Tron Legacy...

Well, it has been a while since I have written, partly due to having to find work again and then getting work, dealing with WoW Cataclysm.

But what I want to write about is Tron Legacy.

Just to put it in perspective, I was a kid when I saw Tron. In fact, I loved it to death right next to Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica and other Sci-Fi stuff. And like some, I was anticipating the movie to see what they had in mind with it.

Of course, Ebert posted a scathing review of it... Boring as hell and probably find a beer label more entertaining.

Well, to be honest, it is a Disney Movie. It wasn't setup to be a major adult movie, hell, the Pirate series hasn't exactly been one to be one for a lot of adults either, although it did try to stay true to the pirate motiff and didn't exactly follow general 'morals' either.

But back to Tron Legacy.

One of the things I will state, this post will have some spoilers, so if you don't want to read the spoilers, stop reading. If you are one who doesn't care or read Wikipedia entry about it which probably has the plot distilled already...

But one thing that was interesting, and probably ignored by some, is something we should be aware of. In Tron Legacy, Kevin Flynn, one of the heroes from the Original Tron movie, sought to create the 'perfect system'. And for those people who are not Tron Fans, probably didn't look to get the comics that sort of lead up to the movie, one of which sets up what happen when Kevin Flynn disappeared that fateful night. It is retold by Kevin to Sam, but there was a little more to it.

Clu, the movie's Villain, is a second generation program. Created by Kevin Flynn to 'take his place' according to the graphic novel. As Kevin was running Encom, and in the graphic novel, he had a wife who was having his child. He wanted to spend more time with his wife as his daily Encom Business and his work in the Grid was making him constantly late. In the Grid, there were problems that Tron and he could not keep up, mostly 'bugs' in the system. Clu was created to help build the perfect system that Flynn was striving for.

However, the problem with 'perfect' is that 'perfect' is relative to the person. And while Tron makes 'programs' seem like people within the computer, the inevitable problem with a directive is how does one define 'perfect'.

Now I will point to Babylon 5 for a second... Jeffrey Sinclair mentioned to the weapon that was to 'destroy anything that was not pure Ikaran (Or whatever the name of the race was)' But he pointed out what is 'pure'... There is always someone who is too short, too tall. Too dark, too light... The definition of pure is blurred.

Perfection is the same problem. In both the graphic novel, the game and the movie, the introduction of ISOs (Isometric Algorhythms) are programs that were not created by Flynn. They are programs that evolved from the system. Clu's directive believes that this disrupts the Perfection of the system. They were not part of the original system.

And here is where the moral of the movie points out. The corruption of the 'good intention' that most might not understand. People driven by purpose, for the 'good', will be corrupted into doing something that is no longer for the good but for the self interest.

Clu becomes like the evil that Flynn once fought in the original Tron. He takes programs of the grid and repurposes them, as he cannot create programs, he takes their 'function' and changes them to something else, in this case to make them into an army. In the beginning of the movie, we hear Flynn's speech about how the computer world is where our destiny is... This is echoed by Clu, where he wishes to 'perfect' the User world. All of this is driven around the fact that when the ISOs come to the Grid and how Flynn is in awe of it and focusing his attentions on them and then almost literally abandoning Clu to do his job while taking care of his son.

Like many other stories, it shows how the creation given the task to do the most difficult, only to be ignored and never appreciated. And much like our own history, Clu also twists it so that he makes others 'hate' or take down what he considers imperfect, which is the ISOs.

Does this sound familiar from our own history?

Now, again, the plot wasn't really 'great', but then again, depending on how you look at it, the movie does point out something interesting. The duality of man. Just as in the first movie, Flynn talks to Tron saying, "You know, you run around doing what you think you are suppose to be doing?" "That is how it is for us programs." "Well, I hate to break it to you, Tron, but that is how it is with Users as well." The good and evil in all people. Clu was made with good intentions, trying to do good, but in the end, became evil, corrupted and focused on the wrong principles, just as many others have in the past and will in the future.

I am sure many won't care about one possible meaning of the story. The visuals were pretty good, although not so sure about the 3D effects if you went to see the 3D showing of it. But remember this, there could be a deeper point in the movie, of course, my interpretation of it might be reaching a bit.