My parents taught me that cinema had cultural and entertaining value. But when Tron was released I had already seen "Star Wars" and learned another, perhaps more basic, lesson: you go to movies to see things that you had never seen before (like that huge space ship in the opening of SW). Could that wonderful "loss of visual virginity" be experienced again? It could, thanks to the computer wizards of Tron and futurist designer Syd Mead ("Blade Runner") equaled in imagination only by Jean Giraud (Moebius).
Like in SW, the camera could fly freely everywhere, no longer limited to slow travelings, zooms or attachment to the wing of an airplane. The virtual point of view was free and truly tridimensional. What in SW was achieved thanks to Dykstra's computerized camera, in Tron was by means of a fully digital world, and the camera motion was "only" a matter of calculation... Enter amazing networks and awesome ever-shifting perspectives over apparently infinite geometrical patterns, faceted mountains and very original hypercool vehicles (even the "real" helicopter is cool, with those red fluorescent lines).
"Computer world" strict, military hierarchy, adopted its aesthetic from video games, or was it the other way around? Anyway, I saw Tron at age twelve and understood the computer concepts very well. I had seen other sci-fi movies with less realistic robots or computers, and many scientific documentaries on computers, and Tron was a confirmation more than a revelation. In fact, I felt anchored in the past during years, until very recently (now we have Internet, cell phones and multimedia laptops). Even the idea of molecules suspended in laser beams has turned not only real but routine.
That flight of transition into the "computer world" made me move in my seat, with real feelings of speed and acceleration, something I had only experienced with, again, Star Wars films (nowadays it's a usual feeling with all that CGI). No need of 4D moving seats: I even feel the motion when I watch Tron or SW on my TV at a normal distance.
And that butterfly-shaped solar sail... What I said: I go to movies to see (beautiful) things I have never seen before.
9 1/2 out of 10 Make a sequel now!
Like in SW, the camera could fly freely everywhere, no longer limited to slow travelings, zooms or attachment to the wing of an airplane. The virtual point of view was free and truly tridimensional. What in SW was achieved thanks to Dykstra's computerized camera, in Tron was by means of a fully digital world, and the camera motion was "only" a matter of calculation... Enter amazing networks and awesome ever-shifting perspectives over apparently infinite geometrical patterns, faceted mountains and very original hypercool vehicles (even the "real" helicopter is cool, with those red fluorescent lines).
"Computer world" strict, military hierarchy, adopted its aesthetic from video games, or was it the other way around? Anyway, I saw Tron at age twelve and understood the computer concepts very well. I had seen other sci-fi movies with less realistic robots or computers, and many scientific documentaries on computers, and Tron was a confirmation more than a revelation. In fact, I felt anchored in the past during years, until very recently (now we have Internet, cell phones and multimedia laptops). Even the idea of molecules suspended in laser beams has turned not only real but routine.
That flight of transition into the "computer world" made me move in my seat, with real feelings of speed and acceleration, something I had only experienced with, again, Star Wars films (nowadays it's a usual feeling with all that CGI). No need of 4D moving seats: I even feel the motion when I watch Tron or SW on my TV at a normal distance.
And that butterfly-shaped solar sail... What I said: I go to movies to see (beautiful) things I have never seen before.
9 1/2 out of 10 Make a sequel now!