New Trailer Friday

'Tron Legacy' Theatrical Trailer!!!!!!

No, the keyboard didn't get stuck, I just find the more I see of this film, the more irrationally excited I get.  The strange thing is, while I appreciate the original Tron, I don't profess to be a huge fan of it.  It's enjoyable from a historical perspective, and fun in a campy way, but I was never fanatically drawn to the movie or its fictional universe.

So why does this trailer make me giddy with joy?  I think I've tried to rationalize this before, my recent fixation with all things Jeff Bridges, my yet-to-wane fondness of that 80's style synth music because of Mass Effect 2.  But the truth is, there is something that makes me hyped for this film far beyond a few passing associations.

I just can't get enough of the way this film looks, especially the shots inside the shiny new Tron-verse.  From the super detailed, neon highlights on glossy black, to the distinctly washed-out, end-of-2001-A-Space-Odyssey shots of Victorian furniture on fluorescent light panels, to that announcer guy with the white hair who looks like Billy Idol, I just LOVE the way the art direction is working in this film.  And that focus shift from the energy disc to the character in the background, revealing a heat haze around the now out-of-focus disc, such a standard camera trick that feels remarkably fresh in this incarnation.  Tron Legacy has every hint of a director taking a great universe and applying stellar cinematic principles to it to yield a great film from a rich visual palette.

To bring my head ever so slightly out of the clouds, I'm a little concerned about the lead actor, Garrett Hedlund (Eragon), whose "constantly surprised" facial expression and lackluster dialog moments in this trailer give ample cause for doubt.  However, with promise of The Dude being a major player, and superb actors like Michael Sheen (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) in the mix, I am hopeful that even a mediocre lead will not ruin the film as a whole.  And 13 in a shiny black Tron suit... I'd derezz that...

Tron Legacy comes out AN AGONIZING nine months from now on December 17th, in (you guessed it) Three-Dee!

Even with the promise of Iron Man 2, Inception, and The Last Airbender all coming out much sooner in Summer, I think Tron Legacy might be my most anticipated film of 2010.