Video Games
Tron
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Greetings, gamers! Whether you’re playing this game with me for the first time or starting from your last save point, I appreciate you pressing PLAY on my silly, cinematic ramblings. I have a confession to make: I am, indeed, a gamer girl. And you may be thinking, “you’ve already spent time as a movie nerd, a ballerina, a cat lady, an obnoxious choir kid, a part-time witch, full-time writer—how could you possibly have time to be a gamer girl too?” And the answer, my friends, is I do not have time, but I do have an addiction to stimulation and entertainment, so games find a way. I was raised in the golden age of CD-ROM games, including all manner of Barbie adventures, Freddy Fish mysteries, and even a game produced by The Gap™ that I randomly loved, but my main preferences for gaming were/are Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series, the sadomasochistic time-sucker called The Sims, Pokémon, Neopets, and all manner of violent and age-inappropriate games on AddictingGames.com. I grew up in a time where games were embedded into just about everything—DVDs, Happy Meals, waiting in the lobby of the dentist’s office—so how could I not be a bit absorbed? Even now, as an adult with a day job that pays and a film critic career that does not, I enjoy playing GTA and Batman: Arkham Knight on my PS4/5 and I am fully addicted to Hello Kitty Island Adventure, and I’m not ashamed to admit that. And this is to say nothing of the infinite gaming device that exists in all of our pockets and purses—the mobile game market certainly piqued my interests, but I never fully immersed myself into that realm like the iPad baby generation that came after me. Video games are, in theory, a harmless way of passing the time and harnessing a competitive spirit, and all kinds of people have enjoyed gaming for over 50 years. In 1952, British professor A.S. Douglas created OXO, a version of tic-tac-toe, as part of his doctoral dissertation at Cambridge. In 1958, William Higinbotham created Tennis for Two on a large analog computer, and by 1967, Ralph Baer (sometimes referred to as The Father of Video Games), invented a prototype multiplayer, multi-program video game system that could be played on a television known as “The Brown Box.” In 1972, Baer licensed his device to Magnavox, which sold the system to consumers as the Odyssey: the first video game home console. The Odyssey was not the most successful venture, yet it opened the door for the first home-video-game: Pong. I love video games and I love movies, so you’d think I’d love movies based on video games, but like many gamers and snobs, the vast majority of these adaptations have disappointed me. Like a Stephen King novel, video games are nearly impossible to adapt into films because so much of the understanding and appreciation of video games comes from one’s own individual experience with it. I like a handful of Pokémon movies and always have fun with a Resident Evil adaptation, but even the video game movies I enjoy are not widely viewed as “good”—as with 1993’s Super Mario Bros., for example. Most successful adaptations come from games that were already highly cinematic and well-written, as with The Last of Us, but I believe in the potential of video game cinema. Despite my little faith in video game cinema, tonight I’m trying out two movies based on video games that I’ve actually played personally. They both feature cocky and competitive protagonists, and they both may or may not be enhanced and improved by watching them high.
