Cyberpunk
What is Cyberpunk?
Cyberpunk is a science-fiction sub-genre dealing with the integration of society and technology in dystopian settings. Often referred to as “low-life and high tech,” Cyberpunk stories deal with outsiders (punks) who fight against the oppressors in society (usually mega corporations that control everything) via technological means (cyber). If the punks aren’t actively fighting against a megacorp, they’re still dealing with living in a world completely dependent on high technology.
Cyberpunk characteristics include:
- Dystopian city setting where mega-corporations rule
- Full integration of technology into society, featuring cybernetic implants
- Outsider protagonists (punks) who often are very familiar with the technology around them
- Hard boiled detective and film noir vibes and influence
- Themes dabbling in trans-humanism, existentialism, and what it means to be human.
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Someone asked what makes the original Tron so good the other day and, even as a fan of Tron, I could not come up with an answer.
I just think it's neat.
It was a product of its time. Had the story and certainly the same effects been released decades later it wouldn't have gone anywhere. That's where Legacy was able to succeed, they didn't just run with a sequel of the same stuff, they took what Tron started and added things relevant to a modern audience. I have yet to see Ares so I can't say if it brings anything new besides flashier graphics (maybe too flashy?)
In it's time, the special effects were mind blowing. We little boys were like, "OMG! Light cycles!"
I feel like even today, the CGI is super impressive for 1982 (?).
given that the metaphorical inside of a computer is usually imagined to look... well, computer-y, i think 1980's CG is spot on.
i remember mom telling me as a kid (~2004) "now don't judge the CG too harshly, it's very old" and i was like "are you kidding? this looks AWESOME!"
The impressive thing is they did all those visuals without a gui. They had to calculate and hand code every element and wouldn't know if it worked until the film was developed.
Edit: they also weren't eligible for best visial effects because they "cheated" by using computers.
I didn't know they were disqualified from best effects. That's truly tragic 😑
It's actually pretty cool that your mom got you into it!
my mom is so cool 🥹 she saw it in theaters in college and made sure to get in on VHS from the library for us as kids
AFAIK quite a bunch of it isn't even CGI. Lots of creative lighting tricks and just very well done classic animation.
I watched it at least 200 times when I was a little kid. Maybe I'm a bit autistic, maybe I'm a nerdgirl (probably both) but it was, and still is, one of my faves.
The original Tron was pretty groundbreaking as a movie released in 1982, at least from the visual perspective.
It spawned a bunch of derivative works - the animated show Reboot, the Matrix franchise, games like the CCG "Netrunner", books like Neuromancer and Ready Player One.
Nevermind all the technical hurdles they had to accomplish in order to generate these effects. No way you get to Toy Story or the Marvel franchises without the entry-level effort of Information International, Inc. or Mathematical Applications Group.
Surface level, sure. It was your standard "Computers Ate My Dad" silly Disney story. But it mainlined a certain flavor of SciFi/Fantasy and popularized animation techniques that have matured substantially since then.
Unless the 3rd book I have yet to read is about being inside a computer system, Neuromancer is so far from being derivative of Tron, I don't know how it ended up on your list. 🤨
Wintermute and Neuromancer, as superintelligent computers orchestrating an evil business empire, strike me as direct parallels to the CPU in Tron.
And the Cowboys, jacking in to outwit these AIs from within their own digital landscape, echo the Tron heroes combating evil computer minions in gladiatorial games.
You have it the wrong way around if anything.
If you read Burning Chrome, you can see all the Gibsonian cyberspace elements where already there in something that was FINISHED IN 1981.
The first outline of Neuromancer, titled "Jacked In" is from the same year.
Gibson had no idea about what he was talking about and that's why his work is not derivative in any way of other sci-fi work on the subject.
Lisberger, Tron's creator, was shopping around the idea for the movie as early as '78.
But sure, these ideas weren't strictly concurrent. They both came out of real life computer and Internet development inspiring the themes within the media.
Point being, Tron popularized an idea that catapulted similar media.
First tron is boring as balls with good visuals.
Legacy was entertaining while still boring as balls but that soundtrack may well be the best soundtrack ever made. Plus it has the most banging pinball machine release ever.
Back in 82 we weren't all carrying an internet link in our pocket. Computers were in arcades and sometimes at work (but only used by specialists.) Impossible to recapture that moment in time.
A decent background of the original Tron. https://youtu.be/4K4JGE3nPvk