I’m a lucky guy for many reasons. One of my many bits of luck is Susie Q. Not only is she one of my very best friends, but this summer she moved a mere two blocks from my pad. Thus we get to see a lot of one another and talk about many a topic given that we commute to and from work together almost everyday.

Susie liked TRON: LEGACY a lot more than I did, so I thought I’d let her explain what it did for her that it didn’t do for me…

RM: So what did you see in this movie that I didn’t?

SQ: For starters, the fact that in this world Kevin Flynn surrounded himself with games and computers and had very few friends, because he was so immersed in the digital world he was helping to create. But then, when he’s trapped there and has none of the comforts of home, he surrounds himself with books and theology and … a bubbly thinking mat. And stuff. Stuff from here, or that reminds him of here.

Likewise, there’s a certain feeling that the original gave me as a kid…something about the discovery of a whole new frontier. It’s like settling the moon or the ocean – only this was a digital frontier, and Kevin Flynn was the pioneer trying to tame it. So whatever feeling of mystical excitement that brought me as a kid seeing the original for the first time and playing the games (while thinking maybe the Programs in the games had actual feelings – raised the stakes of videogame playing for a while there), that was completely present in this incarnation.

Oh, and Sam is really hot.

RM:: Clearly you’re a critic with high standards. I feel like there wasn’t much in the way of stakes though. From the pilfering of Flynn’s disc to CLU wanting to get through the portal, I didn’t feel like we were given the consequences of what would happen should these things come to pass.

SQ: Flynn explained to Sam about how CLU thought he could get through with Flynn’s disc, and Sam didn’t know what that meant. So his dad said, “The guy doesn’t dig imperfection. Can you think of anything more imperfect than our world?”

Clu was building an army that he could take through the portal, to build his idea of a Utopia here, is how I understood it. He had all those other programs that he was reconfiguring to be his army warriors.

RM: Wow. I don’t know if I zoned out or something but I totally didn’t get that. Let’s talk about how it stacks up for a moment – how would you say this 3-D IMAX film compares to AVATAR?

SQ: I was actually thinking about Avatar when I saw it in IMAX, because I was stuck in nearly the same somewhat crappy seats, just not as far down!

The worlds created in both films took on a life of their own, with beings that could think for themselves, and wanted to have control over their own lives. They both had their own sets of rules that had to be learned by outsiders in order for them to survive. And both worlds were invaded, essentially, by people from ours, who wanted to make it different from what it was.

The difference being that Flynn was never portrayed as an evil conquerer like the guys in Avatar were. Where Tron differed, then, is in the fact that none of the Na’avi ever said, “Oh yeah? Well then hows about we jump into YOUR world and have a little takeover of our own, huh? Would you like THAT?!”

RM: True, but what about from an overall experience?

Going back to AVATAR, I let out an audible “wow” when that tree came down, and I never got any similar moments from TRON. It was if the world of The Grid had unlimited properties and potential, but nobody was ever allowed out to play. There was one light cycle chase that was over in a heartbeat, one areal dogfight that felt anticlimactic, and precious little else where action was concerned.

Did you get that too?

SQ: Nope. Unlike you, I wasn’t there for the action.

the first rumble of the Recognizer as it comes to capture Sam as soon as he hits the Grid actually made my seat tremble.

The first time I watched it, I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. And even the second time, the moment K-Flynn hits the Grid to do battle in the bar trying to save Sam, and Daft Punk starts spinning that theme song I’ve been hearing so often, and all the lights go out and the one guy yells, “RESIST!” as they all start fighting a-new…that was a huge moment for me. It still gives me goosebumps.

Beyond that, I loved the little things…CLU’s arrival onto the game grid amidst the fireworks and applause; Sam’s slow-motion leap onto his lightcycle for the first time.

Both movies looked pretty…as they should. One made me a giddy kid again, and one reminded me of Dances With Wolves. They are, of course, completely different films, though, and I enjoyed both. Avatar had more just for the foliage factor alone- it’s much denser than the innards of a computer, I think.

And, of course, it goes without saying that there was a lot of blue in both flicks.

RM: I think we’ve tapped into something here. How much of your love is coming from the movie as a movie, and how much is springboarding from your childhood love of the original?

SQ: Probably quite a bit…i mean, the nostalgia factor alone is worth it for me.

I didn’t understand the original very much, and this one looks way better, and has more of a human component to it that the original did not. i definitely like it more than i liked the original, but both of us are a good 20 years older, so that makes sense.

if i just walked into it with no history of the franchise? no knowledge of the mythology behind it? if i just wanted an action-y sci-fi-y background to my popcorn-eating habit? *shrugs* I don’t think I would have hated it. I doubt I would have loved it. I’m sure I would have still thought Sam was hot. and i would have wanted one of those light-up suits and a Flynn cloak. and it probably still would have made me laugh (“Between digital devices? Huh. I thought of that in ’85!”).

Likewise, the father-son reunion would have still gotten to me…but that’s because I have daddy issues

RM: That explains so much!

Let’s look at big bad for a second. Even though I wasn’t nuts about the original, MCP struck me as a better villain than CLU. Perhaps because it felt like more of an intimidating entity to overcome.

SQ: MCP was more of a disembodied baddie, no? more intimidating because he wasn’t exactly there, but in a way, he was everywhere. CLU never had that sort of control…that sort of power. MCP could tell when someone was on the Grid who shouldn’t be, and when hackers were poking around at his backdoor. And he had not a human thought in his computer-consumed mind. CLU had feelings and motivation.

MCP was, like…it was The Grid, in a way. I half pictured everyone running about its belly, trying to get the upper hand from the inside, but having no place to hide or regroup, because they were all simultaneously a part of it, almost. it’d be like if the sun turned on us, and we were trying to put it out without it seeing us coming.

MCP mindlessly did what it was created to do, so yeah, way more intimidating. CLU was more like Hitler. Big on speeches and ideas, but needs a bunch of henchmen to carry out his plans and do his dirty work for him.

RM: Fascinating.

So if I were to take my own usual line of advice and “Watch It Again”, what would you suggest I zero in on to enjoy it more than I did the first time around?

SQ: Does how hot Sam is count?

The father-son story had a huge impact on me. I wished I hadn’t seen ahead of time the moment where Sam and his dad see one another again for the first time. I thought it was well done…both of their love, anger, disappointment, forgiveness and absolute reverence of one another, despite their flaws and because of them. It really came through for me, and watching them awkwardly try to find their way into one another’s lives again was really quite touching for an action-y sci-fi flick.

Then there’s CLU almost throwing a little tantrum when they are all at the portal…”I did everything you ever wanted!” It was so Frankenstein-esque to me. Only with Dr. Frankenstein trapped in the same world his monster helped him create, and trying to stop him from escaping to where the rest of his family and people he cared about were sitting all vulnerable and unsuspecting of the danger he’d sacrificed himself to keep them from.