Up first is a film I’ve wanted to see ever since I learned Jeff Bridges was hot, this is Steven Lisberger’s 1982 film Tron. Tron is the rare video game film that technically came before the game itself, though its origins are somewhat complex. Tron, the game as we all know it, is really the evolution of the game Snake, wherein players control a line with an ever-growing tail, attempting to not crash into itself, the wall, or the other player. Lisberger became intrigued with video games after seeing Pong, stating, “I realized that there were these techniques that would be very suitable for bringing video games and computer visuals to the screen. And that was the moment that the whole concept flashed across my mind. Everybody was doing backlit animation in the 70s... It was that disco look. I was interested in the early phases of computer generated animation, which I got into at MIT in Boston… I met a bunch of programmers who were into all that. And they really inspired me, by how much they believed in this new realm.” After being rejected by multiple studios, Tron was eventually acquired by Disney, which at the time, had plans to expand beyond its traditional family-oriented media by developing more ambitious and mature films, as well as creating cutting-edge IP capable of competing with Star Wars. Tron was one of the first films to make extensive use of any form of computer animation, but most of the scenes, backgrounds, and visual effects were created using more traditional techniques and a unique process known as “backlit animation.” More than 569 people were involved in the post-production work, including 200 inkers and hand-painters, 85 of them from Taiwan’s Cuckoo’s Nest Studio, and though Tron received Oscar nominations for Best Costume Design and Best Sound, it was disqualified from the Best Visual Effects category because the Academy felt that using computer animation was “cheating”—if only we felt this way about AI, but I digress. Tron follows brilliant software engineer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a former employee of the massive and mysterious technology corporation ENCOM. But since he got canned, Flynn been running an arcade and trying to hack into ENCOM’s system, to find proof that the current big boss man—Ed Dillinger (David Warner)—hostilely took over the company and took credit for the games that Flynn invented. But Dillinger has blocked any progress and efficiency and oversight at ENCOM, ever since he installed an insidious program called the Master Control Program, which gains more intelligence and power every single day. Fearful of what may happen if the MCP continues to go unchecked, two other programmers named Alan and Lori (Bruce Boxleitner & Cindy Morgan) join forces with Flynn to put a stop to this dangerous technology. But when the three computer geniuses sneak into ENCOM one night, Flynn is caught up in an experimental laser that beams him into the digitized grid of the company’s system. It’s now up to Flynn to stop the Master Control Program from the inside, and beat the deadly games that are designed to kill any program—or pixelated human—who dares to go against the almighty MCP. There is actually a lot more to this film’s plot, and the games Flynn are forced to play are only a small part of this trippy, dystopian, existentialist, technologically-paranoid, ideologically-expansive narrative. There is a bold religious allegory, with “programs” inside the grid being punished for believing in “the users”, and there were more prescient lines of dialogue than I can list. At one point, the elderly founder of ENCOM hypothesizes, “Won’t that be grand: computers and programs will start thinking, and the people will stop!” Convoluted in both its inception and its execution, with a large chunk of the plot hinging upon an understanding of hyper-specific computer jargon, I can completely understand why Tron didn’t quite hit for people back in 1982. I mean, even in 2026, some of the concepts and characters and Easter eggs in Tron are dense and a bit hard to follow. Even still, I had a great time watching Tron! The visuals were truly, truly impressive and immersive, and though it was perhaps overly complicated, I didn’t mind the script, either. And Jeff Bridges as a cocky, funny, hot, rascally nerd was just the cherry on top. I loved how none of this—from the real-world corporatism to the digital-world dangers—was glamorized, and how none of the “program” characters were particularly humanized or sympathetic (even the virtual heroes were too stiff to identify with.) The aesthetic of this film, even when operating in the real world, was consistently cool and modern and doused in neon, and the soundtrack (created by pioneer electronic musician Wendy Carlos) was just as vibrant and ahead-of-its-time as the movie itself. Though Tron the film was a critical failure, the game version sold approximately 10,000 arcade cabinets that year, and won “Coin-Operated Game of the Year” by Electronic Games. Tron also inspired several pop-culture-shakers to start creating, including John Lasseter (head of Pixar), Daft Punk, and Gorillaz. To quote my buddy Roger Ebert, Tron is, “a technological sound-and-light show that is sensational and brainy, stylish and fun”, and I was very pleasantly surprised.
