Tron Review

“The Original Classic”

As proclaimed in large capitalized text on the blu-ray cover, Tron is indeed a classic that was no doubt not fully appreciated upon release, but more on that soon.

Tron stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn a young enthusiastic programmer who worked extensively to create some of the most popular video games released. Unfortunately his work is stolen by Ed Dillinger (David Warner) who then uses these stolen games to propel himself to the head of the company whilst Kevin Flynn is simply removed from the picture and left to scrape what money he can through his arcade. In spite of this Flynn remains determined to clear his name and return to his rightful place and so starts Tron which sees Kevin accidentally enter a computer world which is populated by users, which are essentially virtual representations of people in the form of programs.

As previously mentioned Tron does not seem to have been appreciated on release however over thirty years later and I imagine it has become increasingly appreciated as some of the ideas and concepts present have become a reality. The most obvious of which being ones second 'life' in the computer world which is indisputably occurring with such wildly popular websites as Facebook and Twitter. Whilst it is true that many ideas are more hinted at rather then fully explored they remain none the less astonishingly present for a film that was made before terms like bit or program where common knowledge.

The acting throughout much like the film is fittingly campy and Jeff Bridges enthusiasm practically oozes of the screen and provides for a particularly fun performance that helps mask the films several shortcomings. The other actors are for the most part are not as impressive as Jeff Bridges but still manage to help give this film heart that it so could easily have not had and saves the film from being nothing more then what today still remains a visual splendor.

Some may argue that the computer generated imagery (CGI) of Tron hasn't aged well, but to do so would to not understand the film makers intent. It is true in the more recent Tron Legacy the film-makers wanted the world to look real, however in the original Tron they wanted the world they created to look digital which they are undeniably successful in achieving, often with more standard techniques although a heavy amount of CGI is none the less present which is particularly impressive given that Tron is over thirty years old at the time of this review.

As I previously mentioned Tron is a classic but it is not without its flaws, but when a film is as overwhelmingly interesting and simply fun as it is in this case, the minor issues are easy to forgive.

Highly Recommended.