[net.movies] TRON

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...