By Staff Writer Matt K

Tron

Starring
Jeff Bridges
Bruce Boxleitner
David Warner
Cindy Morgan

Directed by
Steven Lisberger

Game Designer and Hacker Kevin Flynn (Bridges) is trying to gather evidence that his games were stolen by evil ENCOM CEO Ed Dillinger (Warner). His hack skills are so good, he uses game designs to try and hack into the Master Control Program (MCP), a Skynet-like supercomputer with eventual world domination plans, but is thwarted by his swiped game designs. Aided by his former co-workers, Alan Bradley (Boxleitner) and Lora (Morgan), he sneaks into ENCOM to continue his English-based hacking, only to be zapped into the mainframe by a laser-digitizing device controlled by the MCP (I dub this the CPUniverse). Within the CPUniverse, Flynn must use his superior ja alai, Frisbee, and light bike skills, along with a security program named Tron (conveniently resembling Bradley), to take down the MCP and his command program Sark and retrieve the evidence he’s been looking for.

By 1982, American video games had grown into a capable industry (even though it was on the verge of collapsing) and their relationship with movies thus far had been one-way, with average to crap games based on movies appearing on the consoles, most notably Atari 2600. Tron is the first movie to feature video games as critical to the plot. Obviously, at the time it was wise for Disney to create an original property rather than try to license and translate a game to the big screen. None of the games at the time were famous for their storylines, unless you count the games based on movies, and before you think “surely they wouldn’t recycle an IP licensed for another medium back into the original medium,” remember that there later was Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game! As well as telling an original story, creating a new IP allowed for the games viewed in the movie to be brought out as their own video game titles, complete with incredible hype from the fantastic visuals.

Tron is a landmark film as it’s the first major motion picture to incorporate extensive computer-generated images for the background of the computer world, the vehicle sequences, and the MCP. Backgrounds involving human actors were created using traditional methods of rotoscoping and backlighting. While some people may consider it gimmicky, it opened the floodgates for CGI research into major motion pictures. Also, the “gimmick” actually gives Tron an aesthetically pleasing look that reflects the decade in which it is set, though doesn’t completely shackle it to its date (outside of the CPUniverse, however, it’s 100% 1980’s and will never be mistaken otherwise).

While the technological setting hold up, the story fails a bit, mainly because outside the action elements, the film is quite boring. At its heart, Tron is nothing more than a fantasy epic with an evil overlord needing to be brought down by an outnumbered but incredibly capable rebel force, thus freeing the land for goodness. Tron even has to receive the ultimate weapon by the “users” before he can hope to defeat the “Evil Emperor” and his digital “Darth Vader.” Also, Flynn is brought to a fantastic world where people who resemble people in the real world was already done in The Wizard of OZ. The device used to transport our ordinary, modern-day protagonist to this fantasy realm is a technological replacement for Dorothy’s flying house. Even the MCP is a cybernetic wizard, albeit evil. Once Tron, Flynn, and Ram break through the confines of the light cycle arena, the film loses the adrenaline rush that it had. As a result, the story elements of the film are rehashed elements of better films, though integrating them into the frame of a computer universe is quite well done.

As with any film involving technology, certain elements are quite dated. Not the actual CPUniverse, that is still quite impressive, even more so when considering the machines available to the film programmers at the time. I’m talking about the archaic games and the notion that people love to come to arcades to watch one gamer conquer a game. In fact, when Flynn is playing Space Paranoids in front of a cheering crowd, he destroys two Paranoids, the second one being simply a repeat of the previous sequence, only much harder because it seems to take him more time to aim, a task supposedly deemed impossible by his adoring fans by the amount of cheers he receives for completing it. Add to the fact that he is the original designer of the game; it’s perplexing that anyone would find this such a great feat. It’d be like Shigeru Miyamoto finding the Warp Whistle in Super Mario Bros 3, stage 1-3, and expecting everyone to claim that he is the greatest gamer ever for discovering his own secret.

Also, the “hacking” elements are a bit confusing. Obviously, when marketing such a high-brow concept as hacking to a general audience, you have to eliminate the jargon and tediousness involved in actual hacking; what results is our first (and certainly not last) instance of the programming using plain English to perform complex hacking/programming tasks, fooling the general audience into believing that all it takes to become an accomplished hacker is a keyboard, monitor, and grasp of the English language. Thus, a time-consuming, trial-and-error process is as simple as ordering from a drive-thru.

