Tron

By: Michael Lee

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner
Year: 1982

I would like to apologize in advance for this review. I had just written it after watching at least 6 hours of movies I had recorded onto my DVR and it was closely reaching 3a.m. as I fished this. It was late, I wasn't thinking well, Chris was pressuring me to post a review really soon (since we havent had one since Nov) and there are numorous gramatical errors. I do beileve this is the worst review I've written since I started but I'm gonna post it anyways. I hope you at least attempt to enjoy it:

I wonder if back in 1982, when Tron's ground-breaking special effects were first introduced to the world, that people would ever think that in almost thirty years they would be considered incredibly primitive by today's standards? That's like saying Avatar will have primitive effects in thirty years, which actually might v pretty cool. The one thing that allows this movie's effects to still hold true today is the fact that the special effects artists believed that this cyberworld is really what the inside of a computer looks like. It's isn't polished or textured. The programs inside are blocky and glow an eriely retro illumencence that reminds one of old school videogames. Matter of fact, that's what this movie feels like, an old school video game (no surprise here, I mean it is Tron). Video games are an important theme in this movie, from giving Fylnn his motivation to take on the Master Controller, to the live action pong match played halfway through the games. There's even a Pac-man grid filled with all it's contents, cherries, ghosts, power pellets, serving the purpose of a security screen in one quick scene in the film. It's like the first movie specifically for gamers in mind.
If there was a weak part to the film, I'd have to say it's the emotional scenes. While the acting is fantastic (Jeff Bridges is the most underatted actor ever), the scenes which try to tug at our heartstrings (i.e. Character deaths) feel forced and out of place. Most of these scenes start out strong (be it a life or death video game match, or a character get shot by a digital tank) then throughs in something that distracts from the emotion ones supposed to feel from the tragedy at hand (characters playing a very fun round of said game before a fat character falls to his death or Jeff Bridges draging said tank-shot character into a pile of digital rubble, magically creating a flying tank of his own out of said rubble, and taking said flying tank on a kind of a joy ride right before the said tank-shot character dies)
Lastly, something else that bothers me is Tron himself. He's not the main character of the series, just a side character, yet the movie is named after him and the film's poster reflects one of the things he does in the movie. It's like they tried to force him to be the Han Solo of the movie, yet Jeff Brodges clearly steals the show in every scene he's in. If anything Tron is the Luke Skywalker of the story (and for extra fun while watching this movie, count how many scenes Tron lifted directly from Star Wars. It really is Star Wars in cyberspace, with barely enough story changes to hold it's own).

 

7 out of 10 Nerdism Nerds.