'TR2N'? What Hath Jeff Bridges Wrought?

All right, so it's not breaking news that Hollywood is making a sequel to classic '80s flick "Tron"; it's been rumored and/or in the works for several years. Web pundits were skeptical when the idea was announced—in the 21st century, can you really make a sequel to a movie that was all about a guy literally going into a computer and battling the evil "Master Control Program" without being utterly laughable?—but suspended judgment.

Until now.

It's turns out, we shouldn't have waited with our criticisms, at least if this blurry footage from ComicCon last week is to be believed (not embedded because it's a bootleg clip, so it may get yanked from YouTube; watch quickly or you might miss it). It's a lightcycle race, and it pretty much looks like the '82 original, only with fancier CGI. Oh, and there are a few seconds of a wizened Jeff Bridges—bearded, barefoot and white-pantsed like a high-tech Howard Hughes—looking dispassionately out a window at the race. (Bridges, you'll recall, starred in the original flick, and the ComicCon audience cheered loudly at his appearance.)

The problem remains: representing computer programs as good or evil human beings racing motorcycles on a literal two-lane digital superhighway (no joke; it's a literal road, down to the dotted lane divider) is inherently lame. Sorry, but it is. You can get away with it if it's, oh, 27 years ago, when computers were scaaaary and weird, but not now.

(Also? Pet peeve: naming your movie with a number instead of a letter, a la "Se7en" or "Thir13n Ghosts." Here, it's "TR2N." Note to Tinseltown—a 2 looks nothing like an O. Then again, the other rumored title, "Tron 2.0," is hardly cutting-edge. How about "Tron: The Quickening," guys?)