In a lot of ways, it’s surprising that Tron: Ares exists at all. This franchise, which began with the groundbreaking Tron in 1982, and continued with 2010’s Tron: Legacy, has never been as big as it perhaps should’ve been. The first film arrived during the video game craze, when the idea of existing in virtual worlds was fresh and exciting. The sequel advanced the amazing digital effects but had a story that lacked an emotional hook. After that failed at the box office, it took many years for Tron: Ares to get off the ground, and it arrives as AI has quickly become a dominant part of our everyday life. It makes sense for Tron to be at the forefront in establishing visually how we perceive a world completely overtaken by artificial intelligence.
Tron: Ares is probably not the movie I would’ve wanted to see if there needed to be a sequel to Tron: Legacy. That film ended with Garrett Hedlund’s Sam Flynn, son of Jeff Bridges’ Kevin Flynn, returning from The Grid into the real world with his digital companion, Olivia Wilde’s Quorra. But that story is only hinted at, and instead the focus is on Ares, an enigmatic security program designed by evil tech bro Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters). Dillinger, still a rival to Flynn’s ENCOM even though neither Kevin nor Sam has been seen in years, is on the hunt for a Permanence Code that will allow digital programs to exist in the real world permanently, rather than dying out after 29 minutes. Instead, it’s ENCOM’s new CEO Eve (Greta Lee), who discovers it first, and so it’s up to Ares to find her in the real world, stop her, and steal the code so Dillinger can make a bunch of money creating military-grade weapons.
Ares is the first time that a Tron movie has focused so much on a program, rather than a human protagonist. This isn’t like Kevin or Sam stumbling into The Grid and having to fight their way out. In this case, it’s about Ares being transformed by his encounters with humanity. Tired of being told he’s “expendable”, Ares decides to think for himself and help Eve locate the Permanence Code so he can live as a human. This switch in perspective actually works quite well, but I would say that Leto shares the co-lead with Lee, who has just as much screen time as he does. Both Ares and Eve undergo an evolution throughout their journey. His eyes are awoken to what it means to be human, including a strange love of ’80s pop band Depeche Mode, while Eve comes to see AI as a tool that can enhance the lives of people in more important ways than video games.
The other key factor to Tron: Ares‘ success is that we get to see The Grid’s awesome weapons, vehicles, and warrior programs out in the real world. The visual effects have improved with each Tron movie and I would say this one looks the best by far. The sleek design and laser effects look amazing, and as they move with speed, it’s like they’re gliding along a sunbeam. While there are more chases than actual scenes of combat, both feature an intimidating performance by Jodie Turner-Smith as Athena, a former colleague of Ares who now must hunt him down. Director Joachim Rønning, of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean movies, takes advantage of the IMAX aspect ratio to capture the vastness of The Grid, aided by Nine Inch Nails’ pulsating score.
That said, Tron: Ares can also be painfully slow, and it takes forever for the plot to get moving. Lee is an amazingly talented actress, as she proved in Past Lives and recently in A House of Dynamite. She isn’t helped early on by a bunch of lame techno-garble she has to spew, but eventually settles into an easy chemistry with Leto that borders on a buddy comedy. His Ares is much funnier than expected, as he becomes more human along the way. It’s a solid role for Leto, too. I’ve been hard on him, because generally he tends to be the worst part of movies that were already going to suck. Leto is surprisingly light on his feet, and free of the weightiness that he too often brings to movies that don’t need it.
Outside of Leto, Lee, and Turner-Smith, the cast doesn’t amount to much. Sadly, that also goes for Jeff Bridges, whose brief appearance as Kevin Flynn seems like an obligation. It’s kinda funny how Bridges is just being The Dude in everything now, but he can be forgiven for that. Tron: Ares isn’t without its share of fan service elsewhere, too, with many nostalgic callbacks to the earlier movies that are a lot of fun and hold up well visually.
Tron: Ares looks great and has one of Leto’s best performances as part of a major studio franchise. The film has its hits and misses, but this return to The Grid is surprisingly enjoyable and could be the spark needed for Disney to invest more into its future.
Tron: Ares is open in theaters now.
