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Summary: BLONDIE OF ARABIA - A.K.A : TRON
Review: It's been 20 years, and yes, it does show through on TRON, but yet, no matter what anyone says, the LIGHT CYCLE sequence is still one of the best ever put to screen (it's something that when you see once you will always remember - like "bullet time" in THE MATRIX, just plain original) - and now with TRON released on this special edition DVD (the first release was a bare bones affair), fans of the movie finally get their due and first time buyers get a great deal. Feature packed, TRON is another "must buy, must have" from DISNEY. A solid and servicable transfer of the film (some parts seems a bit murky for some reason), excellent sound, antimated menus straight from the game grid, coupled with a second disc of behind the scenes info, two missing scenes (which raise a whole host of insteresting questions), a concept art gallery (which is just plain fantastic - the early ideas and designs behind TRON looked more like 70's rock album covers - a pity these have never been released in a book), a photo gallery which shows just how the actors and sets really looked (which is very good - if the movie had been released as is in black and white it would have been just as ground breaking)... and on and on... there is a lot to play with here. Disc one features the audio commentary and is very good, giving detailed background in the making of the film, as well as serving up some really oddball moments - LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and TRON actually cross twice in this movie, very strange. TRON is an excellent buy, even if you've already bought it once, and for the first time buyer it's a sure bet that will not disappoint.
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Summary: Do You Believe In The User?
Review: A true landmark in computer effects, Tron has a look all its own, and a fanbase as loyal as any sci-fi franchise. A young Jeff Bridges stars as a computer programmer who gets pulled into a computer to play games. If that isn't strange enough, the programs in this movie are actually people, and look like the person that programmed them. So the story is pretty cheesy, but as long as you accept it, this movie is a lot of fun. A lot of this movie is hand drawn animation, but it's done in the same style as the computer animation and is rather seemless. It certainly looks impressive for a movie from 1982. Today's CGI tries to look as real as possible, but in Tron, the computer world is meant to look like a fantasy world. Therefore the primitive CGI really adds a lot to the unique look of the film. The new collector's edition of Tron is a tremendous release. The video has been completely remastered and cleaned up from the previous DVD release. The sound has also been remastered and in many cases really makes you feel as if you're in the computer with them. One thing about the sound though, the bass is TREMENDOUS at times. The lightcycle sequence alone can easily shake your room, so be careful. As for the extras, there are so many it literally takes almost a whole day to watch them all. This DVD is loaded with features, and I highly recommend picking it up if you're a fan of Tron.
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Summary: Well that was a waste of time...
Review: This is an awful movie. I'm not saying the visuals aren't impressive, because they are, but the movie is awful. The plot is weak, and it took us like 20 minutes in to figure out what the heck was going on. Don't waste your time. Go see something else.
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Summary: How to Understand Tron
Review: Preamble: Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is an ace software programmer who writes his own video games using his company's mainframe computers. A fellow (and jealous) software programmer, Ed Dillinger, finds the games on the company's computers, realizes Flynn's brilliance and steals the code to present to the company, naming himself as the author. Forward several years, Flynn has been dismissed from the company which has now prospered due to the videogame sales falsely attributed to Dillinger, and runs an arcade, somewhat ironically, filled with his own video games. A few of his friends stayed on with the video game company (which has now moved on to more experimental and expansive applications from the proceeds of the video game sales), and are having difficulties with a promoted-to-head-honcho Dillinger who is now trying to upgrade a "Master Control Program" which effectively limits any abilities for the software programmers to control and access their work on their computer terminals (there are definitely some human versus machine, individual versus oppression, "I'm not a number, I'm a man!" type themes working throughout the whole script here, albeit in a rather simplistic and clumsy effort that loses all credence by the time you realize that the moral of the story basically is still a bunch of numbed-up kids feeding quarters into a series of machines for one guy, and whoever he sees fit, to get rich off of). In order to get back into their computers, they seek out the hacking talents of Flynn to break into the system and change their security clearance level. In exchange, Flynn realizes he has the opportunity to try and find the original versions of the files he created, and thus prove that he was the developer who programmed the video games, and not Dillinger. All Flynn has to do is get around the Master Control Program (does it need to be spelled any easier?). Where things get all hairy is that the company has been recently experimenting with a new laser that 'digitizes' matter, able to translate it into the binary world of the computer for storage and, possibly, later retrieval. As you can guess, the Master Control Program realizes that Flynn is trying to hack into the system and takes defensive action... Simple, right? The rest is pure eye candy a la Sid Mead, liberally laced with fun and inventive metaphors for otherwise layperson-inaccessible concepts such as bits, users, dataports, processors, programs, cycles, and the like (Disney does know how to care of kids, non?). A spell-binding vision of what a computer world would look like, possibly only topped by William Gibson's ground-breaking literary descriptions as found in Neuromancer, etc. The look of Tron is entirely unique, and, in my not so humble opinion, unparalleled in the world of special effects today. While it may be argued that the look is not 'clean' enough to suggest a purely digital domain, I think the end is result is more believable and uncanny, and that the whole world lives with a paradoxically crystalline warmth that even today's FX wizards simply wouldn't be able to achieve with computers alone. Bollocks to anyone who can't see the difference that an animator's brush brings to the experience-- you can go live in your IKEA world. This is Walter Gropius and Lewis Caroll's 1980's love-child, not the inferior, merely cocaine-addled infant as depicted by so many others. Disney took a genuine risk, probably before anyone was truly ready to do it, and I think it works superbly in spite of all of its obviously flaws.