Finally, when depicting what actually goes on within the CPUniverse when you type Hack Computer, the film depicts games being played. I’m not sure if this is part of the program that Flynn and the MCP have programmed into their hacking/security databases, or if we are to believe that whenever we run Norton Antivirus, our computers are playing a round of Missile Command against oncoming viruses. Also, are the arcade games hooked-up to the MCP via some undisclosed network connection and comprised of the programs hijacked by the MCP? Makes me wonder if every time I inserted a quarter into Street Fighter II, a hacked version of Quicken as Ryu is duking it out with the AIM logo as Sagat, and that if I used a powerful enough combo, I could break directly into Capcom’s database?

Still, the acting is good. It’s easy to tell Jeff Bridges’s Flynn, the actual human transported into the CPUniverse, from the rest of the programs, since they act in such a non-emotional manner. However, I question whether Tron and Sark were transported out of the CPUniverse and into the real world, since their human counterparts, Bradley and Dillinger, seem equally devoid of emotion. With Boxleitner’s thick glasses, you’d believe that he’s a computer nerd, though it’s much harder to grasp him hooking up with Morgan’s Lora. Also hard to grasp is Flynn, being an arcade owner and hacker, not being an unshaved lummox. But in all, the acting is on par with Star Wars, both being movies more concerned with the special effects than high-caliber acting.

Tron is an accomplished cult film that makes up for its average story with groundbreaking special effects. Several video games based on the light cycles, Frisbee, and Space Paranoids segments of the film were produced for arcades at the time, as well as video game sequels to the movie storyline in recent years. Fans of The Matrix will certainly see the inspiration from this film without the deep insight (or pompous philosophy of the sequels). It introduced CGI to an audience on the verge of accepting home computers into their homes, opening the floodgates to extensive and crappy CGI in many movies that should have known better. Also, those of us that were around when the film originally came out have a chance for some good, if rose-colored, nostalgia.. Most important to this article, Tron serves as a great introduction to video games as a major element into the film. Though it wasn’t a translation of an existing popular game into a film, it did allow video games to gain mass media attention. Gamers dreaming of their favorite games being translated directly to screen would have to wait about a decade for their dreams to be shattered.

Gamer Culture Exposed: This movie deals quite well with video gamers, not making them out to be anarchists (Flynn is in the right as his games were stolen by Dillinger) or unsociable slobs. However, I may have been too young for the trend where people come to an arcade to watch someone else make a high score. If anything, I'd have my quarter slapped up there to beat it, but these guys seem to have nothing better to do than watch someone play the games. Also, this was during the Golden Age of the Arcade when the home console market was crashing and games were far superior at the arcade than at home. This, of course, came to an end with the release of the Dreamcast version of Soul Calibur.

Availability: Tron enjoyed a revival during the dawn of the new millenium, especially with its spiritual successor The Matrix garnering attention and popularity. Various versions of the DVD are available in stores and on Amazon.

Formula: As mentioned above, Tron is not exactly original plot-wise, and we’ll see that no video game movies are. Therefore, I shall provide an easy-to-follow flow chart that will help you determine what kind of movie you’re getting, thus illuminating possible alternatives if you’re trying to find a similar flick without the video game trappings.

It's the Thanksgiving holidays! Which means we're being a bit slow at getting a new show recorded with all the holiday festivities. So to tide you over until the next show, I present you with the Jerrall.

Jerrall was the first film Blake Buck and William Miller shot together in the fall of 2003. This was back in our senior year of high-school at the Mississippi School of Mathematics and Science - an academically selective boarding school for gifted students. The film presents one legendary Calculus II teacher and his ensuing wrath on his students.

Though as crude as it perhaps looks now, Jerrall paved the way for future films; we also had a lot of fun premiering it in our Calculus II class as well. If you have any feedback for us, leave your thoughts in our forums here.

In the coming weeks we'll be posting the rest of Buck and Miller's Foursouth films, so stay tuned!

This week BDPE's got a very special guest! Andre Meadows, who some of you may know from his "Buy me a Wii" YouTube video, talks to us about his love of games, comedy, and his experiences as a black nerd.

Also this week, Jack Thompson announces himself keynote speaker at GDC, the ESRB says Manhunt 2's rating will stand despite it sucking really bad, and Guitar Hero 3 makes Activision enough money to license a good set list next time - oooh, burn!

Judgment: Guitar Hero 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2)
Jank: Lost Planet Collector's Edition
Quote: "I'm inviting him to MLK Day"

Check out Andre's website and videos over at:

www.blacknerdcomedy.com

If you have any feedback, you can shoot us an email here, call our voicemail at 845-BATTLE-9, or leave your thoughts in our forums here.

VOTE FOR US AT PODCAST ALLEY! DBZ GOKU!

