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Underrated and underpromoted perfectly sums up Disney’s latest sci-fi action film that takes us once again inside the digital Grid, “Tron: Ares.” Continuing the popular franchise’s legacy of releasing sequels over a decade apart, “Tron: Ares” finally followed up on its 2010 predecessor “Tron: Legacy” on Oct. 10.
The film stars Jared Leto as Ares, a highly sophisticated program powered by AI. From his Oscar-winning performance as HIV-positive trans woman Rayon in “Dallas Buyers Club” to starring in DC’s “Suicide Squad” and Marvel’s “Morbius,” Leto continues to surprise fans with his range of acting. Greta Lee, whose breakthrough role was her Golden Globe-nominated performance in “Past Lives,” plays human protagonist Eve Kim. The supporting cast — including Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Cameron Monaghan — add both star power and emotional depth.
Disney’s original “Tron” (1982), as one of the studio’s first science fiction films, was revolutionary for its time — and “Tron: Ares” succeeds in honoring that legacy. Set in a world where AI is weaponized to create expendable digital soldiers, the latest film explores the dangers of human ambition and technological control. A standalone soft sequel to “Tron: Legacy” (2010), it does not directly rely on the plot of previous movies and is thus sure to be enjoyable for both longtime fans and newcomers to the Grid.
The film retains the core “Tron” elements (the digital Grid, programs gaining autonomy, the iconic light bikes) while introducing new characters and conflicts (Ares, the Permanence Code, corporate rivalry). It ties back to the previous movies through continuing character Kevin Flynn’s legacy (including a highly anticipated cameo from his original actor, Jeff Bridges) and portraying the current state of ENCOM and the Grid, but intentionally avoids being shackled to earlier plot threads, allowing the story to expand.
The movie opens with antagonist Julian Dillinger (played by Evan Peters), CEO of tech company Dillinger Systems and descendant of Ed Dillinger (the antagonist of the first ‘Tron’ film), pitching the idea of “100% expendable” and cost-effective AI soldiers to a crowd of curious investors. He conveniently omits a fatal flaw: His soldiers have a lifespan of only 29 minutes. Before his deception is brought to light, he intends to solve this problem by finding the “Permanence Code” created by revolutionary computer programmer Kevin Flynn, the protagonist of the original film. As it turns out, he is not the only one searching for the code. His corporate rival and ENCOM CEO Eve Kim already has it in her hands. The rest of the story follows Julian’s efforts to utilise his digital soldiers to retrieve the code. But there is one issue: It seems as if Ares, his Master Control Program, is slowly gaining autonomy and self-awareness — threatening to impede his grand scheme.
Directed by Joachim Rønning, who also worked on “Maleficent” and “Pirates of the Caribbean,” the movie boasts high quality CGI and thrilling action scenes. Its red-and-black neon palette and fluid CGI create a sleek, immersive cyberpunk aesthetic. Screenwriter Jesse Wigutow adds another dimension of engagement through his deep and thoughtful dialogues sprinkled with a few well-timed jokes.
The music is entirely electronic, written and recorded by popular American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. This is a successful continuation of the last film’s collaboration with (now disbanded) electronic music duo Daft Punk. The main theme, while complementing the futuristic elements of the film, is also nicely contrasted with diegetic retro music played by the characters.
Additionally, the scene-building is well thought-out. Instead of including a cliche flashback scene, the film utilizes other easy to indirectly build on the characters’ backstories. This is most noticeable when Ares scans through all of Eve’s data, displaying short videos of her past.
That said, “Tron: Ares” isn’t without its flaws. The nearly two-hour film often draws out its action scenes for too long, leaving them mere spectacles of Disney’s mastery over special effects, rather than actual progressions of the storyline. That screentime would be far better utilized in spending more time on each character’s backstory or tying the plot elements back to the original film.
These flaws are, however, outweighed by how surprisingly enjoyable the film is as a whole. What truly sets “Tron: Ares” apart from other films on AI is that it doesn’t fearmonger viewers about the recent wave of AI. Instead of carelessly sacrificing life, Ares risks his own mission to avoid unnecessary human casualties. The story humanizes the digital, tracing Ares’s transformation from obedient tool to self-aware moral agent.
“Tron: Ares” does a great job at proposing that technology, as long as it’s in good hands, has massive potential to improve lives. We might even be inclined to agree with Julian when he says, “The question is not whether the car should be built, but who holds its keys.”
