Raj@sri-unix (07/09/82)
Caught the Midnite Sneak Preview of TRON last night (or, rather, earlier this morn) in San Francisco. TRON's plot is vacuous. The computer graphics however are good. The movie flings around much computerese ("the interrupt service ...", etc.), but the non-technical friends I went with seemed to be able to follow much of the plot regardless of this. Reccommendation: Go to see the computer graphics and the "real-life" video arcade battles. If you want plot, buy a book.
trl (07/11/82)
I caught a late night showing of Disney's TRON Friday. The computer graphics were quite interesting, and sometimes amazing. The quality of the writing/acting/etc was very questionable. I usually enjoy any type of sci-fi/adventure flick, but TRON seemed stupid. TRON, in typical Disney style, lacked any 'real-life' characters. The story should have kept me at seats-edge, but something was lacking. I enjoyed the trip through computerland because I knew how difficult the graphics generation was. However, TRON could have been more visually exciting if it had been done with conventional Disney animation. If you have some extra money and extra time see the flick, but if you have not counted all the cracks in your ceiling . . . Tom Lanning @ Columbus, Ohio 1-614-860-4153, alias trl
steveg (07/12/82)
TRON is a film lacking in good plot, good acting, and good dialog. It's generally recognized that it is hard to make a good film without these things. TRON will also insult the intelligence of most of the computer knowledgeble types in usenet-land. The film has two drawing cards: (1) one gets to see the current level of mis-understanding that Hollywood has about the computer industry (no spinning magtapes, only a few magtape drives, and one or two ubiquitous pdp-11's). (2) the Graphics were outstanding. MAGI-SYNTHEVISION stuff is superb. I look forward to seeing them at SIGGRAPH. - steve
schnable (07/12/82)
I also saw TRON this last weekend and I was very impressed with the graphics. I must agree that this is a must see for anyone who works with computers and knows the jargon; I could see it being a little confusing for someone who didn't. I am very excited about the future of this new style of animation. Andy
MORRILL.PA@sri-unix (07/14/82)
Did anyone who saw TRON catch the significance of the Chinese credits at the end of the film? Toby p.s. I was very disapointed by Tron and find it some what depressing that a studio can take such a terrific, unique idea for a movie and turn it into two hours of record breaking boredom.
otto (07/15/82)
The Chinese credits at the end of TRON were there to give credit to those who helped with some film processing in Hong Kong. I was highly amused to suddenly see a screenful of Chinese in the middle of the credits. George Otto Bell Labs, Indian Hill ----------------------
bsw (07/25/82)
I just saw "Tron".Exelent picture! The grafix were superb! Maybe they'll come out with "Tron II"(The Wrath of Tron?) -Ben Walls cbosg!jew
ARPAVAX:mo (07/25/82)
I have a rather different opinion of TRON than most of these reviews. Contrary to what it looks like, most of the frames were rotoscoped and not computer done. There ARE some seminal computer graphics; the III light-cycles and tanks are stunning!!!! But the rest of the movie is WRETCHED!!!! Most of the "computerism" were in fact just random jargon words sprinkled on already deadly-dull story and just plain bad writing to make is sound "computerish". If they had INTENDED to write a narrow-market story they could have done much better. There would be a lot more mileage in things like Multics "rings" and "gatekeepers" and "ringcrossings". The most worrysome thing was Jean Ciskell's review. He claimed that TRON gave him new insights into computers and the people that work with and around them. I find that both insulting and dangerous. If TRON were editted down into a 15 minute short showing all the REAL computer animation, I would pay $4 to see it. As it, it wasted my time and overall bored me to tears. But again, some of the graphics were WONDERFUL. Congratulations to Robert Able, 3-I, and the other groups who contributed. -Mike O'Dell
G:wing (07/26/82)
Try the video game sometime. It's a blast...