1 of 5 | Jared Leto plays Ares in “Tron: Ares,” in theaters Friday. Photo courtesy of Disney Enterprises, inc.
The Tron movies have typically had better ideas than execution, but at least the 1982 original was ambitious. Tron: Ares, in theaters Friday, is just another derivative sci-fi movie.
In the 15 years since Tron: Legacy, Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund, only pictured in this film), the son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), has retired from his father’s company, Encom. The current CEOs, sisters Eve (Greta Lee) and Tess Kim, race to develop artificial intelligence before the rival Dillinger company.
The head of that company, Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), has created a new security program, Ares (Jared Leto). Dillinger can 3D print Ares, other security enforcers, vehicles and weapons in the real world, but they only last 29 minutes before disintegrating.
Tess finds a permanence code in Flynn’s system before her death from cancer. Eve can use it to make digital entities from programs last in the real world, which means Dillinger wants it for its own. Fortunately, Ares has grown sentient enough to rebel against Dillinger and help Eve so he can become permanent.
The brilliance of Tron was depicting computer programs as people with mundane jobs executing those programs. That must have been what new personal computing technology felt like in the ’80s and, frankly, it still feels like there are tiny people in our iPhone apps, who only cooperate sometimes.
The Grid of 1982’s Tron was essentially a black void with just enough straight lines to mark pathways and buildings. That is what the world inside a computer should look like, because in reality it’s only ones and zeroes.
Both Tron sequels developed a much fuller Grid in the digital world, which only makes them comparable to all the other movies where disembodied actors stand in front of green screens. They can put a city made out of microchips behind them but it’s still just an animated backdrop.
Ares has his share of action scenes, battling Encom programs and evading loyal Dillinger programs before his escape, so Tron: Ares can deliver some of the Grid spectacle. These sequences just raise further questions about the additional development since the original Tron.
If they’re computer programs, why would free-falling and water affect them? There was a river in the 1982 Tron, but the physics in Tron: Ares only go so far as to look cool.
It’s not to say don’t do it, but if you’re going to, decide what it means and be consistent. This is just putting Tron skins on Point Break and Fast and the Furious action scenes.
Good world-building suggests possibilities beyond what is depicted in the film. These serve no purpose beyond supporting the film’s set pieces.
Bringing Tron into the real world also commits the same mistake as The Matrix Revolutions. The story may be leading to this, but the digital world is what’s unique about the franchise. Bringing it into our world just makes it the same as any other movie where a villainous force, monster, etc. terrorizes cities.
There are even more movies about the threat of AI taking over our world than there are movies about entering a digital matrix. In this realm, Tron: Ares doesn’t hold a candle to The Terminator or even the better Transformers movies.
Lee at least captures the simultaneously terrifying and exciting sensations of riding a light cycle down city streets. What little time is devoted to humanizing Ares is derivative of popular movie robots from Star Trek’s Data to Short Circuit’s Johnny 5.
There is a bit of retro fan service near the end of the film that suggests what could actually make Tron awesome now, but it’s too little too late. It’s also amusing how many times they mention Sam Flynn, as if continuity with Tron: Legacy were that important in a 15 years later sequel.
Ares does include a clip of 1980s Kevin talking about The Grid in a television interview as a way of apologizing for the terrible de-aging effect on Bridges in Tron: Legacy. Smartly, they distorted it this time with analog TV fuzz because none of these visual effects should be on camera for clear scrutiny.
Nine Inch Nails does a good score, though. It is evocative of both the Wendy Carlos Tron score and Daft Punk’s Tron: Legacy while also being its own sort of modern techno.
Tron became more appreciated after computers became more common. The sequels have struggled to figure out what Tron means in a real world that is entirely consumed by technology. Alas, they still haven’t figured it out.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
