Back in the days when digitization was tomorrow's creeping threat and computer programmers were modern-day wizards, Disney toyed with those preconceptions in a bold, experimental mixed narrative. Now, nearly forty years later, _Tron_ serves as a curious time capsule and obvious trail blazer, if not a particularly good film. It splits time between two distinct landscapes: the physical world of dim video arcades, outlaw hackers and evil executives, plus a metaphorical digital reality with stylized unitards, neon grids and airbrushed horizons.

The splashy graphics of the latter are what everyone associates with the picture, a jittering display of cutting edge techniques and loud influences that correctly anticipated countless visual trends of the coming decade. Back in grade school, I carried Trapper Keepers that stole, shamelessly, from this movie. Still, with so many years between then and now, nothing else has managed to look quite like _Tron_. Computer-aided effects have come miles since '82 - most of the big chase sequences, for example, look quaint in a modern light - but it's still memorably one-of-a-kind. By contrast, the storytelling is sluggish and obtuse, a mixed-up dinosaur that slings too many allegories for its own good. Eye candy is nice and all, but when that sugar rush crashes in the second act, the plot is just too convoluted, too concept-heavy, to compensate. That's usually the point where I fall asleep.

Creatively ambitious and highly influential, _Tron_ can't escape its snoozier tendencies. It's a textbook example of style over substance, despite the best efforts of young Jeff Bridges and a talented team of concept artists.