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| Thursday, January 13, 2005 09:48 AM |
| Backwards |
 by Fëanor |
Last night at movie night we did indeed end up watching Tron. Some liked it, others did not. But regardless of whether you like it or not, it's one of those milestone movies that it's necessary to see, especially if you're a geek. Really--and I have to admit it to myself at this point--it is not a good movie. When I was a kid, it was probably one of my favorite movies, right up there with Star Wars. It's an exciting fantasy/sci fi/adventure with some really neat visuals and some really cool special effects--and I still think it looks pretty cool, even now, with the 3D computer generated characters and all that stuff that the kids have these days. So when the movie came out on DVD some years ago, I snatched it up immediately, excited to watch the movie again.
But the day I watched Tron on DVD, I lost part of my childhood. It was a heartbreaking, stomach-clenching disappointment. The dialogue is incredibly corny, the plot is childish and unbelievable, and the overarching we're-in-a-computer metaphor breaks down in a lot of places under any kind of examination.
Despite all of that, I can still enjoy the movie to a certain extent. Like I said, I love the visuals and the effects, and I even enjoy the dinky synthesizer music. Plus there's still just a warm fuzzy place somewhere in my heart for this movie. Occasionally it still manages to reawaken the totally uncritical, video game-obsessed pre-teen inside me who fell in love with it in the first place.
I was at poppy's library recently, and she foolishly let me wander the stacks for a while without a chaperone, so I ended up coming home with another armload of graphic novels. I finished the first one this morning--an Elseworlds Batman book called Nine Lives. The Elseworlds series is DC's way of exploring other avenues with the characters; it's sort of a what-if, parallel universe thing. This particular book reimagines the Batman story as a film noir murder mystery, complete with a private dick (Dick Grayson) who's constantly getting beaten up and shot at by crooks and cops alike; realistic but pulpy artwork, full of shadows and hard angles; a labyrinthine plot with multiple interwoven stories that still had me puzzled even after I'd finished; gritty, cynical narration replete with bitter one-liners and sarcastic observations on life; a long parade of gangsters and freaks; and a mysterious and dangerous lady (Selina Kyle) at the heart of it all. The book removes the costumes and the make-up from everybody except Batman, and turns all the supervillains into just regular old villains, though they still keep their nicknames in one form or another. (I thought for a while that Batman might turn out to be somebody other than Bruce Wayne, but Batman and Bruce Wayne are the two characters that have changed the least here. Maybe Bruce is a tad more sleazy and underhanded, but that's about it.) Oswald Cobblepot (who should never be called "Penguin" to his face) is a tubby, powerful old gangster who takes a cut from everybody. Clayface is an even more powerful and brutal gangster who's covered in scar tissue from uncounted attempts to erase his identity with plastic surgery. The Joker has undergone the most surprising transformation--he's a two-bit gambler and perennial loser who's understandably always strapped for cash.
The book is really well done--an entertaining example of the noir genre, and an interesting new spin on the Batman mythos.
And that's it for now; I've got to get out of here and get to game night. Good night, everybody. |
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