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TRON (1982)

tomatometer

70

Average Rating: 6.3/10
Reviews Counted: 46
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 14

Though perhaps not as strong dramatically as it is technologically, TRON is an original and visually stunning piece of science fiction that represents a landmark work in the history of computer animation.

40

Average Rating: 5/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 3

Though perhaps not as strong dramatically as it is technologically, TRON is an original and visually stunning piece of science fiction that represents a landmark work in the history of computer animation.

audience

66

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 66,105

My Rating

Movie Info

One of the earliest feature films to reflect the video-game craze of the 1980s, Disney's Tron stars Jeff Bridges as computer programmer Kevin Flynn, who becomes part of the very game that he's programming. Flynn's principal antagonist is his glory-grabbing boss, Ed Dillinger (David Warner), who likewise metamorphoses into a video-game character. The title character, a computer-generated superhero, is played by Bruce Boxleitner. Though antiquated by 1990s standards, Tron represented the last word

Jan 15, 2002

Buena Vista Pictures

Cast

All Critics (46) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (38) | Rotten (14) | DVD (39)

For most people, TRON's importance is as a historical footnote. It's the Model T of our CGI age. But the film's fans are passionate ones.

April 7, 2011 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | Comment
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's a simple idea that ought to serve, but Lisberger's failures of pacing, structure, variation, and characterization ultimately make the film seem monotonous and distant.

June 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comments (2)
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Tron is loaded with visual delights but falls way short of the mark in story and viewer involvement.

June 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A dazzling movie from Walt Disney in which computers have been used to make themselves romantic and glamorous. Here's a technological sound-and-light show that is sensational and brainy, stylish, and fun.

October 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comments (7)
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Its computer sequences exist in a blue-gray scheme filled with flashing lights, speeding objects and dizzying motion. Its visual effects are wonderfully new. They are also numbing after a while.

August 30, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

More important for its revolutionary visual effects than anything else, the film is both entertaining and prescient.

August 16, 2011 Full Review Source: Oscar Guy | Comment
Oscar Guy

There's an undeniable cart-before-the-horse aspect to Tron...but Lisberger's film will always stand as a touchstone in the development of CGI as a storytelling tool... [Blu-ray]

April 15, 2011 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | Comment

Perhaps one of the more stunning features in motion picture history, creatively adapting mistakes and hunting invention, shaping a movie that displays such curiosity with technology and boldness with sci-fi fantasy.

March 28, 2011 Full Review Source: BrianOrndorf.com | Comment
BrianOrndorf.com

Comes together in a magnificent manner, hitting viewers with a gale force display of creativity and determination. It's a one-of-a-kind viewing event, guided with a trembling hand from Lisberger, who accomplishes the unthinkable.

March 27, 2011 Full Review Source: BrianOrndorf.com | Comment
BrianOrndorf.com

...a hopelessly dated relic of the early 1980s...

December 17, 2010 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | Comment (1)
Reel Film Reviews

Without the rosy filter of nostalgia, it's a virtually unwatchable virtual-reality saga.

December 17, 2010 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness | Comments (3)
Lessons of Darkness

Tron is at once a supremely silly movie and a groundbreaking one. It's best seen as the maiden voyage of an expedition that has led us to wonders like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings movies and Avatar.

December 13, 2010 Full Review Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune | Comment (1)

Tron didn't just come up with a new special effects, it came up with new things to use those new kinds of special effects on.

December 12, 2010 Full Review Source: CinemaBlend.com | Comment
CinemaBlend.com

It's as if Fritz Lang had set Metropolis, his silent, science-fiction classic, in a disco.

November 11, 2010 Full Review Source: LarsenOnFilm | Comment
LarsenOnFilm

Dated and mediocre but kid-friendly sci-fi from Disney.

December 15, 2009 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Not only does it introduce the humanity/technology themes that would surface in later cyberpunk fantasies, it boasts some of the most unique visuals in any film, then or now.

March 9, 2009 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

Although Tron's state-of-the-art, computer-generated visuals look primitive by current standards, it's intelligently conceived (on a visual level, at any rate) and largely good fun.

June 4, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Tron never reaches a level of excitement commensurate with its effects budget.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment (1)

The movie's innovative digital special effects were jaw-dropping at the time and still seem pretty cool. But somehow the plot congeals early into an old-time medieval epic and gets pretty dull.

May 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment (1)
Combustible Celluloid

Dated effects, of course, but still nerdy fun after all these years.

September 8, 2005 Comment
Capital Times (Madison, WI)
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for TRON

It plays like an early 1980s EPCOT Center ride: visionary in an innocent way, charmingly retro, visually stunning in parts but also overstays its welcome and becomes an unexciting bore.

July 4, 2011
Matheus Carvalho

Super Reviewer

I'm sure this movie was awesome and groundbreaking in 1982, but having seen it in 2010 right before the new one, it seems very cheesy. Who knows, in 30 years the new Tron might look cheesy? All in all though, good idea for a movie and some descent acting.

September 18, 2011
Eric Alvarez

Super Reviewer

TRON Quotes

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Latest News for TRON

April 5, 2011:
Bruce Boxleitner Talks Trons
With "Tron" and "Tron: Legacy" coming out on Blu-ray today, now is the perfect time for a chat with...

January 13, 2011:
Disney Prepping a Tron: Legacy Sequel?
Could we be seeing a third "Tron" movie soon? That's the inside scoop from sources at Ain't It Cool...

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