Tron (20th Anniversary Collector's Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Tron (20th Anniversary Collector's Edition)
Movie Review: Very stylish SciFi thriller - 25 years old and looking good
Summary: 5 Stars
My son (8) quite enjoyed watching this movie, but probably I wanted to see it more having enjoyed it at the movies back in 1982. The actual film doesn't seem any better than I remember it in terms of picture quality, although apparently Wendy (Walter) Carlos's film score has been recovered as the original analogue master tapes had badly degraded. This 20th anniversary edition also has a second DVD of stills, inspirational designs by artists Syd Mead, Peter Lloyd and Jean "Moebius" Giraud, and a new 88 minute documentary `The making of TRON' that is far more interesting to adults than kids. The documentary goes on a bit but has cast interviews etc. and is worth a view. Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner (TRON) are very good considering they were the first to act against a blue screen for mostly the whole movie. David Warner is excellent as MCP and Sark, reprising his equally superb role as The Evil Genius in The Time Bandits (1981). Peter O'Toole had turned down his role (as he didn't fancy acting against a blue screen). TRON is actually a Hewlett Packard BASIC simple debugging command of the period, and stands aptly for "Trace On". So as we all know, "That's TRON. He fights for the users". Let's hope he's still out there. Interestingly, first use of the term `Users' has been credited to this influential movie.
A sequel called TRON 2.0 was in the works, but only the visually outstanding computer game version was released in 2003. Despite it's innovation, on release TRON did relatively badly in the cinema (where it looked at its best), and ironically the well received TRON arcade game spin-offs made the most profit. Rumour has it that traditional Disney animators refused to work on this movie because they feared that computers would put them out of business. In fact, 22 years later Disney closed its hand-drawn animation studio in favour of CGI animation, following the rise of Pixar. TRON wasn't considered for an academy award for `animation' at the time, as it was felt that computer aided design cheated (it was nominated for both Best Costume and ironically Sound). In the "solar sail-ship" sequence, look out and see, for a brief moment, the cross-hatched silhouette of Mickey Mouse on the ground made to look like part of the terrain.
So the films worth owning as an historical cinema milestone, although the plot was a bit ahead of its time as many preteen boys, the target audience, naturally weren't quite so into computers and game consoles back then, and arcade games tended to be in 18+ locations. However it s well worth another watch, and the storyline can still hold most boys attention for one viewing (try renting if you don't want to buy even at this knock down price). The film is clearly the grand daddy of the films like Spy Kids III and Scooby and the Cyber Chase, and is probably better than both.
Movie Review: Tronic
Summary: 5 Stars
Flynn is a programmer, and runs an arcade. He should be a rich games developer, but a man at his old company, Dillenger, stole all his programming and sold the rights himself. Since then, Flynn's been trying to hack into Dillenger's system, to prove that he wrote the games. Dillenger's also written over an old chess program, turning it into a security system that can think for itself and absorb other programs into itself, growing smarter. While hacking after hours for a friend down at his old company, the system catches Flynn and transforms him into data, sending him into the computer. Inside the computer, there is a society, with programs as people, graphics as landscapes, sprites as vehicles and games are duels to the death. Will Flynn make it out?
It's a special film, Tron. The way it was animated, the design and the "landscapes". Jeff Bridges handles himself pretty well as Flynn, too. Special features on the second disc of this edition include a whole series of documentaries and animation demos, which were interesting context, I thought.
Recommended for fans of unique animation.
Movie Review: a classic before its time
Summary: 4 Stars
Today's films use CG (Computer Graphics)a lot. Sometimes I think they care more about the effect then the story. They have digital paintbrush and other tools to make special effects on computers transfer to TV and movies. If you watch TRON, most of these effects were not around when this was made, nor were they needed to make you enjoy this Disney Classic. A true Disney classic made before its time
TRON is almost 25 years old . The film may seem slightly dated, compared to most SF films of today (but classic Star Trek is dated too!). However it is great storytelling with early computer graphics. Dont let the computer graphics )like Classic Trek's stuff ) take away from the adventure story which wont EVER date itself.
Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner and Batnard Hughes start is this computerized morality play of good vs. evil. Bridges (Flynn) is hacked into the mainframe of a game computer. Other real life people in Flynn's life also have computer countparts with similar ideas. In the computer, Flynn will have to save both the computer and real world
The extras are bountiful. Audio comments over the film from the director and the producer leave insights into both filmmaking and casting. Interesting fact-Peter O'Toole wanted to play TRON (Boxleitner's role).
New documentary, storyboards, artist from Mobius & sid mead (who also did Blade Runner) and deleted scenes round
out the second disk in this set
a film worth watching, extras worth seeing-SO WHY ARENT YOU BUYING THIS?
Bennet Pomerantz, AUDIOWORLD
Movie Review: A Good Classic
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie has definately aged alot but i still like it as when i first saw it as a child.I dont know if i'd call it a kids movie just with its tone but i guess compared to what kind of movies are coming out today its pretty safe.The only kind of person i;d recomonend it to is someone who saw it as a kid and liked it.I think kids today would laugh at its graphics and if you didnt like it back when it came out you probably wouldnt now.Movie Review: Before the Matrix there was Tron
Summary: 4 Stars
Tron in many ways was supposed to be a big hit. It had ultra cutting-edge special effects for its time and the story seemed to be pretty cool. However the film, criticized for poor acting and a lack of a coherent plot made the film a minor success. Since then it's become a cult favorite with its audience steadily growing over the years. I actually first experienced Tron through Kingdom Hearts II, the Playstation 2 videogame with the world of Tron as one of its levels. I got interested in the movie so I rented it and while it's not to me buy worthy, it was certainly an entertaining film.
Tron isn't actually the computer world name but one of the main characters. I don't even know what the name of it is but anyway. The Master Control Program(MCP) has been turning the computer world into a kind of militaristic world, with second-in-command Sark making people play videogames until they "de-rez" or basically, die. Unfortunate for Flynn who is zapped into the computer world and has to team up with a program named Tron to defeat the MCP and save computer land.
Even typing that plot, part of me is thinking "good lord, that is kind of silly" but since I play quite a lot of videogames with tales of flying fortresses and airships and mystical beasts, I just let it slide. Some people couldn't figure out the plot but to me it kind of made sense although I'm no computer expert so all the "geek speak" tends to fly over my head.
What attracts people to Tron is most likely the animation which is one of the first if not the first heavily-CGI extensive film and while it doesn't have the pristine shine of recent films, it's certainly quite a visual feast, especially if you're watching it for the first time. The much-praised lightcycle is just as cool as people describe it and the film's quite colorful. However I found that the novelty value went down where I wasn't wowed anymore and was like "okay, on with the story". Oddly enough the film didn't even get nominated for Visual Effects Oscar since people thought they "cheated" by using a computer. Nowadays, every Visual Effect Oscar has to include computers. Screw models, matte paintings, miniatures and in-camera techniques and stunts, if you got a computer and you're talented at it, you could get nominated.
It's a film that feels slow at times and story might be hokey but boy is it a blast to watch, just don't pay attention to most if not all of the acting at times.