TRON (Steven Lisberger, 1982)

So, here is another classic from the science fiction genre, probably the movie genre with the most potential as it comes to creativity and visuals. In my opinion the infinite possibilities for writers have led to some awesome films, for instance Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey has been and still is in my personal top 10 for years, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is coming close. But I feel there are a lot of disappointing ‘classics’ as well. One of the biggest problems I have with some scifi’s is that filmmakers tend to overdo their ‘gimmick’, they sometimes seem to forget how to tell their story properly and put all the effort in action, special effect and visuals. This is exactly my problem with Steven Lisberger’s TRON.

The story in its core sounds interesting. Computer programmer Flynn (Jeff Bridges) lost his job because one of his colleagues Dillinger (David Warner) stole the games he wrote and is now the president of a software engineering firm called ENCOM. This information is stored in the mainframe computer, which he tries to hack. This computer is protected by an artificial intelligence called MCP (Master Control Program, not as creative as HAL, IBM alphabetically 1 letter shifted). When Dillinger finds out this MCP wants to hack and gain control of the Kremlin and Pentagon it blackmails Dillinger to reveal his plagiarism. When Flynn breaks in at ENCOM to hack the MCP he gets sucked in the computer mainframe entering a virtual reality and has to find his way in the digital world to beat Dillinger, who is in control, to get his recognition regarding the popular video games.

As I mentioned earlier, the SF genre has a lot of possibilities in a lot of different fields. Think about time travel, space travel, aliens, future prospects etc. I am generally a big fan of the type of SF where one or a few details have been changed or are different compared to our conventional world and that are told properly in a ‘conventional’ real-world film (Donnie Darko, Primer or Brazil). Films like Star Wars, Star Trek of Serenity are usually too ‘chaotic’ for me, there is simply too much going on or possible to keep me fascinated (I admit that I do like the old Star Wars, especially The Empire Strikes Back). Like I said I have the same problem with TRON, it started off promising but in the second half when we have entered a new virtual world there is so much going on that I lost interest.

Suspense, mystery combined with emotional thrills and involvement are in general some of the key ingredients that keep a good story going. Elements which the great directors master to integrate adequately in their films. In the SF films I qualified earlier as being too chaotic I meant that they are chaotic in the sense that the story doesn’t seem to be the most important element of the film. Especially when characters are having special skills of which I am not aware I can get really annoyed since it often breaks the coherence and puzzle element of a good story.

Director Lisberger clearly focuses on his visual imagery and I guess it is mind-blowing for the early eighties, but at the same time he proves not to be a great storyteller and fails to create a coherent suspenseful story (for me at least). The message he tries to tell us has been done before and much, much better (Kubrick). I will not go as far as to say it is a bad film, therefore it is too unique and visionary in its animated imagery but TRON is definitely not my cup of tea.

5.5/10