TMW #94: Tron revisited and AI actors
Plus, a Jeff Bridges quiz!
Welcome to your latest edition of The Movie Wingman: today we’re plugging into The Grid to revisit the Tron movies, and looking at the tech invading the real world in the form of AI actress Tilly Norwood. There’s also a quiz on the Dude himself, Jeff Bridges.
We’ll be back on Friday with reviews of this week’s new releases - including Tron: Ares. A reminder: we’re currently not operating with a paywall, so we welcome all subscribers, either free or those who wish to support what we do by paying. And we always appreciate a like/restack/share, too.
Grid locked
Lights, camera, Pac-Man: revisiting Tron and its legacy…
Of all the reasons I can think of to kick myself, one of the biggest is not badgering my parents to take me to see the original Tron in 1982. Back in the days before we all migrated to The Grid ourselves, my first awareness of the movie came in the local supermarket, where a shop-assistant friend of my mum drew my attention from the Mr. Men yoghurts to tell me about this upcoming epic where a scientist gets trapped inside a computer… And it features Pac-Man!
This description conjured an image in my head of Think of a Number host Johnny Ball in a lab coat legging it round a pill-filled maze. Alas, I didn’t get the chance to measure this awesome notion against the finished article; possibly because this seven-year-old Atari addict was too busy playing Pac-Man, or crayoning Pac-Man fan art, to go see a film starring Pac-Man.
If I had, though, I imagine I would’ve been both blown away and confused AF by Tron. Today’s nippers probably grasp the concept of digital avatars faster than their ABCs. But back then I would’ve been nagging Dad to tell me why there are two of everyone (the hero, the villain, the lady who doesn’t get to do very much); and are we inside a tank, a flying boat or one of the Pac-Man ghosts’ lower intestine? (You can guarantee I would’ve Blinky-ed and missed the Easter egg). Juggling live action, CGI and a technique called back-lit animation, the editing isn’t always terrifically clear. It’s also a bit foggy at times as to who the main character of Steven Lisberger’s film is - game-maker turned hacker Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) or Bruce Boxleitner’s ‘security program’ Tron (it’s his name on the marquee, after all)?
But what is well-defined and pleasingly crisp - still to this day - is the bright, blocky, boundlessly trippy visual aesthetic. Tron wasn’t a box-office smash (again, if only I’d got a ticket…), but did inspire a cult following, an arcade game that reportedly outgrossed the movie and eventually, of course, sequels.
Ahead of threequel Tron: Ares, rewatching Tron and 2010’s Tron: Legacy back to back reveals how strikingly chalk-and-cheese the movies are. For all the legacy-ness of the second movie - returning cast members, descendants of older characters, dialogue callbacks, the climactic recreation of Tron’s signature pose/poster - there’s a lot more distance between the Trons than say, Jurassic Park/World or A New Hope/The Force Awakens.
Fifteen years on, Legacy’s photorealistic CGI still looks pretty pristine - even the controversial Clu (aka de-aged Jeff Bridges) holds up relatively well, at least until he opens his mouth (and then it’s like some deepfake nightmare trying to con you into buying BitCoin). But The Grid’s had a gloomy, rainy generically neo-noiry makeover akin to so many other post-Matrix cyber-thrillers. By contrast, it’s fair to say there was little else like Lisberger’s film at the time, at least until The Last Starfighter. Or, you know, Dire Straits’ ‘Money for Nothing’ video.
Tonally, too, while the original Tron feels like a goofy, rompy Disney sci-caper a la The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes or The Cat from Outer Space, Legacy is more edgy, brooding and self-serious - and afflicted with a common case of modern franchise bloat, with too many scenes of characters filling each other in on what’s been happening since the last film. Basically, it’s only the second-best Joseph Kosinski-directed, fighter-planes-featuring belated sequel to an iconic 80s movie.
Still, with its wildly abrupt ending and slight waste of David Warner (more deliciously dastardly in Time Bandits the year before), the original Tron, for its envelope-pushing, isn’t a masterpiece either. And the one advantage Legacy has over its predecessor is being able to riff playfully on Bridges’ post-Dude persona. OK, lines like “You’re messing with my Zen thing, man” are a tad on the nose. But as much as I love lightcycles, light-frisbees and those funky Grid-hats (omnipresent because the FX tech reportedly couldn’t handle hair in ’82), I don’t think there’s a finer moment in either movie than when the ageing Flynn simply declares, “Dogs are cool.” Match that, Ares… (Matthew Leyland)
Tilly season
From The Grid to our reality, does the world need an AI actress?
There was uproar in the film world last week as news spread about ‘AI’ ‘actress’ Tilly Norwood, whose creator Particle6 Group claimed at the Zurich Film Festival that she was soon to be signed with a major Hollywood agent. Particle6’s founder Eline Van der Velden has claimed that she wants Norwood to be “the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman”.
If you’ve seen the ‘AI Commissioner’ comedy sketch featuring Norwood, you’ll realise that there’s still a long way to go till flesh-and-blood performers and writers need to start sweating. For now, Norwood is clearly nothing but a gimmick. But Van der Velden’s pronouncements and the ensuing fuss have given the enterprise just what it needs for now: attention.
Stars such as Emily Blunt, Toni Collette and Melissa Barrera are among those who have expressed concern, while the SAG-AFTRA union has released a damning statement, saying that the tech “creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry”. While these reactions are understandable and even necessary, they have the unfortunate effect of giving further oxygen to a nascent industry that relies on bluster based on future possibilities rather than present capabilities.
Check out Norwood’s 20-second showreel (above) if you want a decent idea of what she’s capable of doing thus far: brief, out-of-context snippets that are visually slick but ring uncannily hollow. Imagine having that generic blandness spun out over 90+ minutes. If she does land a movie role, it’ll be because the production needs a packageable selling point that it otherwise lacks. She’ll only be called upon to drum up column inches if the project is otherwise lacking in the script, cast or craft departments.
There’s also the question of how much it’ll cost - in money and resources - to generate enough artificial acting to fill a movie. Surely far more than it’d cost to hire a human that audiences can actually believe in, and relate to much more readily. Yes, we can be enchanted by animated characters. But not only do they normally have human voices behind them, we also buy into the idea that a human animator has invested them with recognisable expressions, actions and behaviour, and is attempting to say something via the medium.
Beyond the short-lived novelty factor, would you care to engage with the digital output spewed up by algorithms trained on other people’s hard work and artistry? Nor would I. (Matt Maytum)
The Wingman Quiz: Jeff Bridges
To mark this week’s release of Tron: Ares, here are five posers on the franchise’s abiding star. Scroll down for the answers - and to misquote The Dude, cheating will not stand, man…
Bridges received his first Best Actor Oscar nomination for which movie?
a)The Last Picture Show b) Cutter’s Way c) Starman d) Surf’s UpDad Lloyd Bridges makes an (uncredited) appearance in which of these Jeff flicks? a) Tucker: The Man and His Dream b) The Fabulous Baker Boys c) Texasville d) King Kong
What is Bridges’ character’s codename in Kingsman: The Golden Circle? a) Whiskey b) Cognac c) Champagne d) White Russian
Archive footage of Bridges’ Iron Man character Obadiah Stane can be seen in which other Marvel movie? a) Iron Man 3 b) Spider-Man: No Way Home c) Avengers: Endgame d) Madame Web
Which of these is NOT a suggested nickname for Jeff ‘The Dude’ Lebowski?
a) Dudeski b) Duder c) El Duderino d) His Dudeness
Quiz Answers
c) Starman
a) Tucker: The Man and His Dream
c) Champagne
b) Spider-Man: No Way Home
a) Dudeski