This past fall Tron: Ares was released. I didn’t get a chance to go see it in the theatres. It is now streaming so I’m finally going to get a chance to watch it.
I figured I’d go back and watch the two previous films – Tron, which started it all, and Tron: Legacy.
I remember back in 1982 when Tron first came out. I was in my first year of college and rather nerdy, not the suave and sophisticated kind of guy I am now. (Shush!)
Tron tied into the popularity of video games, the (unfulfilled) promise of virtual reality transforming daily life, and the desire of nerds everywhere to leave the ‘real world’ for a computer generated one where we didn’t have to put up with all the nasty humans running around on this planet. It would be a virtual utopia for nerds and geeks everywhere. The very premise of a computer programmer going inside a virtual world and fighting the system via video games captured my interest as soon as I saw the trailer.
Seeing the movie back then, and the world they created inside the computer realm, was mind-blowing. The light cycles, the tanks, the ships, the solar sail, the glowing lines of energy running along the inhabitants bodies – I remember thinking this is probably how it would look if you could really do it.
Back in 1982, most graphics in computer games were flat 8-bit pixel drawings. They were blocky and used a primary color pallet. Tron pushed that and made graphics that looked similar to the pixels but were more three dimensional. Back then, it was pretty amazing stuff. And the video game motifs were part of the fun. Back then (and I suspect even today) who wouldn’t want to ‘get into the game’ and take on the competition face to face? (Given he popularity of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality games I’m going to say the drive is still there.)
Back then, I was big into science fiction and special effects and storytelling. We’d already had Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. George Lucas and Industrial Light and Magic kept pushing the envelope as to what they could bring to life through special effects. I kept wondering just how far they’d be able to push things. Most were done with models and camera trickery, before CGI started creeping into everything.
I was taking computer classes and one day one of my professor’s was talking about computer graphics. He talked about how graphics could be created using digital pens and other tools, purely digitally, never touching hard media like pen and paper. I made some comment about it possibly being used to generate an entire animated film. He said it would never happen, that the computing power needed just wasn’t there to make and project an animated film. I didn’t push my end of the argument, but I’m glad to say I was right and he was wrong.
I knew computer image manipulation was getting increasingly more powerful. I remember reading an article in Time magazine showing an image o the New York skyline right next o the same skyline with several of the buildings removed. If you hadn’t known they were there in the first place, you’d never know it from seeing the second image. I remember thinking that photos would no longer be valid proof or evidence in a trial because they could be manipulated to lie too easily.
So, does Tron hold up in light of today’s movie magic and storytelling? Objectively, probably not. Looking back at it now, kids today are not going to be impressed by the graphics and simple storyline. The graphics are rather lame compared to modern computer games and movies. But I don’t care. I take it for what it is and was – a breakthrough at the time and a fun trip down nostalgia lane now. I’m looking at it through the lens of nostalgia and the memory of how innovative it was at the time. I still enjoyed watching it but it certainly feels dated. I’m not sure that I’ll ever watch it again but if I do it will probably be only once more. It just doesn’t have the timeless quality about it to warrant seeing it again. Sort of like The Lawnmower Man and Johnny Mnemonic, it is falling into that realm of being like the 1950s B movies – so out of date and out of touch with modern sensibilities that they become ‘so bad they’re good’.
I feel like I should say something about a sense of loss but the idea just isn’t coalescing into something concrete. Ah well, life goes on.
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