I Fight For The Users

In case you haven’t heard yet, we’re living in the age of the geek. The Bible says, “Blessed are the meek….for they shall inherit the earth.” But many scholars now feel that that translation in not correct. After looking at the original Hebrew and Aramaic texts, the passage actually says, “Blessed are the GEEK….for they shall inherit the earth.” With last year’s biggest film being a Batman movie, the geek revolution is fully upon us and it shows no sign of slowing down any time soon.

In the next few months alone we have the uber-comic book movie “The Watchmen” not to mention the new reboot of “Star Trek”. But the news that really gets my geek blood pumping is that Disney is currently in pre-production on a new “Tron” film.

I love “Tron”. It is one of those films that so perfectly captured my imagination as a kid. I think my first exposure to the world of Tron wasn’t even the film, it was a ride.

In the early 80’s my parents took me and my family to Disneyland. Now Disneyland in the 80’s was the most awesome place to be in the universe. What I remember most about that first trip (I guess I only could have been six or seven) was Tom Sawyer Island, The Adventure Thru Inner-Space (which I recall scared me to death), and of course The People Mover.

At that time (although I can find few people who can actually remember this) The People Mover still took you all around Tomorrowland, but it also took you into the world of Tron. At one point in the ride you went into a dark tunnel, where the neon imagery of the Tron landscape would unfold in front of you while the soundtrack played. It made quite an impression.

A couple of years later I finally got to see “Tron” on videocassette, and it didn’t disappoint. The movie had such an amazing visual style and a story that was very much ahead of its time. It was the first film that I remember creating the premise of the world that exists inside your computer. Since this film was made before personal computers were commonplace, many people found that concept confusing.

Flash forward a few years and the story element of the “computer world” has become so normal that we see it in our biggest blockbusters. I remember when I first saw “The Matrix” and I couldn't help but compare it to “Tron”, a movie almost twenty years old at that point.

So how excited was I when I first got wind of a new “Tron” movie? Well, I hoped they wouldn’t screw it up with updating the look of the computer world too much. And I worried about it being a cheesy remake instead of a follow-up story. But then I came across this:

This was a “test-footage” trailer shown at Comic-Con last summer. I know it’s fuzzy and the audio is bad, but it shows that the new film makers are on the right track. It still looks like “Tron”. Also, you can hear the geektastic screams when Jeff Bridges shows up, reprising his role as Flynn, the videogame designer.

Also, early rumors report that Bruce Boxleitner will be back as the titular “Tron” or as his doppelganger Alan. It is always good to see Boxleitner again (I remember being a big fan of his because of a fun late-80's spy show called ‘Scarecrow and Mrs. King’).

The last time I saw Boxleitner was this season on NBC’s ‘Chuck’. He was there playing Chuck’s sister’s boyfriend’s father. I thought it was so funny that he was there, seeing as how the character Chuck is a sci-fi geek, and even has a “Tron” movie poster on his bedroom wall.

Now logic escapes me in how Chuck, obviously being a huge “Tron” fan himself, would not recognize that the one and only Tron is in his house for Thanksgiving dinner. You would think he would recognize him and say something.

Anyway, hold on for the new “Tron” (some have been calling it “Tron 2.0” and the teaser calls it “TR2N”, whatever that means). I hear with the amount of computer animation work we may not see it until 2011. But that doesn’t mean we can’t start getting excited about it right now. I know I am.