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Tron Movie Review

Tron is a 1982 science fiction action film directed by Steven Lisberger and starring Jeff Bridges. It is a problematically plotted, but highly imaginative movie.

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“That’s Tron. He fights for the Users“

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Kevin, a software programmer, is dragged into the virtual world where he is pitted against a malevolent software. He takes the help of Tron, a security program that helps him defeat the villain. Let’s first talk about this storyline. Admittedly, the world building is outstanding in this movie. The computer world looks great, it is meticulously designed and detailed while all the rules were well thought out. I loved that sort of sport with Frisbees in it as it was the coolest part of the flick and most of the action was superbly executed in technical terms.

However, the plot itself is difficult to get into unfortunately. This is what happened to me while watching it the first time years ago, and it happened to me once again watching it now for the second time. I was just not invested due to the overly complicated nature of this story that simply wasn’t well told whatsoever.

It has too many characters, it is all needlessly complicated and it is very difficult to understand what is going on at any given moment. It’s incomprehensible without really being thematically sophisticated, and that is the biggest problem that the film never overcame.

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I do realize that the film isn’t about humans, but about this machine world, but still the characters here are so weakly developed that it was frustrating to witness such bland characterization at display. Jeff Bridges is the only memorable actor as he is reliably good, but the others are all utterly forgettable. I did like the make-up on the actors as the mixing of the 20s aesthetic in the humans’ look with this futuristic world was definitely quite interesting and even inspired when you think about it.

Tron is certainly at its best visually speaking. The action is overwhelming, but it’s fun at first and definitely strikingly executed as nothing had been previously seen on the big screen. The whole computer world was gorgeous. It maybe looks dated now, but it was groundbreaking for its time as the first fully CGI film ever made. Literally everything here is computer-generated, which makes for a fascinating, truly one of a kind 80s film.

But I personally wouldn’t even call Tron dated as the aesthetic that it provides is otherworldly and super cool and slick. The use of the colors red and blue for good and bad guys was well utilized while the whole linear shape of this world was quite intriguing to observe. The kinetic action and the superb ambient music made for a really modern, timeless film set in the computer world that differentiates this film from all the other blockbusters of its period. It’s a shame that the direction and writing were so inferior.

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