences in movie trailers when they have two words at a time show up in between scenes. I have to watch one or the other. It's aggravating.
this guy is a good editor, no doubt about that. but i think he needs someone else to write his copy.
and i agree with joey cash, about the text intercutting with his images – but obviously it can work when done right. it's just that the copy he chose to work with is awkward.
i also thought his choice to repeatedly use bits of dialogue containing the word "user" was too repetitive, bordering on comedy.
But the dude can definitely create excitement.
I loved the ending.
Come on Devin, relax, and try to enjoy the possibilities instead of the possibility of impending doom. TRON was a security program but we have no idea what Flynn did as president of encom. Seriously, breathe, and realize we are getting a TRON SEQUEL in 8 months or so. Think about that for a minute then think about Olivia Wilde in tight spandex, and the world becomes as bright as a quattron tv.
Sorry, I wasn't impressed. It felt like a parody/pastiche of every big budget action movie trailer of the last 10+ years. It also suffers from the same problem TRON: Legacy seems to; it is trying to be "hot" when it should actually be "cool", specifically geek cool. Replacing the Wendy Carlos score with this generic and forgettably earnest but dull "action movie" music further underscores the problem. Within a few years this style of trailer will seem as hackneyed as the "In a World…" style trailers from the 90s.
the arcade cabinet in the LEGACY trailer isn't DISCS OF TRON. it was the original TRON cabinet. DISCS OF TRON and TRON were two completely different games.
great trailer! i loved how the end title animation matched the TRON LEGACY animated title.
At first I was like, wow this music makes the movie look incredibly dated. Then I realized that I just fucking hate the way modern trailers are cut. Especially having already seen Tron many times since childhood, I can see just how one mangles the context of every scene in service of this ridiculous build up to a climax. Then I realized it all goes back to the same problem. People are fucking stupid and this shit works like gangbusters. Not that this wasn't a fine piece of fan work or anything. It was irritatingly accurate. (Also. FUCK THE CHUD CAPCHA. Fix that shit already)
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