It's time to review a classic, a movie that left a mark on a whole generation.
I wasn't born when this one hit the big screen originally, yet it still is for me one of my all time favorites and will always be encoded on my mind forever.
Thus while I (re)introduce you to one of my Highly Recommended classics (yes, I kinda spoil this review's conclusion this way...) it's time to feature my first....
I made this shiny new logo, so you better take this one seriously, gotcha?
There's a reason this movie made it into my list of all-time classics films. Let's check it out!
Movie: TRON
Directed by Steven Lisberger
Release date 1982
Genre Scifi
Country USA
Tron.
It all begun in the 70s, when writer and director Steven Lisberger saw Pong for the first time.
Pong really introduced the world to videogames and the infinite possiblities it could provide.
The limit was the imagination!
Sure, graphics were pretty basic back then, but the door was opened.
Lisberger was fascinated by Pong and the likes, he wanted to tell a story based on its notions. The programming that goes behind a program, the codes, the structure, the softwares slaving relations to the higher programs or the hardware. Sure, it was gonna be quite a difficult and abstract task, but Lisberger wanted to be the first to explore it.
The movie Tron first started as an animated film. But no studio was interested in his screenplay. Finally, in the early 80s, Disney picked up the project. The movie was going to have a decent enough budget, use lots of special effects and integrate live actors on computerized environments - a breakthrough at the time.
Welcome...to The GridTM.
The movie is about the dude himself, Jeff Bridges, as Kevin Flynn.
The plotline simply put is:
Flynn used to work at a software company called ENCOM.
After losing his job, he now runs Arcades.
He wants to prove his ex-boss Ed Dillinger has stolen his codes and concepts.
Flynn tries to hack his way in the mainframe but gets blocked by the MCP, the "Master Control Program", the AI charged to protect and administrate ENCOM.
After his friends and fellow ENCOM-employees Alan Bradley and Lora Baines warn him, Flynn goes against ENCOM with their help. Alan decides to use the program Tron, a monitoring software, so Flynn is able to break through the mainframe..but the MCP fights back and gets Flynn "zapped" into the computers by a laser that "scans" him and upload him into a sort of virtual reality called The Grid. (hey! it's science fiction!)
There he fights alongside the security program Tron and Yori, both Grid-alternates of Flynn's friends and their "users" Bradley and Baines. It seems every program there bases his appearance on its "real life" user.
Flynn goes up against the evil programs Sark and the MCP who seek control over the Grid and all of ENCOM. (and more!)
Ok, so the story is pretty abstract..if you're not familiar with computer terms. It is more than plain fantasy.
It's all meant to reflect and picture computer programs and their relations. And it's darn entertaining at that!
Revelation! Programs do have a life outside, well, their programing.
The world of Tron is an imaginary one.
Programs come to life, think and act on their own. It's all visual and probably pretty weird for people not used to dream/reflect on things anymore.
The programs base their apperances on their real life users.
The world of Tron uses a limited color palette, and was entirely created on computers for the movie.
One of the earliest examples of created CGi universes. It's unique, The Grid takes its inspirations from the arcades, at least what they were in the 80s. (it was a long time before the success of the likes of Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat). The world of the Grid uses dark limited color palettes. Everything is either black, blue and then around the security programs and well guarded codes, red and orange.
"People" are presented in grey tones, which gives the world of Tron a unique look.
GAME OVER!
But Tron isn't about metaphors and programs only. It's also a science fiction movie.
Alongside its contemporary THX 1138, Solyent Green or Blade Runner, these sort of movies were able to tell a story beneath the story, but were also great entertainment pieces nonetheless!
The story is always moving, like the ever evolving programs that inhabits it.
Specially, the movie is designed over big iconic scenes.
The Discs battle, the Light Cycles race or the Battle Tanks chase for example.
Funny enough, an arcade video game developed by Midway was released alongside the movie originally.
It's pretty similar to Flynn's in-movie videogame, Space Paranoids. The game went on to gather its own success and following cult. The game used these segments and developed them over selectable sub-games.
The movie is classic, beautiful to look at, nowadays for its retro value and 8 bit 3D universe, amd action packed.
Try Again...?
It's a fantastic movie, visually breathtaking. Even by today's standards, I find it to be the best representation of what an 8-bit universe would look like in "real life".
For once, and never as much since then, CGi serves the story.
The Tron universe is a complex and unique one, probably difficult to get into if you're not into computers, games or programing.
I'd wach it for the light cycles alone! :P
Overall, it's a pure classic, one that needs to be in any movie fan's DVD/Bluray library!
Sure I said it a ton of times above, it's a unique experience and probably different from any other attempts in the genre.
The CGi is dated, of course, why wouldn't it? But it's a great factor! It is inspired and is a great representative of the 8 bit era and arcade games of the 70s/80s.
The animations, the effects and the actors interacting with the Grid is very well done.
The universe of the Grid is the one that looks a bit "silly", but in a positive way.
Computers is an ever-changing domain and no doubt in 2 to 5 years we'll look back at today's games or CGi movies and will find it awfully dated already. (specially all these super realistic gritty edgy Gears of War-like games or the onslaught of current 3D blockbusters)-
Tron presents a great retro-futurist scifi computer world from an early 1980 view.
It's great, fun and has a beautiful electronic-orchestrated score by Wendy Carlos.
I give it:
