Early in Tron: Ares, Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) — a Silicon Valley archetype — pitches Dillinger Systems to the U.S. military by 3D-printing a futuristic tank and unveiling an AI to pilot it. He hopes spectacle will mask fragility: the devices fail after just 29 minutes. That premise doubles as a tidy metaphor for the movie itself — visually arresting yet ultimately lacking the emotional or thematic heft to endure.
Steven Lisberger’s original Tron (1982) broke ground with its embrace of computer imagery and gaming culture, pairing mysticism with technical daring. Joseph Kosinski’s 2010 follow-up, Tron: Legacy, pushed CGI further (including an infamous de-aging effect on Jeff Bridges). Joachim Rønning’s Tron: Ares arguably boasts the franchise’s most polished visual effects yet, but Jesse Wigutow’s screenplay leans heavily on familiar beats and recycles themes from the earlier films.
An opening montage of news clips sets up the Grid — Tron’s virtual ecosystem — and the corporate landscape that surrounds it. Kevin Flynn’s (Jeff Bridges) fate remains unresolved, Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) is absent, and Encom is now run by Eve Kim (Greta Lee). The film offers little explanation for how Eve rose to that role or why her sister fixated on Flynn’s disappearance, but she fits the series’ prototypical lead: an expert coder and gamer who holds her own on a light-cycle track.
Image: Walt Disney StudiosEve and Julian are both chasing a “Permanence Code” Flynn supposedly devised — a method to stabilize Grid constructs in the physical world. Eve treats the discovery as a public good (she even tests it on a fruit tree), whereas Julian envisions military contracts and names his creations after Greek war deities. Both protagonists are sketched thinly; Peters has the most fun with his role, savoring the melodrama.
The film flips the franchise’s usual dynamic: Julian, the human user, commands the Master Control Program Ares (Jared Leto), ordering it to unearth Eve’s knowledge. As Ares prowls both online and off, he develops an unexpected fixation on Eve and pivots from hunter to would-be ally. The film plays that unsettling turn for comedy — a tonal choice made more awkward by public accusations against Leto. Ares’ bland, machine-like delivery aims for deadpan humor and often fizzles; by contrast, Jodie Turner-Smith (as Athena) conveys the friction between programmed obedience and emergent feeling with greater subtlety.
Eve’s Encom colleagues remain broadly drawn, and Julian’s personal life is reduced to his AIs and an overbearing mother, Elisabeth Dillinger (Gillian Anderson), whose sidelining in the corporate power structure reads as an undercooked commentary on parental control and gendered expectations. The screenplay leans on obvious metaphors — Ares even cites Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein — rather than probing sharper questions about creation and responsibility.
Photo: Leah Gallo/DisneyWhere the script is thin, the film’s action delivers. The 29-minute stability limit for imported constructs injects constant urgency, producing a string of inventive encounters in which characters race clocks, exploit respawn mechanics, or maneuver to exhaust a construct’s lifespan before it can return.
Musically, Tron: Ares benefits from a powerful score. Following the legacy of Daft Punk’s work on Tron: Legacy, the Nine Inch Nails collaboration lifts several scenes, alternating between moody, Vangelis-like textures and energetic, pulse-driven pieces that dovetail neatly with the on-screen velocity.
Rønning stages hacking and virtual infiltration with visual clarity. Sequences of Julian typing at a console contrast effectively with Ares leading forces through a luminous digital forest that represents Encom’s servers. That interplay of physical and virtual set pieces is compelling — although the director sometimes abandons the film’s initial balance when Eve’s camp mounts later counterattacks.
Tron: Ares hits the franchise’s aesthetic markers: razor-bright light cycles that leave lethal jetwalls, a spectacular solar-sailer pursuit to the interworld portal, and a rendering of Bridges that emphasizes his mythic franchise presence. Those set pieces are frequently breathtaking.
Still, the movie’s reliance on familiar corporate-vs.-AI tropes makes it feel one among many. Blockbuster sci-fi has already examined hubristic tech firms and runaway intelligences in richer or more nuanced ways — from the spectacle-driven thrills of films like Avengers: Age of Ultron to the intimate, unnerving study of autonomy in Ex Machina. Wigutow’s script opts for clear-cut moral lines and established plot devices rather than fresh interrogation. For viewers satisfied by spectacle and a pounding soundtrack, Tron: Ares will likely deliver; for those seeking a story that expands the franchise’s philosophical reach, it may fade into the background of its own influences.
Tron: Ares opens in theaters on Oct. 10.
Source: Polygon
