Like 2001 and Star Wars, the attention-grabber for Logan's Run when it was first released was its visual effects (for which it won an Academy Award). Visual effects have advanced exponentially since 1976; so the question becomes, what does Logan's Run offer today as dramatic science fiction?

The young society posited by Logan's Run is surprisingly textured and believable. This is crucial because what's at issue in Logan's Run is this society's belief system, which Logan has difficulty discarding even after he learns the truth. It is not until they encounter the Old Man--something outside their experience--that Logan and Jessica reconsider what they've always believed. In other words, they grow as characters.

Some of the things Logan's Run is known for are very peripheral. For example, Farrah Fawcett-Majors costarred, but her role is both minor and jarringly campy. (Her hysterics nearly convince the underground to kill Logan as a spy until Jessica reminds her that Logan was being hunted, to which she replies, "Oh, yeah..."). Likewise, some viewers might have trouble getting past the fact that certain scenes look as though they were filmed in a shopping mall (which they were). In fact, apart from some mediocre miniature work, the creators did a good job of simulating a bustling futuristic city, including good use of a large number of diaphanously clad extras.

David Goodman's screenplay substantially departs from the novels by William Nolan and George Clayton Johnson; most notably, the original renewal age was 21. These alterations, and the extensive editing required to reduce the film to two hours, introduced some hiccups into the film. In the final battle with the computer, for example, Logan's denials of Sanctuary unbelievably cause a systems failure that eventually causes the entire city to blow up. (In the book, the computer was already malfunctioning.)

Despite its Oscar, this is not a special effects movie; it is a philosophy and character movie that adroitly uses effects (and action and sex). Though at times campy and problematic, in some ways Logan's Run exemplifies how a science fiction film should be made.