#40: Tron

Walking in a Windows Screensaver Wonderland.

Just like A New Hope, Tron has that look that's so distinct, it doesn't bother you that it's thirty-six years old. Also, I was incredibly hard pressed to believe that guy was Jeff Bridges. Wow! 

The plot is simple - escape and save the inhabitants of a computer game that has been taken over by evil forces. It's a world that starts out very minimalist and childish - it's as if someone computer-rendered children's building blocks and slapped bowling-alley carpet designs on the walls.  As the film progresses, we get more detailed settings.

I love every design choice here. It appeals to my turn of the century tech aesthetic.

Tech things like Hackers already look outdated as shit as well as being madly incorrect with the components they are trying to convey, but as we cannot zap people into video game systems (yet), Tron still looks like a very cool idea with a gorgeous user interface. And apparently when Dillenger logs into his machine, his password is in the clear. Bad security practices there.

There's clearly a lot of green screen work happening, and the fakeness lends itself very well to the surroundings.

The costumes look just a touch silly.

If I haven't talked about the story all that much, it's because there isn't much of one. I haven't seen (Whatever recent one that had the Daft Punk soundtrack) Tron Legacy - but I wonder how it looks with updated graphics. Probably like every other CGI fest of a movie. I won't judge prematurely.

Looking at the scores for it...wow.

Damn, Disney had a lot of live-action flops in 2010. We'll get to some of those later.

It's awkwardly paced, and I felt it too long for the actual plot to kick into gear, but it just looks so cool that it's not a real problem.