I was just as pleasantly surprised by tonight’s next film, a video game movie that many have written off as unserious, oversexed, and undercooked, this is Simon West’s 2001 film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Anyone who’s gamed or even heard of video games is familiar with the character of Lara Croft—or girl Indiana Jones as she is sometimes known—but even if you don’t know who she is, you may be aware of how hated this film was back in the day. Fans and newbs alike were appalled at the casting of then-infamous Angelina Jolie, and were not pleased with the way Lara Croft was brought to life—from her British accent to her fighting techniques to, you guessed it, the size of her boobs. Lara Croft is, after all, just one in a long line of female video game characters who have been hypersexualized, scrutinized, and ridiculed—even Mrs. Pac-Man isn’t safe. The film follows the wealthy, intellectual, expert explorer, astute archeological artefact excavator, martial-arts-proficient polyglot Lara Croft, whom we first meet in some ancient tomb, where she is swiftly thrust into hand-to-hand-to-gun-to-gun combat with a giant robot. As they ruin the ruins among them, Lara effortlessly dodges each blow and eventually defeats the electronic beast before it is revealed that this was all a training simulation, taking place in the depths of the massive Croft estate. With a little help from her tech guy, Bryce (Noah Taylor), and her butler, Hillary (Chris Barrie), Lara is constantly preparing herself for globe-trotting, cave-jumping adventures—eschewing all British high society standards and dress codes in the process. Then, in a completely unnecessary but marketable scene, Lara takes a long shower, where no direct nudity is shown, but the incels who love and hate Lara expected nonetheless. It is the first phase of a rare planetary alignment and the anniversary of her father’s disappearance, and Lara is summoned by a letter—pre-planned to be sent by her father (played by Jolie’s real-life father, Jon Voight)—which explains how she must use her keen archeological instincts to stop the Illuminati from carrying out their evil, solar-eclipse-based plan of world domination. This film has a little bit of everything—stunts, puzzles, gorgeous landscapes, creepy ruinous tombs, anachronistic history, anthropomorphic statues, a queer-coded villain, a smart and sexy female protagonist, intricate set pieces, and a morally-grey American antihero played ironically by the British Daniel Craig. The action sequences were genuinely incredible, the fighting choreography was fluid and thrilling, and all Angelina Jolie really had to do was let two strands of hair fall in front of her face while she smirks and I was sold. And yet, for all of its video-game-inspired magic and mayhem, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was a critical failure. If you look up any reviews of this film upon its release, you’ll find uncreative lambasting of the premise, incredibly misogynistic critiques of Angelina Jolie, and a plethora of debate and discourse and litigation surrounding how sexy or unsexy Lara Croft was perceived to be. As Jolie was forced to explain to NY Rock in 2001, “C’mon, I’m not so flat chested to begin with. When I wear a tight T-shirt, I look a certain way. So it wasn’t like we had to completely change me. You know, we just had to enhance me a little. I’m a 36C. Lara, she’s a 36D. And in the game, she’s a double D, so we took her down some.” The entirety of this film’s production was a mess, going through two directors, nearly ten screenwriters, and numerous versions of the script, so it’s a miracle that the film got made, and better yet, is coherent and even kinda good! And anyone who takes issue with Lara Croft’s trademark sex appeal—whether it be its overuse or its underutilization—has Angelina Jolie and the studios to blame, because Jolie really wanted this character to be maximum sexy-fied (that shower scene was her idea) but the top brass said they had to keep it PG-13. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was never in any Oscar conversations, but it was an absolutely fabulous and shockingly compelling time. We just don’t make action movies like this anymore, and that’s a tragedy! Action heroes should be quippy, their villains should be cartoonish, and if I can’t recognize video game tropes and functional set pieces within a video game movie, then I’m not interested! And whether or not you find Lara Croft to be a viably-feminist character, she is the perfect symbol for and example of the misogyny women face when put on any form of display, or when she, god forbid, joins a male-dominated field—be it archeology, or the gaming world. Before Angelina Jolie was brought on, several other actresses were considered for the role, including Jennifer Love Hewitt, Famke Janssen, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Hurley, Ashley Judd, Sandra Bullock, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Diane Lane, Demi Moore, Denise Richards, Charisma Carpenter, Fairuza Balk, Kirsten Dunst, and Milla Jovovich. But I sincerely enjoyed Jolie’s portrayal, and the movie as a whole, as did my buddy Roger Ebert, once again, who wrote, “(It) elevates goofiness to an art form. Here is a movie so monumentally silly, yet so wondrous to look at, that only a churl could find fault.” And I couldn’t agree more! Even if the majority of video game films were decent, I’d still think this film was good in comparison, but especially given this subgenre’s track record (and its impossible-to-please audiences) I think it’s downright spectacular. I love playing both of the games tonight’s films were based on and I loved the films themselves, so I’d say this was a pretty successful gaming sesh. Now, back to my parent’s basement I go! Toodles!
