So You've Been Infected by Tron Viral Marketing, What Now?

So you spent all week gearing up for the Tron viral game "screening".  You stumbled out of bed bright and early on a Saturday.  You walked/drove/trained/lightcycled to your respective city.  You showed up two hours early to get a good seat. 

You were f*cking pumped for sweet, sweet Tron Legacy goodness.

Then what?  If you were here in New York (or anywhere but Los Angeles, apparently), you got cozy in your IMAX stadium seat and, for two minutes, were transported to the three-dimensional world of Tron City.

And as quickly as it started, it was over.

But instead of expected squeals like, "Oh my God, a giant Recognizer!" the reaction was mostly a deafening protest of, "THAT'S IT???".  People didn't go home and talk up the footage, they went home, whipped out their data discs, and derezzed the hell out of the screening.

The backlash got this Tron fanboy thinking (and that's rare), what's our problem?  And then I realized: we are a group of spoiled nerds. 

The Dark Knight set the viral marketing bar.  Like Tron, we played along with The Joker's hunt around the country and were rewarded with the explosive opening six minutes of the flick.  Then there was Avatar Day, the twenty-minute theatrical event that revealed snippets of revolutionary 3D footage that set the bar for what would become the highest grossing film of all time. And then all Disney gives us is two minutes?  And they don't even replay it?  How dare they!

Just remember fellow Users: it's a movie.  It's supposed to be fun, remember?  Yeah, you could (and you will) watch the Tron Legacy trailer in your apartment/office/mom's basement or you could trek through a snowpocalypse while theremining to the original Wendy Carlos score on your iPod and have your senses obliterated by two minutes of laser beams and fragmented data bits with a theater full of hardcore geeks like yourself.  That's cool!

And for those who drove four hours only to end up with two minutes of footage?  As my esteemed colleague Jordan Hoffman so elegantly put it: "Anyone annoyed at traveling to NYC to see the Tron trailer shouldn't be. Now you are here in NYC. Go to a museum." 

Viral marketing and it's under/overwhelming results are going to be part of the blockbuster routine for years to come, so let's enjoy it!  And if you're worried about getting screwed...Caveat emptor, good sir.

Please, just finish the game!