Tron (1982)

Despite its status as a cult classic, I hadn't actually watched Tron before today. While I was probably born 20 years too late to be seriously impressed by its visuals, which no doubt were quite awesome in the eyes of the Pong generation, the film did have a lot of retro charm to it.

The hero of Tron, played by Jeff Bridges (immortalized in my mind as "The Dude" Lebowski), is a computer programmer named Flynn who, with the help of two former coworkers, hacks into the computer of ENCOM, the software company where they all work, to dig up proof that one of the higher-ups stole his game designs. As he enters the system, the Master Control Program (MCP), an AI serving as the film's Big Bad, uses a high-tech laser to digitize him into the system itself, reducing him to a virtual gladiator in a collection of video games. Thus begins Flynn's quest within the system to find the eponymous Tron, a security program created by one of Flynn's real life friends, hack the MCP, which in the real world seems to be channeling Colossus from The Forbin Project, and save the world from its control. Along the way, he allies himself with Tron, a female program, and a digital gatekeeper, and fights against the MCP and its henchman, Sark, all of whom are, a la The Wizard of Oz, played by the real life counterparts of the programs.

Beneath all the formerly futuristic graphics, Tron essentially boils down to a fully functional, albeit simple, "hero's journey"-type story about one person's struggle to save the world from an evil empire. Drawing inspiration from both The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars, the story is entertaining enough to keep you interested, despite some logical plot holes which might make perfect sense if you consider that most of the film takes place inside a computer where the rules of knowledge are different, but none of them are ever properly addressed. For example, Flynn is a "user", and that apparently gives him all kind of powers that other programs do not have. That would be fine, but those powers tend to be conveniently revealed to him at the exact moment when they are needed. Because of this, the story tends to be given the occasional push forward by things beyond our understanding, which becomes a bit unsatisfying.

Verdict: 3,5/5

A satisfactory story of a hero's journey with a lovable amount of retro-age animation