Tron: Ares (3 1/2 stars out of 4)
Our modern culture may finally be catching up to the Tron franchise.
When the first film arrived in 1982, computers were a comparatively new thing for the general public, and the idea of personifying programs and other elements of the digital world was largely abstract for most moviegoers. But 43 years and two films later, the idea of an artificial intelligence taking human form feels completely natural in a world where Alexa and Siri are more than potential baby names.
This was one of the thoughts that crossed my mind while processing Joachim Rønning’s “Tron: Ares,” the latest installment in a franchise that has now stretched over four decades. As with the previous films, the central conceit is the juxtaposition of our natural world with The Grid, a kind of virtual reality within the digital realm where bits of data take on physical form. But where the original “Tron” and its 2010 follow-up, “Tron: Legacy” mainly played out inside The Grid, “Ares” takes the next step by bringing the elements of The Grid into our reality.
The plot mostly follows the conflict between two tech companies. Encom is the “good guy” company, founded by Jeff Bridges’ Flynn character in the first film and now run by a whiz kid named Eve Kim (Greta Lee). The “bad guy” company, Dillinger, is run by its founder’s grandson Julian (Evan Peters), under the watchful eye of his mother Elisabeth (Gillian Anderson).
Each company has access to The Grid, and each is pursuing the same thing, albeit for different purposes. Technology has finally advanced to where they can translate digital elements into physical form in the real world, but there’s a catch: the creations only last 29 minutes. “Ares” shows us this predicament when Julian is able to create a tank and what appears to be a human being out of thin air, only to see them disintegrate moments after the demonstration ends. Until the elusive “permanence” code can be found, the promise of limitless food sources or, in Dillinger’s case, instant military supplies, will remain unfulfilled.
The humanoid from that demonstration, named Ares (Jared Leto), is a kind of super-soldier created to protect The Grid, and for anyone willing to pony up the dough, he can handle a company’s real-world dirty work, too. When Ares disintegrates in our world, he is reborn in The Grid, and Julian’s indifference to this painful Groundhog Day existence awakens a very human instinct for self-preservation. What comes next is a lot easier to follow on the screen than explain in words, but it makes for an entertaining film.
In its intended IMAX format, “Tron:Ares” is pretty much two solid hours of eye candy, marking a strong VF effects upgrade from its predecessors, and swapping out the last film’s Daft Punk soundtrack for a booming score driven by Trent Reznor, aka Nine Inch Nails. The integration of the Grid visual aesthetic into our world is pretty seamless, and fans will be excited to see familiar elements like Light Cycles flying through the streets of San Francisco.
The plot has its obligatory holes, characters like Julian can feel a little two-dimensional, and “Ares” raises more relevant philosophical questions than it can really resolve, but it all works well enough in service of the spectacle. Compared to Bridges, Leto may feel like a step down in terms of lead actor charisma, but his performance feels accurately tuned as an artificial intelligence trying to reconcile its introduction into the real world.
For most moviegoers, “Ares” should deliver plenty of excitement while never quite leaving them too confused, especially when seen in IMAX format. Fans will be more fickle, especially after the 15-year wait since the last installment, but anyone longing for the old days might still enjoy a nostalgic third-act plot turn that won’t be described here.
Speaking of nostalgia, I had something else on my mind while watching “Ares.” In November of 2010, “Tron: Legacy” marked my first official film review for the Deseret News, and my own first step into the insulated Grid-like world of film criticism. My efforts have taken a step back in recent years, but fifteen years later it still felt poignant to return to the same Jordan Commons IMAX theater and spend a couple of hours in The Grid.