Prequels, Sequels and Prayers

Thinking about the release of Tron Legacy makes me realise what a huge responsibilty  films like Indiana Jones, Scream and Tron have in releasing new sequels a long time after the originals and in the case of Scream and Indiana Jones , the original trilogies came out. I could also mention Star Wars within this set, but I prefer not to think of the prequel trilogy in relation to the original, one was pure genius the other was a glorified toy advert you work out which is which.

The original and the best!

In the case of Indiana Jones, you had a well established character with some great films behind it. In terms of the original trilogy of Indy movies we already had a smaller version of the delayed sequel in the Last Crusade being released 5 years (check dates) after Indiana's darkest chapter, the Temple of Doom. Lucas and Spielberg took it to new levels in 2007 with the relaese of the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, obviously after the relative success of the Star Wars prequel trilogy they figured another Indy film would be a sure thing. They even seemed keen to extend the idea into a new trilogy of films with the significant introduction of Shia Le Beouf as Indy's son Mutt, carrying on the family tradition of being named after the dog.....but further sequels have not since surfaced.

Is the Scream series a victim of it's own paraody and intropection of the genre?

Much like Indy, Scream seems to be gearing up to start a new trilogy with new faces as well as a few familiar ones. Once again we return to woodsboro where early twitter indications are that ghost face is on the loose again, this time in alternate masks in play such as zombie ghost face. We still have the 3 main players in the picture, Sydney, Dewy and Dewy's now wife Gale. Aswell as an all new cast of young would be victims and suspects in the guise of hayden pantierre, Alison Brie, Rory Culkin (taking the Randyesque role of Charlie? As he apparently lays out the new rules of the game). Is this gonna be a success? In all likely hood, yes. In box office terms it's set to be a precursor to the bigger summer blockbusters of 2011, being released in April. But as a cinematic missing piece to a jigsaw that it's already complete? Unlikely. I think to be a real winner in it needs to break some new ground previously untouched in the trilogy, something Indiana Jones didn't. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull didn't feel like an indy movie what with cgi monkeys, relatively tame Russians replacing the nasty Nazis and an OAP Ford looking like he needed a walking stick as much as a whip. It didn't feel new it felt like a film trying to capture it's previous glories, an admirable goal but one that is seldom achieved in cinema.

So as for Tron. The original was a sleeper hit, a cult classic that intially no-one understood but became loved by many. It had amazing new technology in it's production, a brilliant cast and a fantastic story and writting. How can the sequel compare to this almost 30 years on? The technology used in the original is now something we take for granted, so much so that it now doesn't seem that remarkable after characters like Smeagol/Gollum and benjamin button that we can take a person and fundamentally alter the way we view their performance by de-ageing them and transforming them into other beings. And judging by the preview pics found over the web and in monthly film literature the grid itself has changed as well. It no longer looks like the lo res pong type games, which seemed iconic but archaic the first time I watched the film, as at the time the Playstation had just come out! It seems now to have a gothic reality much like the matrix becomes in revolutions after agent smith has take over. Real looking but unreal. I am glad to see however from looking through chewie's the art of book, that they haven't completely discarded the design style of the original film in the costumes, light cycles etc. Like the grid these just seem to have evolved into high definiton versions of the lo-res pixels, from analogue tv with intermitent signal to full 1080p HD 3 dimensinal surround sound!

Could it be good? Yes. Could It be bad? Yes Is this gonna stop me from seeing it? NO.

So here's to the 17th December, a day that could live in infamy or a day that could kill my appreciation of both a cult classic film and faith in sequels as much as Indy and Star Wars has.