Movie Confessions is a segment where I confess to the movies that I’ve watched recently and comment on them.  I end up seeing lots of movies randomly, either in the theater, on DVD, Netflix, or flipping through the channels on cable.  Some are movies I’ve never seen before, some might be in my normal rotation.  Either way, I hope to bring a fresh perspective for this somewhat regular blogging series.

I’m a giant fan of Netflix.  It’s my drug of choice in either flavor: delivered DVDs or streaming on XBOX Live.  With the advent of the streaming movie option, I find myself not partaking in the physical DVD department as much and will sometimes go months without viewing and returning a movie to Netflix.  Recently, my home entertainment system is being put on hold for a small, living room construction project, taking the XBOX out of the equation and forcing me to pick up the DVD that has been sitting on my desk for 2 months now.  That movie is a charming little 1982 Disney film called TRON.

Before last night, I had never seen the movie but immediately upon watching, I’m kicking myself for not seeing this many years ago.  We have a lot in common, TRON and I.  For one, we were both created in 1982.  TRON is the story about how a design for a wildly popular video game is stolen and I host a wildy popular video game podcast (may not be entirely accurate, but just play along, alright?).  TRON stars Jeff Bridges as a young, brilliant software engineer who fights for the truth, just like me!  So it seems that this sci-fi adventure was tailored towards a gaming nerd with an affinity for computer engineering.  Naturally, I enjoyed the heck out of TRON.

I was genuinely surprised at how original the film looks.  The computer graphics mixed with actors running around in what appears to be a giant, black-lit laser-tag arena looked a whole lot more modern than any film from 1982 should look.  I imagine when the movie was released that there were no others that had the same feel.  I was intrigued at how computer programs were personified in the movie, giving the audience a human-like view of how a computer operates.  For example, there are “slave” processes that the “master” uses and once they have served their purpose, the master generates “daemons” to kill them.  I apologize for dropping a little programmer jargon in there, but the computer scientist in me was quite amused.

Then there was the lightcycle scene, which might be the most famous image from the film.  It was really all I knew about the movie before throwing it in my DVD player.  Basically, lightcycle is a game that is a lot like Worm, if the worm were a kickass motorcycle  made of light.  It’s a great action scene, even if it doesn’t really have much to do with the plot.  I wonder if George Lucas was thinking of this scene he threw the pod-racing scene into an already muddled Phantom Menace.

The acting in this movie was not all that great, but I can’t help but root for Jeff Bridges in any movie he’s in.  Whether he’s The Dude in The Big Lebowski or an alien trying to imitate human behavior in Starman, his charisma alone is enough to elevate any film.  The only female in the movie is Cindy Morgan.  You know, the hot girl from Caddyshack.  TRON is the last full-length feature she’s starred in and I don’t believe she is in the upcoming sequel TRON Legacy.  Disney decided to make her the love interest for 2 guys in this movie but somehow eliminated any romantic-conflict.  I guess the message here is “poly-amorous behavior is A-OK?”

The ending of the movie might be one of the most rushed in the history of film.  After our heroes inevitably destroy the Master Control Program and Jeff Bridges is returned to the real world, there are only 2 brief scenes left in the movie.  The first scene is seeing the CEO vaguely getting some sort of come-uppance via a message on a computer screen.  The movie then smash-cuts to the roof of a building where Jeff Bridges gets off a helicopter and embraces his two friends/coworkers.  That’s it.  No epilogue, no closure.  They could have gotten rid of either of these scenes entirely and had the same result.  I’d really like to ask the filmmakers if that was their vision or were there a handful of ending scenes that were left on the cutting room floor.

All in all, the movie was enjoyable and retro.  Definitely a family-friendly sci-fi adventure that nerds of all shapes and sizes will love for generations.