After 10 minutes, most viewers will have figured out exactly where “Tron: Ares” is going; it’s narratively shallow and plays out exactly as you’d expect. Most of the dialogue is also predictable, forcing accomplished actors to give stilted performances as they spout ham-fisted exposition and unfunny jokes. Despite its under-two-hour runtime, the movie feels both too long and not eventful enough.
Yet despite these glaring flaws, there are times when “Ares” rises above its own mediocrity — allowing stylish cinematography and perfectly placed music to produce some genuinely thrilling, at times downright-euphoric moments.
While the film follows the 1982 original “Tron” film and its 2010 sequel “Tron: Legacy,” the cast and story are mostly brand-new. All that carries over is the basic premise: computer programmer and video game developer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) has created the digital world “the Grid,” a neon cyberspace populated by sentient programs and the human beings zapped into it.
The new installment follows rival tech CEOs Eve Kim (Greta Lee) and Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) as they experiment with laser technology that lets them place 3D objects and programs from the Grid in the real world. Eve dreams of using the Grid for good — to create food and revolutionize sustainable agriculture — while the transparently villainous Julian markets it to military buyers, building weaponized vehicles and the perfect “expendable” soldier — a security program named Ares (Jared Leto). However, both CEOs’ plans hit a snag when their digital constructs destabilize, dissolving into dust after 29 minutes in the real world. “Ares” eventually takes the shape of a “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” rehash, and while this works decently as a template, it also highlights its narrative shortcomings in comparison.
Upon exposure to the real world, Ares inevitably begins to question his own programming and alliances. It’s clear from the marketing that the film aspires to comment on AI and its evolving role in the world, but this idea never materializes into anything new or interesting. While Leto is suitably inhuman in his performance as an anthropomorphic program, the character’s internal transformation isn’t adequately developed and mostly falls flat.
The other characters don’t fare much better in their development. Julian is a contemptible villain but too pathetic to ever be truly menacing, and Eve feels like little more than an inoffensive avatar for the audience to follow. While a renowned actress, Greta Lee gives the worst performance in the film, at times sounding like she is simply reading expository lines off of cue cards. Her success in more nuanced dramas fails to translate here in a movie whose shallowly scripted dialogue favors natural charisma over real acting skill.
While I was acutely aware of these shortcomings, I found myself enjoying “Ares” more often than not. Capitalizing on the “Tron” franchise’s inherent cool-factor, director Joachim Rønning makes each light cycle chase and disc-throwing battle look vibrant, dynamic and easy-to-follow. The action thankfully never devolves into the unintelligible CGI chaos that audiences have come to expect from modern blockbusters. Some of the more bravura camera moves — such as a long spinning overhead shot when entering the Grid — evoke the work of masters like Brian De Palma and David Fincher.
Equally important is the brilliant original soundtrack by industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. The pulsing synthwave music injects a palpable energy into the film and brings climactic scenes roaring to life. As two light cycles — the franchise’s signature vehicle — embark on the first chase sequence to a booming needle-drop, the visual and sonic splendor is nothing short of intoxicating.
“Tron: Ares” falls short in just about every narrative department. It’s reasonable to expect a better storyline from a film with a $180M budget, and it’s shaping up to be a financial failure. While that may make it a failure as a movie, perhaps it doesn’t matter here. When the sensory filmmaking on display is this dazzling, it’s easy to forgive and forget a weak plot and paper-thin characters. Simply put, it is best viewed as a feature-length VFX showcase and music video rather than a real film. With these adjusted expectations, “Tron: Ares” excels as a theatrical experience — and the good ultimately outweighs the bad.