By Staff Writer Matt K
Original Pic by Shawn B

I’m going to try and address a very controversial topic. Some people may find it inappropriate and offensive. Does that mean I should stop writing now? Well, how can you be offended if I don’t complete the article? Surely you’ll need the complete context of my writing and my intention for writing if you’re going to deem it offensive. Such is the case for Resident Evil 5. Sure, the series is no stranger to controversy, what with its explicit violence and gore. A new controversy came about during E3 2007, where a video depicted series mainstay Chris Redfield battling savage villagers. A blogger caught sight of this trailer and vented her offense, deeming the images in the trailer to be racist. Naturally, many people reacted in a rather knee-jerk fashion, spewing racial and sexist slurs towards the blogger, essentially validating the blogger’s opinion that video games can make people racist.

People like to abuse the anonymity of the Internet. Bloggers will pick any topic of interest and write about it, saying anything they want with a false sense of authority in a desire to be heard and validated. They take offense when people read their blogs and react against them, often with a similar sense of false authority. Each blogger and commentator thinks they are right and believe that they can convince others to affirm and conform to their views but will not seek to change their own views at any counter argument. By no means were the slanderous remarks about the blogger's race or gender called for. Such slander served no purpose but to support the blogger's claim. On the other hand, the blogger failed to approach the subject in a wise manner. With such claims as “Start them young… fearing, hating, and destroying black people,” she was inadvertently implying that video game players are racist. In reality, such a claim makes her racist, and a poor writer. She’s made broad generalizations about a game, and the gamers who will play it.

She mentions “the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults.” The Resident Evil series has never been marketed to children. All American releases since the very first game have garnered an ‘M’ rating due to violence and gore, and each game’s title sequence is preceded by the warning “This game contains scenes of explicit violence and gore.” Any parent who has blindly bought these games for their children have more problems to deal with than just racism. Parents are provided with sufficient warning of the explicit content in a game via the box warnings and the Internet. If a parent allows their child to play the game, it’s up to them to let them know that the entire game is fiction and that no racial influence is developed from the experience. If the parents are racist, then honestly the game is not going to make a difference one way or another because the child is already exposed to the racism. As for young adults or adults in general, it’s up to them to determine their own feelings and outlook on races, and this has most likely been cultivated long before they are exposed to other material. I looked at the trailer myself before hearing of this blog and I did not find myself overcome with the urge to grab a white hood and lynching ropes. Racial feelings did not rise up in me when I saw the enemies. I’m an adult and my feelings about people of different races are pretty much set, and those were from my real life interactions with them. Also, I’m mature enough to know that experiences with a finite number of people from a race do not necessarily dictate the entire race from acting in such a way. Resident Evil 5 or any other game does not determine that.

Another problem is that many of these accusations of racism are based on a trailer. The blogger herself says “The new Resident Evil 5 video game depicts a white man in what appears to be Africa killing black people.” First, it’s the trailer, not the game. You can’t declare an entire game, or for that matter its makers and fans of the game/series, racist if the entire context of the game has not been released. Such an assumption is just as racist as judging an entire race based on a few people. Also, I feel I can safely assume that the blogger has not followed the series. The “white man,” revealed to be Chris Redfield, has battled against the Umbrella Corporation, the company responsible for the outbreaks of zombie and parasitic infestation throughout the entire series. The spoken line of dialogue, “I have a job to do, and I’m going to see it through,” is inferred by the blog to imply Chris’s desire to attack the black villagers. Now, having not played the game myself, I cannot say this for certain, but having played the previous games, I safely infer that this is targeted towards Umbrella Corp. At any rate, the dialogue and actions of Chris cannot be properly interpreted until the full context of the game has been revealed.

In regards to context, it’s not been explicitly revealed where the game is taking place, but if the story is set in a locale indigenous to black people, would people be offended if black people were completely omitted, most likely interpreting that black people aren’t worthy of being in a video game? Would people be offended if the main character was black, believing this glorifies black-on-black violence? Where was this blogger’s outrage when the previous installment featured Spanish villagers as similarly savage? Where was the outrage of racism when all previous zombies, with the exception in Resident Evil 2 of Officer Marvin Branagh, were all white? The blogger has not addressed these issues because they never were issues. In the context of the game, the things being “killed” were dead to begin with, and it was a matter of survival for the main characters. There’s no hidden meaning to the undead nor to their elimination. To paraphrase Freud, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but what we interpret the cigar to mean determines what we believe is there.

Will canceling Resident Evil 5 teach everyone that racism is wrong and people everywhere will join together in peace and harmony? I can safely say it will not. The problems of racism exist not in games, but within people. Games, like novels and movies, address issues; they don’t cause or solve issues. The best we can do is educate ourselves and deal with issues of racism and other negative vices not within the games, which are just interactive fiction, but within ourselves and our society. People make games, games do not make people.