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Summary: 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition! January 2002
Review: Greetings, Program! It seems the previous reviews were written about some other, earlier DVD edition of this film. The 20th Anniversary Edition is a great 2-Disc package with plenty of extras, including a 1 1/2 hour retro-documentary of the making of both the original film and this DVD edition. Also included are a collection of production drawings by Moebius, Storyboards & Animatics, Deleted Scenes, and some deleted music! (Please note that Disney & Wendy Carlos have FINALLY remastered the original soundtrack and added a few missing tracks for a new CD due to release January 29th. 2002!) Check out ... for the full story why this took so long! This new edition is well worth the price and is certain to please die-hard TRON fans! In the Supplementary materials, Director Steven Lisberger even hints at the possibility of a sequel! TRON 2.0! A word of warning to Sony Playstation2 Users! There is a MAJOR GLITCH that seems to only affect Playstation2...during Chapter 8, the scene where Flynn/CLU is introduced to RAM in the Game-Grid holding cells, the picture wigs-out into a mess of pixelated garbage and artifacts that can only be eliminated by resetting the machine! I returned my DVD to [retail store], only to discover the defect on the replacement disc, as well! The defect did not show up when I played the disc on a friend's dedicated DVD Player. (a small horizontal blip/glitch did appear, but caused no serious problems.) Playstation Users - If you experience this Glitch, Please do not hurry to return "defective" discs to Amazon.com! You can get past this glitch by simply "fast-forwarding" a frame, or two, past the problem spot! In fact, if Playstation2 is your only means of playing DVDs, you may have no alternative! There is also a small problem with the Sound Mix during SARK's Introductory Speech to the "Programs" being readied for the Game Grid....When SARK is not actually On-Screen, or is seen from the Grid Warriors' Point-Of-View, his dialogue volume drops noticably to the point where his speech is quite difficult to understand! Hopefully, the manufacturer will remedy these problems in a subsequent pressing. But, Playstation2 & Sound Glitches aside, this a wonderful package that I highly recommend! I was lucky enough to find the disc on [retail store's] shelves a few days before the release date! ...but buy yours here, the price is the same! End of line...
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Summary: Okay, so it's not the most intelligent sci-fi ever...
Review: I saw "Tron" at a young age, and was highly-influenced by it. I instantly became a video-game junkie as well as a fan of sci-fi, where as before my interests rarely strayed from Star Wars movies and KISS records. True, it's not the most scientifically plausible of plotlines (computer hacker gets zapped into video-game universe where he is considered a "program" and must battle the Master Control Program to defeat a scheming corporate butthead from the real world who stole his video-game ideas) but who cares! In it's time, it had some of the most astounding visuals ever beheld by the human eye. True, the standards have been raised over the past years, but I think a lot of it still holds its own in sheer imagination quality. Jeff Bridges manages to get off a few good lines here and there, and David Warner is always a good hammy villian, reminiscent almost of Vincent Price or Christopher Lee. Plus, if you stick around through the end credits you get a decent, durn-near-impossible-to-find song by 70s-80s rock group Journey. The DVD transfer is great, too. This is one of those movies that's just not as fun without really good sound and picture, and subsequent VHS releases have fallen short to say the least.
