April 13, 2000

12:51 AM

One of Roger Ebert's all time favorite movies is Tron. I remember seeing it as a kid and being amazed, but after looking at some of the movie previews for it at this site, it seems just plain goofy. Oh, by the way, I found this at the imdb, which apparently is some sort of Tron sequel, as a upcoming tv show/series, but Harry says they're also working on a film for release in 2002.
posted by mathowie (16 comments total)

when i got my first real job i bought a vcr. back then the remotes were connected to the vcr with wires.

my girlfriend of the time was interested in computer graphics. she was hospitalized briefly, and i bought her a copy of Tron as a gift when she was released from the hospital. the video cost $90. that's what they cost back then.

when we broke up a few years later, she asked if i wanted Tron back and i said no.

i hope i haven't taken this somewhere you didn't want to go.

for its time, Tron was an achievement. today i don't think you'd get much pleasure from viewing it. watch The Matrix instead, for the thousandth time. or Blade Runner. you will have more visual pleasure with either of those.
posted by Zeldman at 1:03 AM on April 13, 2000

Tron definitely is only interesting in an historical sense. What looks like computer graphics is in fact laboriously (and expensively) generated special effects using mostly traditional techniques pushed to their limits.

The story is silly to anyone over the age of ... 14? 12?

Some of the terminology is dated, but I still like the idea of autonomous programs prowling the streets of my computer, and "crashing".
posted by dhartung at 1:55 AM on April 13, 2000

Tron was cool. It's outdated now, but every once in a while, I remember how great it was when I was a kid. It seems a little interesting to have a sequel, but I'm not sure that anyone's going to rush out to see it.

Blade Runner, however, is timeless for me at least.
posted by Cavatica at 5:28 AM on April 13, 2000

Oh come on now... you bunch of jaded cynics! Put Tron on a screen at a place like my school (RPI) and you have an immediate fun time. Okay, so there weren't many people there, but those who did watch the poor-quality copy of the film made the most of it. Yes, it's outdated and not as "cool" as the Matrix or Blade Runner, but it's still fun to watch.
posted by stefnet at 8:59 AM on April 13, 2000

Without Tron, would there have ever been Reboot?
posted by wendell at 9:28 AM on April 13, 2000

Ahh, the summer after my Junior Year in HS... We left the theaters and immediately began searching the arcades because *we knew* that it was all about the videogame. My best friend and I spent our summer in a Chuck E Cheese knockoff (back when CEC was doing videogames instead of toddler habitrails) drinking pitchers of coke and pumping "Tron Tokens" into the Tron machine while the Deathrace 2000 machine sat sad and dusty in the corner, echoing the mechanical screams of it's attract sequence to an uncaring room. When we weren't there, we were out in Wash Park with the Tron Disk, playing for the Users. Sure, the movie is dated from a technological standpoint, but for me, personally, it'll always be a major milestone in my proto-geekhood... Still 2 years away from my first computer (a Kaypro) and my first online account (Compu$erve) - I was nonetheless seduced by the bright lights of the world inside the computer. Put the movie on, and I'll be there chanting along with David Warner "Stop, I'm warning you -- I'm going to have to put you on the game grid."
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 9:45 AM on April 13, 2000

Saw Tron last summer for the first time, it came on HBO, and it was late- but I watched it all. I was very impressed even though I had already seen The Matrix and Blade Runner- in my head I couldn't help but think that at the time it was released it was cutting edge- The ideas and what plot there was would still make sense today, if not more so.
posted by TuxHeDoh at 10:16 AM on April 13, 2000

I seem to recall that both these rumors (the TV-sequel and the Pixar one) were thoroughly debunked after Harry's original post, but due to AICN's utterly useless search facility I can't find the reference again.
posted by jjg at 10:51 AM on April 13, 2000

Oh god...a sequel?

Why can't we let good movies sit unsequelled? A movie like Tron needs no sequel. It should stand alone.
posted by Succa at 10:59 AM on April 13, 2000

Yeah, I can't wait for the sequel to Remo Williams and Wargames.
posted by Cavatica at 11:11 AM on April 13, 2000

I liked Tron so much, I broke my ankle.
posted by jason at 12:21 PM on April 13, 2000

What, you never watched the Remo Williams TV series? (Besides, the movie was based on the Destroyers series of novels, which passed the 100-mark years ago.)
posted by harmful at 12:58 PM on April 13, 2000

Sure did, for the season or so it was out. Ranked up there with Street Hawk and Airwolf, imo.
posted by Cavatica at 2:24 PM on April 13, 2000

Cavatica,
That was the era of AutoMan, Highwayman, Riptide and A-team. My brother ran around the house singing the praises of "starwars, airwolf, tron, riptide are the very best..." (sing to the tune of a-team).

Tron was a still is a great movie. I can't believe some of these comments. Its still great entertainment. ...and the special effects are still great looking. It had a feel, and that feel still works.

posted by jamescblack at 3:17 PM on April 13, 2000

I need some help trying to match your brother's singing to The A Team Theme. Could you help with the meter?
posted by plinth at 5:46 AM on April 14, 2000

Automan, goodness. That little cursor and that wacky blue glowing car. Plinth has a point, what your brother is singing seems to be a little off.
posted by Cavatica at 10:23 AM on April 14, 2000