Tron: Ares
After being introduced by Dillinger Industries CEO Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters, TV's 'American Horror Story') as the ultimate soldier, his digital program (Jared Leto), the master controller of his grid, is sent into the real world to extract Kevin Flynn's (Jeff Bridges) permanence code, the two lines which would enable him to keep his physical form for more than 29 minutes, from Dillinger rival ENCOM CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee), an order which would cause her death. But Julian's master controller has absorbed data on Eve and grown a conscience, so shocks his second-in-command, Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith, "Queen & Slim"), by disobeying his directive and helping Eve in "Tron: Ares."
Laura's Review: B
'The question isn't who's building the car - the car is being built right now - it's who's holding the keys,' Julian tells the investors at his Ares demonstration, screenwriter Jesse Wigutow (TV's 'Daredevil: Born Again') economically announcing the movie's theme. And even Ares is disturbed by his creator's words as Julian notes that he is completely expendable, another motivating factor for the AI to join team Eve. Director Joachim Rønning ("Young Woman and the Sea") takes over the franchise, goosing the simple 'good use of AI' versus 'bad use of AI' plot with eye-popping effects-laden action scenes and a fantastic NIN score which responds to every emotional beat.
We meet Eve skiing to a remote Quonset hut full of old PCs and floppy discs where her younger sister was working on finding Flynn's permanence code. Eve, a game creator, is still grieving her sister's death from cancer and while she wasn't as high-minded as Tess, she's determined to complete her quest with her colleague Seth (Arturo Castro) by her side. Eve finds the two lines of code, represented as a double helix, and tests it by creating an orange tree and picking a fruit. Both are still present four hours later. Putting the code on a flash drive, she heads back towards headquarters (in a white leather jumpsuit, natch). But Julian has hacked into ENCOM despite his mother, Elisabeth Dillinger's (Gillian Anderson), protests and Ares and Athena are dispatched to retrieve the code on their physically rendered, high tech motorcycles, their black leather jumpsuits, sleek black helmets and the bikes themselves all highlighted with bright red light strips, wider ribbons of light left in their wake as solid obstacles. Eve manages to unseat Athena in a parking garage, then takes Athena's bike into the city for a hair-raising race, Ares on her tail. Cornered at the end of a pier, Eve snaps the flashdrive in two and drops it into the water. 'Are you timing out?' she asks with some concern as Ares begins to collapse into black, metallic dust, but not before his conscienceness registers 'empathetic response.' But Julian has sent additional forces and Eve is digitized and sucked into his grid.
Back within the grid, where Julian appears as a giant pin art head, Ares is told that because Eve has seen the code, it can still be extracted from her and he's given the directive which causes him to go rogue - 'extract the code and delete the carrier.' Ares lies to Athena and races to a transporter station with Eve, escaping back into the real world, where they will have 29 minutes to make him permanent with Athena, now promoted to master commander, leading troops into the city within a vast flying machine.
"Tron: Ares" is a simple story elevated by outstanding craft, cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth ("Fight Club"), production designer Darren Gilford ("Tron: Legacy") and the special effects team giving us something new by merging the digital and real worlds, as well as continually referencing the original world, Ares, who finds himself drawn to Depeche Mode and Rubik's cubes, at one point, entering the 1980's grid, declaring it 'classic,' and meeting Flynn. Ares is perhaps too quick finding his humanity, but it keeps the narrative moving, unlike some slowdowns caused by peripheral characters, Eve’s business partner and CTO of ENCOM Ajay Singh (Hasan Minhaj, "It Ends With Us") only necessary as her stand-in at an ill-fated video game convention. It is unclear how the daughter of the original "Tron's" villain and mother of Julian has become the conscience of Dillinger Industries.
One also wonders why a high tech soldier would be designed to look like Jared Leto with flowing locks, beard and moustache unless the filmmakers are going for a symbolic Jesus figure. The actor interprets AI as wide-eyed, soft spoken and extremely intelligent with an inquisitive nature and droll sense of humor, as opposed to Turner-Smith's sterner, more concentrated performance. Peters plays to the rafters with villainous glee which turns into panic as his mother's warnings all pan out, a mid-credit closing scene promising his return. Greta Lee gives a fully fleshed performance as a woman whose grief helps her find her path in life. Bridges, recalling his Lebowski as a kind of senior guru (or God the Father?), is warmly amused upon meeting an AI within his grid.
"Tron: Ares" may not dig too deeply into its science fiction concepts, but it is a solid entertainment jazzed up with stunning visuals perfectly accompanied by an outstanding NIN score.
Disney releases "Tron: Ares" in theaters on 10/10/25.
