‘Tron: Ares’ Review: A Sensory Sledgehammer of Hollowness
Tron: Ares inspires perplexing feelings. Everything about the movie should work, and sometimes it really tries to dazzle the viewer. Yet, the entire experience feels like a Walmart putting out Christmas items and music in October. The music is undeniable, and the visuals are pretty, but the Wally World employees make some clear, baffling decisions.
The new sequel aims to push the franchise into the real world, where The Grid leaks into present-day reality. The concept is a neat idea that is ripe with potential and sometimes delivers a visual feast. However, it lacks inspiration to do anything interesting with the ramifications of The Grid interacting with real-world reality components. The experience sometimes feel lifeless, especially with the AI characters that inhabit Flynn’s world.
What is Tron: Ares about?
Directed by Joachim Rønning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) and written by Jesse Wigutow (Daredevil: Born Again), the film begins with the introduction of Ares (Jared Leto), the new AI “Master Controller” of The Grid, created by the son of Ed Dillinger, Julian (Evan Peters).
As an AI tool, Ares is a servant to Julian and has the capability of entering the real world through a laser. This allows him to operate in the physical dimension for 29 minutes. Julian hopes to sell AI soldiers like Ares to the military but is unable to push a deal forward without a “permanence code” to allow the AI creations to exist beyond the 29-minute barrier.
The movie then introduces the secondary core character of the film, Eve Kim (played by the excellent Greta Lee). Lee might be one of the few aspects that give Tron: Ares a pulse. Eve is the savior of Encom, which almost fell into financial ruin. She hopes to continue her sister’s research (who died of cancer) by finding the “permanence code” herself.
After making a breakthrough, Julian senses that Eve might have made progress and instructs his AI attack dog, Ares, to find Eve. The only issue is that Ares is evolving and finds a newfound sense of empathy while learning about Eve. Conflicts and tension begin to rise between Julian and Ares, and an alternate AI threat, Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith), can smell Ares’s “malfunction.” A fight escalates as Julian uses the laser to manifest more and more weaponry from The Grid, including light cycles, light fighters, and recognizers.
Pristine sensory work by Nine Inch Nails and the VFX team
Admittedly, I have a weakness for the visual splendor of the universe. There are sequences in Tron: Ares that almost compel one to defend it, much like Speed Racer. One sequence, in particular, features a chase that beautifully escalates as the pulse-pounding score intensifies, culminating in a magnificent crescendo with Reznor’s vocals. The Grid is vibrant as the world behind Ares and Eve explodes in eye-popping delight, as the audio reaches a new height in the sequence. And it’s in this moment that I thought I was about to play the contrarian against the wave of negativity surrounding Tron: Ares.
The fact of the matter is, Tron: Ares is a visually dazzling experience backed by an amazing soundtrack. And for some viewers, the eye-popping visuals and sensory assault might be enough to justify buying a ticket. It’s easy to overlook one-dimensional character and story work as a casual viewer when Trent Reznor is delivering some of his best work in one of the most visually impressive universes in modern cinema.
But for a movie that presents an intriguing premise of The Grid storming the gates of reality, it lacks the inspiration to have fun with that idea. The result is similar to the promise of dinosaurs blending with society in Jurassic World: Dominion.
Jesse Wigutow’s script is paper-thin on character and inspiration
Once the battle begins to consume the real world, it becomes evident that the reasons Tron: Ares was greenlit might be for the same reasons Westworld season 3 abandoned the park. And that reason might be a financial one. The cost of producing Westworld decreased when they were no longer required to create numerous production sets for a western theme park. Thus, it allows the creators to film on location instead of manufacturing ones out of thin air. Tron: Ares feels similar to the blending of realities, which lacks purpose or ideas.
There’s never a moment in the mix when one can pinpoint the genesis of making the crossover happen. For example, when the light cycles are running around the city, cutting cars in half, we aren’t allowed a moment to know what normal people think about it. We’re never offered the Sam Raimi Spider-Man moments of seeing what an average person in the city feels about the event, making the real world feel just as artificial as The Grid.
Moreover, the character work is paper-thin in design. Ares is an atypical AI who learns empathy through human interaction. There is nothing distinct about his motivation that we have not seen from Terminator 2 and beyond.
Evan Peters as Julian Dillinger is cartoonish in both performance and conception. He feels like a villain made for a more campy B-movie, which conflicts with the rest of the film tonally. As a character, Julian lacks a reason for the audience to understand or sympathize with his corporate evilness. He wants to control everything, which, in terms of the current billionaire climate, is realistic; however, in the film, his lust for control is devoid of nuance. The only part that viewers might relate to is how much Elisabeth Dillinger (Gillian Anderson), Julian’s mother, finds him tiring.
And this is why the film is likely to cause division. The movie will get two main reactions: a) those who are completely captivated by the stunning visual effects and earth-pounding soundtrack, and b) those who see all the core elements as hollow, like a non playable character.
Ultimately, Tron: Ares wastes much of its potential and might make some haters of Tron: Legacy rethink how good they had it in 2010. But it sure is pretty.
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