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Tron: Reloaded, come for the action, stay for the aesthetics
Cities made of broken technology
Invizibul Bukkit Hug (Boing Boing Flickr Pool)
Video Girl Barbie could be used for kiddie porn?
Jewelry sale in the Uncanny Valley

Tron: Reloaded, come for the action, stay for the aesthetics

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 11:41 PM PST

Last week, I attended a press-preview for Tron: Legacy at the London IMAX, where the film was screened in 3D. It's an extremely fun bit of entertainment, with some surprises, loads of nostalgic pandering to the sort of person who saw the original Tron as a kid (such as me), and some interesting commercial notes.

As you'd expect from an effects-heavy action-thriller, there's not much by way of plot. Through an incoherent process, the feckless, alienated son of the long-lost founder of the largest video-game and software company in the world is transported into a magical computerland in which his father has been stranded for 20 years. There, he finds an oppressive force oppressing madly and plotting something awful. He discovers that time is running out, and he has to get very quickly from A to B (with stops for brilliantly choreographed fight scenes in a variety of beautifully rendered environments) or all is lost. On the way, he reconciles his fecklessness with the wisdom of his father, much selfless sacrifice takes place, betrayers betray, redemption happens, etc etc (anyone so sensitive as to claim that the foregoing is a spoiler should probably abstain from reading anything written about movies, period).

Of course, the primary artistic effect of T:R comes from its action and its aesthetics (which are closely entwined). It's a beautiful movie, even in 3D (I find 3D hard to converge, overly dark, and hard on my eyes). The visual design, from the rendered panoramas of the inside of computerland (which look like the Matrix, as resdesigned by Dubai's urban planners) to the meticulous set-dressing and costumes (more of a 2001-meets-Rollerball thing) works in improbable and even moving ways. Rubbing the glassy noir brutalism of the landscape up against the utopian, curvilinear, techno-chic clothes and sets produces something that's much more striking and more moving than the mere storyline.

But no one wants to stare at nice clothes for 96 minutes. Luckily, there is a triple-helping of action sequences involving all the best combat stuff from the first movie and the games that followed it: acrobatic discus-tossing, light-cycle racing, bullet-time martial arts sequences, and some tasty aerial combat for good measure. What's most striking about these sequences is how much like a game they are: every time the actors unveil a new complex wrinkle on the rules -- shifts in gravity, new weapons, super-bad-ass bad-guys -- it feels just like watching someone confronting a level-boss or levelling up in a console or arcade game. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if the production team collaborated with the game designers who'll be producing the inevitable console tie-ins to create these scenes; they look like they'd be incredibly fun to play.

More distracting and less effective was the film's obnoxious use of product placement, which is confined to the first act (not much room for product placement in computerland, thankfully -- it would have really shattered the look-and-feel to have these software agents racing Ducati lightcycles, carefully holding their soda-pop cans with the label out and sporting Nokia logos on the napes of their necks). I got the feeling that the film's creators were under pressure to cram a full movie's worth of placements into the first few minutes, since most of the movie didn't lend itself to this treatment. I kept hoping for the computerland people to go shopping for clothes at a techno-goth superstore like London's Cyberdog -- though, of course, Cyberdog's clothes are essentially fetishwear versions of the original Tron costumes, so it's only fitting that they'd be taken to the next level by Tron's successor.

This is clearly a movie whose intended audience is people in their late 30s and early 40s with their children in tow. The script is peppered with sly references to War Games, the original Star Wars, and has a davidbowieite androga-villain that is a charming homage to a dozen comparable characters from my boyhood.

What follows is a very mild spoiler. If this bugs you, look away now.

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For me, the funniest and most surprising (and even delightful) thing about T:L was the copyfighting subtext of the film. Jeff Bridges is an info-hippie who talks and effects a mien exactly like EFF co-founder and Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow (seriously -- give that guy an ascot and send him to Burning Man and you'd never know the difference!), and his company is brought low by corporate raiders who are software monopolists whose evil plan is to (I am not making this up) put DRM into all their software. Quoth Bridges, with positively spiritual radiance: "We designed a system in which all information is free and open."

Preach, brother!

Cities made of broken technology

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 11:41 PM PST

NYC's Agora gallery is showing the marvellous junk-tech sculptures of Italy's Franco Recchia: " he approaches each subject with that sense of innocent amazement, instinctively following a compositive and rigorous logic until each piece is laid in its correct place. What results are wonderfully distinctive pieces rich in detail, marked by crisp, clean lines and colors that work to delineate the overall composition."

Franco Recchia (Thanks, Mr G!)

Invizibul Bukkit Hug (Boing Boing Flickr Pool)

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 02:52 PM PST

This wonderful photograph was contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by BB reader Sean Bonnette.

Video Girl Barbie could be used for kiddie porn?

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 11:07 AM PST

I was certainly stricken by the new Surveillance Barbie sporting a digital vidcam in her cleavage, but I hadn't thought of the doll as a potential tool for pedophiles. However, the FBI deemed it worth an official alert. From CNN:

The FBI "cyber crime alert" doesn't cite any misuse of the doll, which has been on the market since July, but talks about the possibility.
"FBI investigation has revealed instances where an individual convicted of distributing child pornography had given a Barbie doll to a 6 year old girl," the alert said.
The document went on to cite the findings of another investigation that found "examples where a concealed video camera had recorded child pornography." That camera didn't involve a doll, FBI special agent Frederick Gutt in Seattle, Washington, said Friday.

"FBI: New Barbie 'Video Girl' doll could be used for child porn"