On Wednesday, I had a chance to attend the premiere screening of TRON: Legacy at the IMAX. I felt quite special as they even confiscated our mobiles prior to the screening so there wouldn't be any leaks. First time that's happened. Visually, the film is quite something. For the uninitiated, it has been one of the most hyped geek films of the past two years and is a sequel to the 1982 film TRON. You don't need to be familiar with it to get on board for this one, though I understand the nostalgia factor is quite nice. It centres around 27 year old bad boy Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund, riffing off Chris Pine's Kirk and Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker) looking into the disappearance of his father, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), and finding himself transported into the digital world his father had been working on. Here he meets Quorra (Olivia Wilde) who takes him to Kevin, trapped in the world by his mirror image, the generated Clu (a quite creepy young Jeff Bridges animation). Father and son undertake a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning, dangerous cyber universe to reach the portal that will bring them back to the real world while avoiding Clu and his helmeted cronies, hell bent on taking their quest for perfection beyond the digital realm.
I've never seen the first film but had no problem following along...mostly because the story is virtually non-existent. Don't get me wrong, it's an enjoyable enough film, but it does feel somewhat lacking in care factor, just sort of falling into it and dragging along with the sheer power of its visual flair. That said, the light cycle races are everything they've been hyped up to be, and the light disc battles are brilliantly executed. The acting is solid enough for an action film, even if I can't buy Jeff Bridges in any sort of benevolent role and his aging hippy routine was wearing a bit thin. Newcomer Garrett Hedlund manages unremarkably fine, while Michael Sheen is just love, love. And then there is of course Olivia Wilde, who I always appreciate regardless of what she happens to be doing. Much has been made of the Daft Punk soundtrack, and with good reason - it matches the alternate digital world perfectly. As much as I despise 3D, I think this is one film that actually made the most of the technology - alternating between 2D for the real world scenes, and 3D for the digital, really heightening the impact of it all. Overall, if you have no expectations, it's an enjoyable enough film with intoxicating visuals but carrying little weight.
The rest of the week has been filled up with christmas shopping and christmas dinners. Friday night's one was held at a lovely Korean BBQ place in a hidden corner of the city, a real discovery and a great night out. I also discovered peppermint chocolate milk tea which is obviously something I've been missing my whole life. Last night was the opposite, a mellow dinner in and watching Carols in the Domain - everyone got quite involved in marrying me off to Josh Groban. I'm not objecting. He's a funny guy. And he plays the piano.
In other news, I have violet hair! Well, kind of. My hairdresser insists that it needs to be bleached before she'll dye it, and I am not bleaching my entire head, so we have reached a compromise. What used to be the red layer is now violet, as well as a few streaks. It's very...subtle. My hair being naturally dark, it's not showing up as vibrant as the red used to, but by all accounts it is noticeable enough and I can certainly see it in the right light. I like it, I like being all dark again. I've tried to take a pic of it but the light's pretty woeful.
This week also saw the announcement that Andy Lee and Megan Gale had split up. I was devastated. Devastated. I wish I was kidding. Background - Andy was until recently one half of my favourite radio program, the Hamish & Andy Show. For the months of my full-time employment, the duo have made me look forward to sitting in peak hour traffic on the drive home. Last month they sadly hung up their headphones, though will no doubt still get up to hi jinks on television or some such. Anywho, Andy has been dating supermodel Megan for four years. I adore Megan, I think she's gorgeous, intelligent and has a wonderful sense of humour. I also adore Andy. It's simple maths that I'd be entirely invested in them together. In fact I was wailing about it to mum last night asking "I just don't know what happened, where did we go wrong?" We, indeed. Sigh. Mum of course finds me highly amusing. I suppose that's a good thing. Double sigh.
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| Tears. Tears everwhere. |
Anyway, today I've been chillaxing, watching Repo Men, a rather gruesome action with dark comedy flick starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker that really screws you over in the end, and my latest discovery Blackpool, featuring an all-singing, all-dancing David Tennant complete with Scottish accent, and thereby the best thing ever. David Morrissey is the lead and I will now never be able to watch The Next Doctor without wishing for a song.
But I digress, time yet again to press onwards to more pre-christmas socialising and yet another dinner. Fa la la la la la la la.
Music: Betrayed by bones - Hellogoodbye
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