Review of Tron (1982) by Joe S — 28 Jul 2011

You know how movies/TV are constantly written by people who have no expertise in what they're writing about (Say, espionage or hospitals) and use the job/locales as only a means for the character and story to exist? Well, here's something on the opposite end.

The makers of TRON no doubt know a lot about computers and programming, and have no doubt tossed about a lot of clever ideas of what the computer world would be like if the programs were actually alive.

Buuuuuuut, their knowledge of making good characters, story, and pacing are a little lacking. Jeff Bridges makes a character out of almost nothing because he's Jeff Bridges and no one can quite deliver a line like David Warner regardless of material, but I gotta be honest, as much as there are cool parts, once they get into the computer world I don't care much about any of what's going on.

It's tough to get involved with the action sequences when, well, it's like I let my old computer game Spectre into demo mode, the jokes fall completely flat, and there are concepts for characters rather than characters for the most part.

It's because of this I'm not really a member of the cult of this cult classic, and the only reason I got excited for the sequel was, hey, Daft Punk was doing the music. Since I'm an avid gamer, that says a bit about how dry the material in TRON is.

It's all right. I'll watch if it's on. I'll just probably skip channels a few times during the middle when I do.