Tron (1982)

An acquired taste. For me, someone who has no knowledge of computer programming and the sort, it's a very slow, tedious and boring watch.

<em>'Tron'</em>, unfortunately, didn't take my interest whatsoever. Not helped by the poor special effects (they get a pass due to it being an 1982 release; though I'm not convinced it's good either way) and forgettable cast performances, it's not a premise that's easy to get into if you have no prior understanding of coding etc.

There is some intrigue in there, but not nearly enough to satisfy my viewing pleasure - it felt like a much longer run time than 96 minutes, that's for sure. All cool if you love this, but I very much didn't. Hopefully the 2010 sequel gives the concept a major boost....

I saw this again yesterday - it's 40 years old! I didn't see it at the time, I was one of those kids who hadn't the slightest interest in "Space Invaders" nor did I ever have an Atari, but I do recall the fuss that was being made about Disney's first foray into the world of the emerging computer games market. Actually, the story is not so terrible. It's pretty derivative, with a quite handsome, young, 501-clad Jeff Bridges ("Flynn") out to avenge himself on the evil "Dillinger" (David Warner) who pinched some of his gaming ideas and subsequently rose through the company. Thing is, though, "Dillinger" has now designed a "Master Control Programme" (Think "Forbin Project" from 1970) and when "Flynn" tries to break into this system, he is reduced to a player in a game of survival where he enco...

**Once avant-garde and innovative, this film feels archaic and old as an arcade game, and has an absolutely miserable script.**

I'm not sure what Disney was thinking when they decided to make this film, but I understand the concept and the reasons that led the studio to bet on something like this. In the 1980s, the creation and gradual massification of the computer (a huge box that we see in the movie and which is now primitive compared to the machines we use) generated a “fever” around computing and led to the creation of games that, later, the World Wide Web has taken it to another level. The movie came out when personal computers started to become popular in the US, but here in my country it took about fifteen years to happen. It's extraordinary to think about this, and how quick...