Cinema: 1982

Through the years it has undergone revisions, destroyed by critics, re-cut and re-released, forgotten, appreciated, now recognised as one of the great American science-fiction films and analysed by film students around the world. The importance of Blade Runner is in its sci-fi advancements, constructing the idea of cyberpunk and tech-noir paranoia, while making the grandest artistic statement imaginable. Between the production design of Syd Mead and the composition and lighting of Jordan Cronenweth, it presents an idea of the future reified through its questioning of human behaviour and the idea of man. The film noir backdrop thrust into the futurism of corporate control is a sleek 80s veneer to an old ideology, and ensured that cyberpunk was a goldmine of cinema for years to come.

Upon moving past the purported ground-breaking visual effects work and CGI that comprised the bulk of its legend, TRON is a fairly dry and dull affair. The novelty of the much-touted visuals wear thin, within the constraints of the universe and the confines of technology at the time, there is only so much neon on black one can endure. You are left with a fairly middling script and the least interesting characters this side of a Deathstalker screenplay. It is a middling, tiresome film, and clear that the director was focused on visuals. You are watching an experiment, an important foundation in the development of film technology, but as a cinematic narrative itself, TRON is an unrewarding bore.