First Impressions: Tron: Legacy Sneak Preview

Last night Event Cinemas and Disney treated the public to a free 20-minute sneak peek of TRON: Legacy, the upcoming update-cum-sequel to the influential 1982 cyber-reality cult classic that's due for release on December 16. I'm not usually one for short "sneak peeks" like these, but my curiosity got the better of me (plus I needed some sort of feel for the film for a feature I'm writing on it).

The screening took place at the IMAX, and if there's one place I'd rather not be watching 3D anymore, it's here. Those big plastic glasses are crapola, and for an effects-spectacle-driven thing such as this, it's going to be headache city staring at the IMAX screen for two hours (20 minutes was almost enough...). Anyway, so around 5 scenes from the first hour of the film were presented to us - I won't go into too much detail, but I'll give you a general idea of the vibe I'm getting.

The first scene was purely exposition (a lot of this appears in the trailer), a meeting between Tron's original programmer Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner reprising his role), and Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), son of Jeff Bridges' Kevin who has disappeared. Next Sam visits his father's now-old-and-dusty arcade shop, finds an underground office, and soon gets zapped into the cyber world. It was kinda cool seeing the old arcade, but I don't think I like Hedlund as a lead at all, too bland (stiff?).

The next few scenes showcase the effects and action a lot more, drawing us into the freshly rebooted Tron universe. The basic neon circuitry design - the suits, the buildings, the machinery - is still there but with noticeably added dimension, sleekness, and general Blade Runner-sized epicness. Visually, it's impressive and trippy as hell, especially in 3D - but I don't know if the film will be as striking in the acting and writing department. At worst it brings back bad memories of something like Spy Kids 3D or any other soulless video gamey/3D-oriented sci-fi flick, and in the scene where Sam and Kevin are reunited, you feel like the film's mythology and seriousness will eventually bog things down in turgid Matrix: Reloaded fashion.

Anywho, I don't doubt Tron: Legacy will deliver some snazzy action and visuals to satiate your eyeballs in some way, I'm just a little skeptical about everything else.....

In Cinemas This Week

Cyrus - Indie favorites Jay and Mark Duplass co-direct this wry look at modern love and family dysfunction. John C. Reilly plays a divorced man who thinks he's found just the right woman (Marisa Tomei) to help him recover and move on. Unfortunately, the woman's son, played by Jonah Hill, has no interest in allowing another man into their lives -- a stance he proceeds to demonstrate in a variety of obnoxious ways.

Made In Dagenham - A dramatisation of the 1968 strike at the Ford Dagenham car plant in London, where female workers walked out in protest against sexual discrimination. Made infamous by the strikers' banner, which read "We want sexual equality" but only unfurled enough to read "We want sex", much to the mirth of passing motorists.

Red - After trading in his professional past as a black-ops CIA agent for a new identity, Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is basking in normalcy. But he's forced to return to old habits when a shadowy assassin puts a target on his back and goes after the woman (Mary-Louise Parker) he loves. Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich co-star as former members of Moses's team who reluctantly reassemble to save his life.

Resident Evil: Afterlife - The Undead Apocalypse continues unabated as super-soldier Alice (Milla Jovovich) finds her way to a supposed sanctuary in Los Angeles, which may just be a deadly trap set for her by the ruthless Umbrella Corporation. The fourth film in Paul W.S. Anderson's blood-soaked saga finds Alice teaming up with Claire (Ali Larter) and Chris (Wentworth Miller) and a handful of stragglers to save what's left of humanity.

Winter's Bone - With an absent father and a withdrawn and depressed mother, 17 year-old Ree Dolly keeps her family together in a dirt poor rural area. She's taken aback however when the local Sheriff tells her that her father put up their house as collateral for his bail and unless he shows up for his trial in a week's time, they will lose it all. She knows her father is involved in the local drug trade and manufactures crystal meth but anywhere she goes the message is the same: stay out of it and stop poking your nose in other people's business. She refuses to listen, even after her father's brother, Teardrop, tells her he's probably been killed. She pushes on, putting her own life in danger, for the sake of her family until the truth, or enough of it, is revealed.

Time Traveller at Charlie Chaplin Premiere?!

I'm absolutely fascinated by this kind of inexplicable WTF-ery. Take a look at this video which shows a woman in 1928 seemingly talking on a cellphone at the premier of Charlie Chaplin's The Circus. I actually pulled out our own copy here in the warehouse to have a closer look, and it's there - it's freaking weird and exciting and mind-boggling!! Reminds me of this time travel-related discovery too, but that seems to have a plausible explanation whereas this ... WTF? Theories, anyone?

Animated Short: Alma

Watch this beautifully creepy animated short film from Rodrigo Blaas, an animator for Pixar who made this while working on Up. According to Hollywood Reporter, it's getting made into a full-length feature with Guillermo Del Toro helping out! I totally love The Twilight Zone-for-kids feel of this one...

The Battle for The Hobbit

If you haven't been watching the news and need a quick catch-up on the whole The Hobbit saga, here's a clip from Close-Up of Mark Sainsbury interviewing the main players - director Peter Jackson, producer Phillipa Boyens, Minister of Economic Development, Gerry Bronwlee and President of the NZ Council of Trade Unions Helen Kelly:



And if you're wondering how heated things can get (note: not comfortable viewing)...

South Park Skewers Inception

It was only a matter of time...

Random Stuff #10