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Summary: Keel's TRON Review
Review: Tron: A Psychoanalytic Approach In each and every work of literature--regardless of fact or fiction--an audience is being persuaded to share the same views as the author. Whether it is intentional or not, every author has an opinion that will seep through into their work and convince the reader, viewer, or listener to understand the subject as they do. An easy way to better understand why certain things exist in literature is through psychoanalysis. "The three people that the psychoanalytic critic can talk about: the author, the audience, and some character represented in or associated with a text" (Holland). The purpose of this essay is to analyze the methods in which Steven Lisberger (writer and director of Tron) portrays his tremors of technology domineering humankind. Through color scheme and specific details concerning the Master Control Program, Lisberger effectively reveals his insecurities and offers them to the viewer, while simultaneously managing to refrain from forcing them onto the audience. There are several examples in Tron that subconsciously influence you through the use of specific color. Throughout the entire film, the programs are represented as the color blue, and the Master Control Program and his regime as the color red. These colors not only form a caste system by color difference, but help the viewer associate which party is good and which is evil. Both colors have some representation of power, yet define opposite entities. Red is primarily depicted as evil and dangerous--the color of fire--while blue is commonly depicted as serene, calm, yet unyielding like the oceans. The idea of what the red and blue colors represent is also reinforced at the end of the film after the Master Control Program has been destroyed. All the surroundings--especially the beam of light coming from the main control tower--change from red to blue, signaling the change from the dictatorship of the Master Control Program to the newly freed world of technology. Sigmund Freud, known as "the creator of psychoanalysis" (Fish), created a method called free association. Free association "allows patients to express any thoughts that come to mind. In doing so, the patient uncovers material that is hidden to the unconscious" (Fish). The unconscious (or subconscious) is an area in the mind where thoughts and memories and things exist, but are stored away. Perhaps Lisberger's use of red and blue is consistent with his unconscious thoughts of what could result if technology were to be misused. (Red being the idea that man is subservient to technology, and blue being the idea that man and technology work and live together in harmony). By reinforcing the idea that red represents evil and blue represents good, Lisberger is transferring concepts from his unconscious to the unconscious of his viewers. Another example of Lisberger's influence through color scheme is the dull grey hues of the program's faces when in the computer world. The lack of color represents Lisberger's view of how impersonal the world of technology is. Each program, regardless of how unique and special it may be, has no mark of individuality. Lisberger makes a point of this by contrasting these lifeless colors with vivid hues of red and blue. Aside from the color scheme, an additional glimpse of Lisberger's dismay is displayed through statements from the Master Control Program. When communicating with Dilinger, the Master Control Program says, "With the information I can access, I can run things 900-1200 times better than any human" (Tron). This dialogue is an insight into Lisberger's ponderings of how technology may overthrow humans and become the superior and dominant species. Also, the fact that the Master Control Program started out as a chess program is mentioned to exemplify exactly how much power the Master Control Program has gained, and how it may eventually be unstoppable is Lisberger's eyes. To him, the Master Control Program is the epitome of what everything red represents. At the time, "People feared the unknown power of the new technology of computers" (Pasquinelli). "Psychoanalysis is about minds" (Holland). Tron is a film that Lisberger created about technology, about standing up to an oppressor, but also is partially about a warning. Throughout the film, he subtly transfers his uncertainties to his viewers through specific details and use of color. By repeating the colors red and blue throughout the entire movie, he easily persuades his audience to correlate each color to it's matching idea. "The computer world in Tron symbolizes our modern world. It illustrates technology in a negative light with the threat of computers taking control of our lives, just like the Master Control Program's ability to dictate lives" (Pasquinelli). Whether or not the viewer conceives what concepts are being subconsiously introduced to them, Lisberger successfully persuades the viewer to share his point of view.
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Summary: EXCELENTE!!!!
Review: TRON HASTA EL DIA DE HOY DESPUES DE MAS DE 25 AÑOS DE HABER SALIDO AL MERCADO, SIGUE SIENDO UNA DE LAS MEJORES PELICULAS DE SCI-FI DE TODOS LOS TIEMPOS. EXCELENTE GUION EXCELENTE GRAFICOS ( POR MAS ANTIGUOS Y SIMPLES QUE PAREZCAN AHORA) EXCELENTE ELENCO EXCELENTE EXCELENTE!!! TIENES QUE TENER ESTE DVD. ESTE DVD TIENE LEYENDAS EN ESPAÑOL.
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Summary: A Flim Before Its Time
Review: Tron was a movie made with cutting edge technology on the cusp of what we today call CGI. Unfortunately, for this movie, it did not do too well at the box office in 1982. It's a shame really. While the idea behind Tron was a brilliant one and led the way for future CGI movies to come, it just came out way before its time. The public was not quite ready for such a movie as audiences were still tipsy from the success of Star Wars. It did, however, appeal to young audiences of the video game craze of the 1980s. Contrary to popular belief, the movie Tron actually came out before the video game Tron was created. After 20 years, Tron has regained some of it's ingenuity with the DVD flawlessly enhancing its visual effects and sound quality. The storyline is very basic yet still enjoyable. The score is fantastical and romantic with a hint of adventurousness. This film is more for the subtle-minded, sensual sci-fi lover.
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Summary: Before the Matrix
Review: Tron is Disney's first computer-animated motion picture made in the early 1980s. A story about three friends who help each other to regain access to their programs. One of them, Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges, is literally digitized and sent into the computer itself to be a part of the games. He becomes acquainted with other freedom fighters and together they help free all the programs from the clutches of the Master Control. This sounds like a very rudimentary precursor to the Matrix, but even in Tron's day, the idea of the computer taking over humanity and human-like qualities such as freedom was a very popular concept. Disney added it's charming tradition of heroism, animation and hi-tech computer graphics to create this electronic world. The DVD further enhances the back-lit animation effects of the environment and the characters. And there's a Lucas THX sound option. Disc 2 has several extras depicting the conceptual design that led to the development of Tron. I was more interested in the Making of Tron feature, but even that's a bit long-winded. You can fast forward to the cast interviews. If you've never seen Tron, don't expect this movie to be a hardcore, gritty sci-fi drama. This is Disney's more romantic version of an adventure within a computer. The special effects are outdated compared to CGI and the action sequences are much slower than the lightning quick martial arts maneuvers we're used to today. But this still manages to be a very good story maintaining its great style.
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