Tag Archives: Film

Family

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As a general rule there are some things you don’t discuss because they are inappropriate, bad form, tacky and or tasteless. Pinless grenades dangling from a flak jacket. Don’t discuss politics, religion, the weather (which always kind of mystified me, I mean, it’s right out there, but whatever) and I today was a clear call for the last thing that really shouldn’t come up in pleasant conversation and that is airing family laundry. Especially when family happens to be reading! Saying something you feel in the moment just sits there and expands and before you know it you have (or are) Godzilla facing an island full of screaming fleeing citizenry. Does Godzilla ever feel awkward? Hmmm… (the real question should be, does Godzilla call his mother? NO HE DOES NOT. He sets Tokyo on fire. I suspect it’s all about the guilt.)

It’s not that the issues that come up are wrong, but the medium isn’t right. So there are some things that I won’t ever bring up in this blog again. “Dear, we don’t talk about those sorts of things…” mostly because no matter how you try to explain what you feel the written word never really works well. It always comes out as an excuse or a cop-out or any one of a million other miswritten things. Some of these things are best reserved for highly paid therapists who have easy access to recreational pharmaceuticals. And before anyone throws a fit, all pharmaceuticals are recreational. So there…

So I pledge to keep things all light and fuzzy around here from now on. I’m quite a number of things, mostly related to being one or many aspects of monstrous, as anyone who meets me for the first time can immediately attest, just ask any of our foreign students, if you can keep them from squeaking and trying to flee at the merest mention of my name. If you are going to aspect Kali, you might as well go all out is what I say!

Family will keep to itself and life will go on. Love them, or hate them, chat them up incessantly or check-in sparingly, no proclamation ever really is lasting or serious and no, nobody really feels that badly about someone else in their family. Unless they happen to be conservatives, in that case, they are dead to us. Yes, us. Sybil, Sybil, *twitch twitch* 😉

And this will be the last time I use the F word on this blog! So there!

Tron: Legacy

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Last night some friends and I went to the Rave Theater in downtown Kalamazoo to see Tron: Legacy for the sneak-peak midnight showing. I have to say that I was filled with trepidation surrounding this movie, since I absolutely cherished the original Tron movie from 1982, I was utterly terrified that they would jump the shark and make this movie a wretched retread and try to drive it like Disney drove Tron back in 1982. I can say that I was happily surprised. The movie was very well done. The plot I can appreciate, it’s rather fluffy in places but does have some slight surprises embedded in it that make it a more complex story than the original beloved movie had.

The absolute best part of Tron: Legacy was the soundtrack/score. Daft Punk established the atmosphere of the film nearly pitch-perfectly with their soundtrack. Without the soundtrack the movie would be an utter mess. It’s a gestalt thing I think, the video and audio are passable on their own, but when together they make something that is way more than the sum of the parts. I did feel chills/tingles for many scenes and that’s what I use to gauge just how good a movie is. If it can affect me on that level then the storyteller did something right and I think they should be rewarded for it.

Now Tron: Legacy does have some negative aspects, at least for me. Chief amongst it was the CGI rejuvenation of the lead actor, Jeff Bridges in the few opening scenes of the movie. This is purely a “me” problem, as nobody else seemed to be as upset by it as I was, but when the camera swings around and you have to contend with a digital simulacrum of a well-known actor there was a part of my limbic system that wanted to scream, vomit, and flee. Thankfully the unbearably inhuman simulacrum only lasted for one short scene and after that I was much better. For some reason the same simulacrum which was used repeatedly in the movie for another character didn’t affect me as strongly as when I first saw it. I think, for me, when the scene with the father and son is playing out, the plastic-man-rubber-face’ness of the digital simulacrum hit me square on. I think it was a situation/context issue, that the intimate and tender scene in the beginning clashed so violently with my inner revulsion that the upsetness of the fakeness joined with the clash from the context just pushed my already jumpy limbic system nearly to the edge. It was an odd sensation. I had this distinct urge to stand up and do something, and the fact that I wasn’t just added to the overall discomfort. In no way would I expect this outcome to be true for anyone else, this apparently is just my very instinctual response.

In general I give Tron: Legacy a solid 8 out of 10 stars. What the digital simulacrum took out, the score and soundtrack made up for and then some. I can recommend it at 2D and 3D for full price and come away feeling good about the experience. They honored the original Tron, and for that I am very thankful.