Tron: 1982

Ah, what a film. Way way way ahead of its time in terms of special effects and graphics. In todays terms this would be like releasing a film that plays in your Livingroom as you watch it, it was that far ahead of its competitors.

The 80's was an era of exploring new sci fi films. We saw several really well known films even by people today released back then. It was a time of humanity exploring its boundaries in terms of technology and we absolutely tested the limits of it. I miss the days of taking risks with film making instead of "doing what works."

I know I say this a lot but we seem to have been caught up in an era of not taking any risks when it comes to movies, and the theatre and release day sales are suffering for it. The top grossing films are pulling in nowhere near what they used to. This may be to do with the rise of the internet and home theatre, however I think a large portion of this is down to the zero risks film makers are taking with their movies these days.

You can tell with Tron it really did push the boundaries of what was available in the 1980's. I mean this was released when I was two and I hadn't even began to consider that I liked sci fi at the time. The next film that even came close was probably The Flight of the Navigator which wasn't released until 1986, 4 years later.

Tron was so good we even saw a continuation in 2010, and that was because we didn't have the technology to continue the series, or at least have a better equipment to make better effects until the late 2000's. Also, the good thing is that in the latter half of the 20th century we didn't see much rereleases or continuations of anything, we were mostly gifted with new films. Unless of course revenge of the nerds is your thing, hah.

But this was quite the sci fi fantasy film. Man goes into computer and talks to the programs that his friends wrote. Who would have thought it, or even dreamed up such a story. Crazy right? Yup, I miss the days of crazy story making. Perhaps we'll return to that time again, who knows.

The premise of Tron is a simple one. Basically Ed Dillinger, a ruthless businessman rose to the top of his tech company by stealing Kevin Flynn's programs and passing them off as his own. In his flight to the top Ed created a "Master Program" which runs everything in the company.

Unbeknownst to Ed, the MCP becomes so powerful that he starts to break into business and government facilities to make them more efficient. Threatened by this move ED tells the MCP that he will shut him down, and then is blackmailed by the MCP and threatens to expose his secret that he rose to the top through fraud.

As this is happening Kevin Flynn tries to hack into the MCP to find the old files which prove he is the original author and is sucked into the digital universe and forced to take part in gladiatorial games in an attempt to get rid of him.

If you want to know more then go watch the film. It's really good.

A great watch!