It's time to re-enter the grid… well kinda. Tron: Ares might bring the virtual world to ours but it's a total blast that delivers a visual feast, incredible soundtrack, and a story that is right at home within the Tron franchise.
Tron Ares Review
I will fully admit I'm not a Tron super fan. My memory/knowledge of the original film mostly comes from Disney Infinity, Tron: Legacy, and Tron Lightcycle/Run at Walt Disney World. (Note: I would definitely recommend watching/rewatching it before seeing Ares.) Another admission… I only watched Legacy because of Lightcycle/Run… I really hope the Tron fandom is more forgiving than say the Swifties. That being said though, I've been looking forward to Tron: Ares. The grid comes to our world, the visuals look exciting, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are scoring the film? Okay, I'm in. From the trailers and sneak peeks at CinemaCon, Ares looked like it was ready to bring Tron into a new era, introducing new fans to the allure of world while also giving longtime fans a massive gift. After watching it with actual super fans, newbies, and myself (someone clearly in the middle), Tron: Ares delivers.
Tron: Ares is a total blast. Visually incredible from start to finish, exactly what one would expect from a shiny new Tron film. Reznor and Ross' score is the perfect blend of futuristic with retro, dark with light. Coming 43 years after the 1982 original and 15 years after Joseph Kosinski’s Tron: Legacy, director Joachim Rønning‘s Ares aims to satisfy the faithful, re-energize the franchise, while also being a blockbuster epic that will draw the uninitiated into this digitized world. I say it succeeds and does so with all the crackling zing of a Lightcycle joy ride.
Years after the events of Legacy, the grid is dominated by two companies, the famous Encom now run by Eve Kim (Greta Lee), and their rival Dillinger, run by Edward Dillinger's (the original bad guy) heir Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters). Both companies are after the “permeance code” that would allow their AI creations to survive within the real world longer than their current 29 minutes. Dillinger creates Ares (Jared Leto) and other soldiers that are made to be perfectly lethal, perfectly loyal, and expendable. An infantile tech-bro, Julian's desire to control the grid (and thereby the programming world) leads him to sending Ares and his programs after Eve with the intent to extract information from her even if it kills her. But what he doesn't anticipate is that when you create a sophisticated AI like these programs you quickly lose the ability to control their actions.
Despite not being fully steeped in the lore, I struggled with the idea of bringing the grid to reality. Would that kill the fun of Tron? Or at the very least, the visuals everyone knows and loves? Fortunately Ares was in capable hands. Rønning, working from Jesse Wigutow and David DiGilio's story, pulled off this massive switch-up without so much as a glitch. The story is slightly more serious than previous entries given the location and stakes. This makes for some more clunky dialogue moments that will either work for you or not. It really just depends on if you're walking into this expecting high caliber Oscar-worthy writing or just conversations that work as a means to tell a tale. Despite some awkward moments, I thought the performances of the cast worked well to give these more emotional beats meaning even the words themselves were more akin to basic code.
Lee and Peters are saddled with playing out the tropes of good tech girl vs bad tech guy. However, both actors outplay the script to elevate the words on the page. Lee sidesteps a lot of the cliches by playing Eve straightforward and not flawless. She's not some automatic, top-tier gamer who somehow knows all the right things to do and say. Lee makes her relatable, just an overachiever, stuck in a job she doesn't necessarily love but feels obligated to stay at. Peters meanwhile is able to make Julian not just another cardboard cutout of the evil tech bro variety. Sure he's sniveling, needy, and amoral as anyone but Peters gives us glimpses of his jealousy, low self-esteem, and insanity well before it breaks free from the cool, boy-genius mask he wears.
Jodie Turner-Smith's Athena, the right hand woman to Ares, is fascinating to watch. She is a violent, menacing Program that will not be distracted from mission. To her, following orders is an absolute. She doesn't suffer at all from the morality issues that take hold within Ares. Turner-Smith is a menace in this role and I mean that as a massive compliment. I've heard the rumors she could be Storm in the upcoming live-action X-Men and after this, I wouldn't be surprised at all. Leto isn't at all what you would expect as Ares aka Master Control. He is more subdued than usual, first as the non-emotional Program and then the curious, oddly entertaining, and delightfully strange one that begins to feel. And yes Jeff Bridges' cameo is wonderful and more heartwarming than I would have guessed.
Ares is a visual and auditory feast. It incorporates concepts from the original in ways that I don't want to spoil but you're going to geek out over. (I don't even have an attachment to Tron but I was grinning and nerding out with everyone else.) All fan service was cleverly worked in and not wink-at-the-camera noticeable – although there were a few lines that are definitely obvious. The action is sleek, fast-paced, and still just as virtual as ever despite taking place in our world. Those reds light up the screen no matter the setting. When it comes to this franchise, spectacle and synth sounds go hand in hand. That's as true as ever here with an absolutely insanely awesome score from Nine Inch Nails. It's intense, loud, mechanical, dark, and light making everything feel that much more in your face in the best ways possible. Their music takes the already exhilarating Light Cycle chase scene and plusses it by 100.
Verdict
A visual and auditory feast for the senses, Tron: Ares is a fun and thrilling return to the world of rogue AI, Light Cycles, and the grid. It checks all the Tron boxes. From NIN's music and the stunning action sequences to a story that is simple with some quirks. Unlike Legacy (which actually ties into this one more than you may have thought), Ares is familiar and although it does raise some questions about the use of AI, it ultimately is about an AI who develops feelings and desires more out of its existence than merely following directives. It's not without flaws, but it's creative, entertaining, and you can't help but be drawn in by how it looks. Real Tron fans know I could be talking about any of the films with that sentence (just go look at the Rotten Tomatoes scores for each). I don't say this for every movie but seriously, the bigger the screen the better.
Tron: Ares is in theaters October 10. It is rated PG-13 for violence/action with a runtime of 1 hour and 59 minutes.
Leave a Reply