A race is on between tech companies; ENCOM and Dillinger Systems, to be the first to access the digital plain of existence known as The Grid and use it to benefit the physical world. While ENCOM’s CEO, Eve (played by Greta Lee) is trying to track down a code that can permanently sustain any digital construct, head of Dillinger Systems, Julian (played by Evan Peters) has taken a more aggressive approach, creating Ares (played by Jared Leto), a digital soldier capable of travelling between worlds, but while on a mission to tamper with ENCOM, Ares starts to disobey his directives and fully turns against Julian after being tasked with eliminating Eve. With his second-in-command, Athena (played by Jodie Turner-Smith) now in charge of apprehending Eve and deleting Ares, reality and technology have to co-exist as these two try to outrun the murderous AI solider, prevent Julian from completing his plans, and maybe get Ares the physical body he has grown to desire.
TRON: ARES is a pretty unremarkable movie that can’t rely on spectacle, wonder or nostalgia to distract people from its messy storytelling, bland characters, and outdated components. While it does have a few neat ideas, some decent performances, and enough capable visuals and music to not be a painful watch, it’s hard to view this as anything more than another faulty piece of software.
While Disney planned to make a direct sequel to Tron: Legacy immediately after its release, this was scrapped due to the financial failure of their 2015 sci-fi adventure film, Tomorrowland, leaving the brand in a decade-long hiatus before it was revived in 2023 with a new cast of characters, a new creative team, and seemingly a new universe (even though both prior films are still connected). Tron has always had potential (especially when it comes to exploring artificial intelligence) and in the current age where science fiction now feels like reality, a modern look at this world and concept feels very appropriate.
There are actually a few decent ideas in this fairly linear plot, like two companies participating in a ‘’space-race’’ type competition over harnessing The Grid, and even creating AI soldiers that have the potential to defect regardless of programming, raising a lot of complex and fascinating debates about AI, like how much of its nature is emboldened by who controls it, and whether or not the genuine good it could bring is worth the risk of it going haywire. However, most of these concepts feel accidently included rather than specifically pointed out in the script written by Jesse Wigutow, which is where most of the problems start to arise.
Considering most of the story (written by Wigutow and David DiGilio) was created in 2015 and remained unchanged since most of what they envisioned actually became relevant, it clearly feels like a product made ten years ago. Everything from the directing style, feel of the dialogue, how the characters are handled, even most of the visuals, action scenes and music, doesn’t feel like how a modern-day blockbuster is handled, instead feeling incredibly safe, predictable and underwhelming. Pieces of the story are okay, but it’s structured in a sense that holds it back from its truly intriguing qualities and is paced so awkwardly that the main driving force doesn’t get going until the halfway point.
There’s a constant feeling of numbing indifference that never goes so far that it becomes notably poor, but never exceeds beyond mediocrity either, and this isn’t surprising given who was directing. Joachim Rønning hasn’t had the strongest track record with Disney, but while Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, are certainly not good movies, they did have some vibrancy, activeness and freshness to them that kept them from being the worst in their respective series. It doesn’t elevate this movie, but at least explains that, while messily written and orchestrated, it has enough competence to prevent total disaster.
Learning that Jared Leto was the lead was the quickest way to ruin this film’s credibility and public interest, as audiences have grown to dislike the actor on both a personal and performative level. While outside assumptions shouldn’t poison every future role, it doesn’t feel like Leto was the right choice for Ares, as he isn’t even able to convincingly portray the bare minimum.
This isn’t entirely his fault, as Ares is written in a very stock fashion that’s reminiscent of many robotic roles who speak in a blunt fashion but contain a hint of humanity, but Leto’s demeanor and mannerism don’t feel like an AI trying to be human, ironically sounding too normal to feel authentic as this digital being, it doesn’t feel like his involvement was worth the risk. It’s even worse that everyone else is far more capable and appealing as choices for this world, but because of the obtuse plot and very poor scripting and characterization, they aren’t used effectively.
While Greta Lee is essentially the secondary lead and is performed in a nice enough fashion, the character of Eve feels incredibly generic, shares little chemistry with any performer, and has a story that could’ve been interesting if it wasn’t crammed into a last-minute exposition dump near the end. Evan Peters is stuck playing a very standard ‘’tech-bro’’ archetype and despite acting with enough passion to not be forgettable, becomes so pointless by the third act that he’s very easy to forget about, Jodie Turner-Smith and Gillian Anderson are trying way too hard on roles that do not deserve their talent, and Hasan Minhaj, Sarah Desjardins and Arthur Castro are entirely useless as ENCOM workers helping Eve with her plan.
The most enticing aspect of Tron has always been its look, and what’s nice is that each film updated as to not let the identity grow stale. The original Tron may seem dated nowadays but was revolutionary for its time and created something distinct and innovative, and Tron: Legacy kept the same kind of aesthetic while including modern technology and a prominent color palette to make what was a literal phoney reality feel believable. Since audiences aren’t really impressed with futuristic tech in films anymore since real world advancements have caught up (which could also be said for visual effects), Tron doesn’t feel as eye-catching even when decently handled.
This movie has nice enough effects, still holds onto the interesting iconography and outfits, and can provide an engaging visual experience through some nice camera work by Jeff Cronenweth and the overall cinematic delivery, but it’s hard to call it amazing.
It has the familiar looking architecture, weapons and vehicles that gave its universe a high-tech but also gamified vibe, but the film doesn’t spend a lot of time in the space and even bringing it into the real world doesn’t open up many new opportunities. Most of the action has enough frantic energy and flashy imagery to be engaging in the moment, but the visual clutter can be hard to make out due to the pretty choppy editing by Tyler Nelson, not allowing for any moment to stick and only allows for a singular euphoric experience.
Since the music for Tron: Legacy by Daft Punk was the one component everyone loved, TRON: ARES clearly tried to replicate the same kind of vigour by getting Nine Inch Nails to provide the score this time around. While they do a perfectly nice job with a similarly hype-inducing score that has a disco feel underneath all the weighty synth, it’s hard to ignore the clear attempts at emulating the past score, and therefore, feels constantly in its shadow and never its own creation.
TRON: ARES may be the last time Disney tries releasing another cinematic film, as it has never worked out for them in the short or long term, and with even its most appealing qualities now feeling passe, it might be best to only boot it up when absolutely necessary. In comparison to the previous two films, ARES doesn’t feel leagues below them, but doesn’t feature anything that makes it comparable either, with its predecessors at least being memorable for their time whereas this film will probably be easily forgotten. It has flashy visuals, an occasional solid performance, and an overall harmless attitude, but with a forgettable story, poorly handled scripting, bland characters, and unimpressive imagery and action, it’s certainly doesn’t feel like the next stage in humanity’s evolution.
