I’ll fully admit that neither 1982’s groundbreaking sci-fi adventure Tron, nor its 2010 sequel Tron: Legacy did much for me. The neon-soaked artificial environments certainly did a number on my eyes, especially in the early 1980s. But beyond that, I found the mythology vague and uninspired. Was it pro-technology or warning us of the inevitable dangers? Who the hell knows? And now, with Tron: Ares, I’m just as confused and even less invested. Although much like the previous two Tron entries, the visuals and the music at least kept me from falling asleep.
This time around, the real threat to the world seems to be some sort of digital printing, only this printer makes soldiers, including a Master Control program called Ares (Jared Leto), who seems somewhat self-aware and interested in what his life might be like if he weren’t beholden to his creator, Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), grandson of the bad guy from the first film, played by the late David Warner (Dillinger’s son, also a villain, was played by Cillian Murphy in Tron: Legacy). Julian’s mother, Elisabeth, is played by Gillian Anderson, and she is the current head of the company making Ares and other printed soldiers and weapons, the only issue being that nothing made this way lasts longer than 29 minutes. Sure, they can make more, but after 29 minutes, they fall apart into nothing.
A competing company run by Eve Kim (Greta Lee, who also appears in this week’s A House of Dynamite) is somehow connected to the video game company that Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) created in the original film and is having similar issues with its print technology, but Eve goes on a hunt to an old Flynn outpost, looking for a permanence code that can solve the problem. Meanwhile, Julian is willing to literally kill for that code, much to his mother’s chagrin. And with that setup, Tron: Ares becomes the most elaborate corporate espionage movie is history.
Directed by Joachim Ronning (Kon-Tiki, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil; Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales), the movie quickly turns into a platform for junk science, flashy special effects, and more nostalgia porn than you can ingest without getting a sugar high. The whole thing culminates in certain characters actually forced to go back into the original Tron digital universe, complete with blocky digital effects and, naturally, the return of Bridges as Flynn, who seems to be there just for the vibe, because he contributes nothing else to this movie.
The story doesn’t really deal with the possibility of A.I. beings that can reconstitute themselves at any point. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares’ fellow soldier Athena, and when it becomes clear that Ares is defecting in order to stay alive forever, Athena is made Master Control to lead a digital army against Ares and any human who stands in their way, all to the propulsive techno grind of a Nine Inch Nails original soundtrack.
The real issue with Tron: Ares is that everyone is trying so hard to look cool while jaw-dropping things are happening around them, and as a result, they all look a little dead-eyed. It should come as no surprise that the greatest dead-eyed perpetrator is Leto. I know he’s playing the living embodiment of electronic code, but he also looks like he’s on the verge of nodding off most of the time. Welcome to the club, I guess.
The film is now playing in theaters.
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