My Tron Obsession

[bcholmes]

I've become obsessed with the latest Tron movie. And that confuses me. I mean, the story is pretty banal -- I can't say that it gives me a good ponder. But, for some reason, the combination of visuals and awesome soundtrack just simply have me awestruck. I've probably watched the Blu-Ray in its entirety six or seven times since it was released last week.

Comments

[elainegrey]

I won't say i was obsessed, but there were some visual elements and "universe" elements that really fascinated me. The detail of the books vs the abstract sleekness of so many other things, what it would mean to be a homeless process.....

[hypatia]

i share your obsession. it was such a visual and auditory feast. my partner saw it in theatres like 4 times, hehe :)

i got the special edition Wiimote. it's amazing.

also, i loved the container-apartment so much :s

[hypatia]

also you may enjoy the new artbook from the visual designer of the original movie:

http://www.amazon.com/Syd-Meads-Sentury-II-Mead/dp/1933492481/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1UQ0CY3VHPVOG&colid=2NO8EHSY2WDJ9

[maize]

I think that when visuals and audio are working well and in concert, it can really take up a lot of the slack of a weak story. This isn't just in a sort of "shock and awe" sense -- I really think you can express a lot that way.

I think I liked the audio of Inception and Hanna more than TRON, but they were all pretty strong.

[maize]

(And TRON definitely had the strongest visual style.)

[bcholmes]

I've been thinking about my Tron obsession in the context of film and storytelling.

Here's a ponder I've been having. I often find myself in conversations with people who believe that books are clearly superior to films, and one of the lines of conversations that often emerges is that people believe that they can get more story faster from a book, whereas film just plods along, giving you only a little bit of a story in the span of two hours.

And, hm. I often try talking about stuff that I adore in film: stillness, for example. How can you get stillness in a book? Or, hm, I don't know if it's right to use the term "negative space" to describe this, but I love the way film can communicate things with absence. Like, when two characters exchange a look, and we know what information is being exchanged between them, even though there aren't really words involved. I love that kind of stuff.

And yet, I think I'm a bit self-critical of loving a movie with such a lacklustre story. Like, if it doesn't have a strong story, it can't be a really good movie, eh? The idea that maybe it can be awesome on its merits of having a wonderful soundtrack and amazing visuals is a bit elusive for me.

It's been interesting to ponder these things.