Like most people, I was thoroughly flabbergasted by the new Tron: Legacy trailer that premiered in the last week. It's sleek, chilly, and visually crisp, with a pulsating Daft Punk score propelling it along. While probably not as revolutionary as the original film, this sequel promises some serious eye candy and some thoughtful science fiction concepts. But the film might've been so much more. Several years ago, Tron's creator/director Steven Lisberger sat down to discuss the impact of the original film. In the course of the discussion, Lisberger teased with a preview of the possibilities that a sequel could present given the radical changes in computer technology in the last twenty years. Here is what he said at that time, encoded and embedded by yours truly:
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It's apparent that the new film will not explore the amazing possibilities imagined here by Lisberger, and that's a shame. Disney was wise to keep Lisberger in the loop as a consultant and producer, but it's clear that they wanted nothing to do with the more radical ideas he had in mind. Instead, the studio seems eager to recycle the air of the original, while tacking on a fairly silly father/son subplot that is already sticking uncomfortably in my craw. Rather than have such an ordinary plotline, what if the new film had utilized Lisberger's mind-blowing concepts such as biological computers? Rather than have yet another human blasted into the computer realm (does that scene in the trailer really make any sense to anyone familiar with the original film??), what if such biological computers allowed humans to interface directly, plugging in and out of the MCP at will? The implications of such a plotline could be seriously challenging. Unfortunately, Disney decided to shunt Lisberger and his wild ideas to the side in order to pump out a well-made but fairly standard action film with dazzling visuals. And that's fine. It's just a bummer that the sequel to a visionary original looks like it will be so ordinary.