TRON
A groundbreaking film at the time of its release in 1982 that would be the first big advancement in computer animation en route to the advent of CGI, nonetheless it is perplexing, holding up well today in some ways and in other ways not so much. The ideas in the story must have surely gone over the heads of non-tech savvy people at the time, though the fact is that the film is actually quite prophetic of what was to come, warning of the dangers of allowing a fully automated artificial intelligence to control our lives, a staple of sci-fi from 2001 before it on to Terminator, Matrix, and beyond. In the lead role of the hacker who gets sucked into the computer world, Jeff Bridges is infectious and likable, and brings a carefree, easygoing feel to the proceedings; Bruce Boxleitner (in the unfortunately short-lived prime of his career) as the title character, a security program looking to āliberateā the other programs from under the iron thumb of the machine that controls them, is stoic and bland a bit, but his character serves its purpose well, as does Boxleitner in the dual role of the nerdy programmer who created him; Bad Guy Hall Of Famer David Warner likewise plays more than one part, first as the corporate slimeball who has seized control of the software company as well as the evil captain of the guard of the computer worldās Gestapo along with the voice of the all-powerful Master Control Program itself; Cindy Morgan (best known as the nubile niece from Caddyshack) brings some hotness to the table as the real-world nerd girlfriend of Boxleitner as well as the amour of his computer counterpart; and Barnard Hughes (forever known as Grandpa in Lost Boys) gets his usual crusty old man thing on as both the founder of the software company and a very important program in the alternate universe. The special FX, while mindblowing for the early 80s, do come off as a bit dated and cheesy today, but perhaps the most overlooked aspect of the film is the biblical allegory it presents, as these human-looking programs have come to believe and think of their āusersā in an almost God-like sense, and in fact enlistment in the de facto military faction of this universe ironically includes renouncing their beliefs so that they can submit to the will of Master Control, which can be best thought of as the ultimate computer supervirus, sucking all information from computers everywhere for its own twisted use (weāre told its next targets are intended to be the Pentagon and the Kremlin). This dynamic really works quite well (though having one dying program literally utter āOh my userā is a bit much) and carries the story more than the actors or the idea that computer programs could actually display human-like qualities (which is where much of the corniness does come from). The story goes off on tangents at times and introduces certain plot points with no follow-up or payoff (like a jarring cameo from Pac-Man himself), but it does succeed greatly at evoking the spirit of the early 80s, when video games were this new and exciting thing and the coolest place in town was always the local arcades (a place where people would actually congregate to play instead of being stuck in their basement alone playing Xbox). Overall, a movie that is very difficult to dislike, but yet is not the easiest thing to wrap oneās head around eitherā¦
7/10