The original Tron did well at the box office, but Disney studio heads wrote it off as a disappointment. The 1982 film’s unique visuals and prescient story about technology allowed it to become a cult classic. Enough interest was generated for Disney to release Tron: Legacy, which featured a massive leap forward in visual effects and a memorable score by electronic duo Daft Punk. The 2010 sequel made $409 million worldwide off a budget of $170 million, enough to greenlight a third installment. The Disney Parks division benefited from the sequel with a Tron Lightcycle coaster opening in Disneyland Shanghai in 2016 and another added to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in 2023. Longtime visitors of Disneyland might remember the theme park attempting to jazz up the sluggish Peoplemover with a Tron section.
A couple things happened to derail the follow-up to Tron: Legacy. First was the failure of Brad Bird’s expensive Tomorrowland picture and second was the purchase of Marvel Comics and LucasFilm. Ultimately, the House of Mouse decided to allocate money to the seemingly safer fare in the Avengers and Star Wars.
Now, it’s 2025, AI is on everyone’s mind, and Tron: Ares finally hits theaters. Fans hoping for this third film would directly continue the story from Tron: Legacy may be disappointed. None of the principal actors have returned with Jeff Bridges as the only actor to reprise his role in all three movies.
Tron: Ares begins with an info dump to catch us up to speed. Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) has retreated from the public eye and handed control of his father’s company ENCOM to sisters Eve and Tess Kim (Greta Lee and Selene Yun), the latter of whom eventually dies of cancer. Eve’s main rival is Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), CEO of Dillinger Systems and grandson of Ed Dillinger (John Warner), the villain of the original Tron. At his side, Julian has his mother Elisabeth (Gillian Anderson) as his majordomo. No mention as to whether or not Cillian Murphy’s briefly seen Ed Dillinger Jr. from Tron: Legacy is the father. Both companies possess the technology to essentially 3D print anything from the digital realm into the real world with advanced lasers. Eve wants to feed the hungry and cure diseases while Julian naturally sees the military potential of spawning and re-spawning digital super soldiers. Unfortunately, nothing brought into our world survives longer than 29 minutes before it disintegrates into dust. The only thing that can prevent this deresolution is a file created by Kevin Flynn called the Permanence Code.
To get his hands on the Code, Julian has created a new Master Control Program, dubbed Ares (Jared Leto), to hack into ENCOM’s grid, then chase down Eve through the streets of Downtown Vancouver. Ares turns against his user when ordered to kill Eve and extract the Code from her memories.
With Joseph Kosinski not returning, Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Ronning steps into the director’s chair. Ronning is no rookie when it comes to big budget spectacle as he helmed Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, both Disney productions to boot. Tron: Ares is a feast of eye candy with the visual effects looking even better in IMAX and IMAX Digital. You can thank Ronning and Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Jeff Chenoweth (Fight Club, The Social Network), along with writers David DiGilio (The Terminal List) and Jesse Wigutow (Daredevil: Born Again). They give you exactly what you want from a Tron film, including acrobatic disk battles and lightcycle chases. Tron: Ares takes the action to the next level with a lightski chase through a river on the digital grid. There’s also a climactic dogfight between fighter jets and a Recognizer brought to the real world and backed up by two gliders leaving a tangled stream of light ribbons behind them. Ronning feeds the audience a slice of fan service when Ares is uploaded to Flynn’s old Apple III and winds up on the old school 80’s grid. He rides the original lightcycles that can only make 90 degree turns and even meets Bit.
Chenoweth isn’t the only Fincher collaborator with Nine Inch Nails providing the score. NIN brings a harder edge to the proceedings, but their music isn’t as memorable as Daft Punk’s.
While the special effects shine, the story falls flat. The plot is basically one long hunt for a MacGuffin with a litany of one-dimensional characters. The plucky heroine, the conflicted warrior, the unhinged villain, and the comedy sidekicks. All scratched off the checklist. Greta Lee is a strong enough actress to give us a protagonist to root for even though she spends most of her movie running away. Evan Peters deftly oozes smarminess as the douchebag tech CEO and he matches well with the underutilized Gillian Anderson. Then, there’s the polarizing Jared Leto.as the most unlikely casting choice for the lead hero. Leto’s previous steps into genre films were his polarizing performance as the Joker in Suicide Squad and the instantly forgettable Morbius whose only noteworthy accomplishment was a silly meme. Leto takes playing a computer program to heart, coming off robotic with an understated deadpan sense of humor. And it actually works. Honestly, the real star of the movie is Jodie Turner-Smith as the ruthless Artemis. When Ares turns to the side of good, it’s Artemis who steps up as the primary antagonist. Jeff Bridges makes a brief appearance and provides the type of hippie sage advice we’ve come to expect.
Tron: Ares is a visual thrill ride, but it’s all style over substance. Nothing about the story makes it feel like this third movie was necessary. However, if you can switch your brain off for about two hours and not question how any of this tech works, you may have a fleeting moment of fun.
Film Rating: 6/10
