Nostalgia is the new creativity

This may come as something of a shock to many of you, but I’ve been a geek for a very long time.  It’s been said by people I just made up that I was born with a pocket protector.  I don’t credit that with a lot of truth.  I mean, where would I put it?  No pockets! 

Somewhat later, I would find science fiction movies.  One of the best memories I have of my father is of him taking me to see Alien when I was 10 years old.  If it didn’t scare the crap out of me, it was only because I had all my sphincters and orifices clenched airtight so I didn’t let a chestburster inside.

Good times.

These days, nostalgia is all the rage in Hollywood, with remakes and “reimaginings” cropping up more and more.  And it always seems to be the sci-fi and horror movies that get the remake treatment.  Well, them and Shakespeare.  But Kenneth Brannagh is working on Marvel’s THOR movie, so he can’t step up this year.  Instead, we get CLASH OF THE TITANS and TRON LEGACY.  Personally, I couldn’t be more excited.

CLASH OF THE TITANS takes the darker, grittier atmosphere of movies like 300 and [insert Ridley Scott movie title here], and applies it to the old Harry Hamlin meets Ray Harryhausen’s special effects classic.  Instead of the stop-motion glory of Harryhausen, we’ll be getting bucketloads of CGI, but if the trailer is anything to go by, they seem to doing it right.  Tell me the Kraken won’t look awesome on a giant screen:

TRON LEGACY is a sequel to the 1982 classic TRON.  While I may be abusing the word “classic” a bit, it is one of my favorite movies, and one that still holds up 28 years later.  One of the first movies to use CGI extensively, it depicted the inner world of the computer programs with bursts of color and imagination.  TRON LEGACY updates that cyber world, but not as much as one might expect.  If you’ve seen the original film, or played the video game based on the movie, you’ll undoubtedly recall the giant Recognizers, and the light cycle battle arena:

They both make appearances in the new film, and while they’ve been given a shiny new bitmap, they’re instantly recognizable to a TRON fan:

To me, this is how you do it right.  You honor the source, and put your own spin on it.  Too many of the remakes are just dead shells of the originals filled with crappy effects and actors who are so unconvincing, they likely couldn’t sell beer at the Super Bowl.  Admittedly, I’ve been suckered in and bitterly disappointed by an exciting trailer before (I’m looking at you, Ang Lee’s HULK movie), but the TRON LEGACY trailer made me laugh out loud with excitement.  Can we just skip straight to December so I can see this tomorrow? (Thanks to Slashfilm for the news about the trailer.)

For the record, Ridley Scott is going to direct a prequel to his original ALIEN movie.  My adult self rolls his eyes, and prepares for another tired rehash.  The kid in me, the one who’s geeking out over the new CLASH and TRON?  He just wishes he could go see it with his dad.

Be seeing you.
Brian.