Review: ‘Tron Ares’ Is Okay, and That’s a Problem

AI is here to stay. That’s what every tech bro and their shill goons keep telling us. We just have to suck up the massive environmental damage, job losses, and enshittification of culture because Mark Zuckerberg needs to churn out uncanny images of shrimp Jesus and spread fake news about Gaza. This makes the arrival of Tron: Ares into our cinemas either the best or worst timing possible. Maybe we need a great blockbuster about the blinding lights and darker side of artificial intelligence, and why not latch it onto the side of an IP that Disney has spent decades trying to will into existence? The ChatGPT prompt writes itself. And the result, perhaps fittingly for a story about AI, is just okay.

It’s the modern day. Two warring tech companies fight to rule the future. There’s Dillinger Corp, the evil one run by a smarmy nepo baby (Evan Peters), and Encom, the creation of the legendary Flynn, now run by Eve Kim (Greta Lee), who wishes to continue her late sister’s benevolent legacy. Both seek the permanence code, a means to make AI creations tangible in the real world for longer than their currently brief lifespan of 29 minutes. Dillinger will play dirty to get it, and his foot soldier in this battle is Ares (Jared Leto), the most advanced AI creation ever built. But guess who’s developing feelings and wants to be part of our world instead? Cue the light show.

Tron is a series that has always worked better as a concept than a fully fleshed-out creation. The original film had state-of-the-art visuals, a brilliant Wendy Carlos synth score, and some tidbits of inspiration regarding the ‘80s and its developing technology. Tron: Legacy looked gorgeous, had a Daft Punk soundtrack, and Michael Sheen hamming it up, but its ideas never gelled, and poor Olivia Wilde was saddled with one of the most thankless and misogynistic roles of the decade. You can see what Disney wants from this distinctive-looking trilogy, which aims to make the future look as futuristic as sci-fi has dreamed it could be. But dang, how are we three films in, and all we know what to do with these foundations is make them look pretty?

And make no mistake, Tron: Ares does look gorgeous. More of it is spent in our world than that of the grid where we live out our cyberpunk fantasies, but the light-cycles speeding through crowded streets are intriguing. We get lots of laser fights, exploding pixels, and glowing discuses. You know, Tron shit. Is it much different from Tron: Legacy? Well, this one is mostly red rather than blue. You see, red is the colour of the bad guys.

Greta Lee is a bona fide star who makes Eve feel like a real person because she’s so charismatic and refuses to phone it in, but a dead sister and vague aspirations for good deeds are not much of a motivation. None of these characters feels real, whether it’s Gillian Anderson as the soft-spoken bitchy mother of our bad guy or Arturo Castro as Eve’s annoying comedic sidekick friend. There’s not much differentiating the “real” people from the programs. I suppose that benefits Jared Leto, who isn’t so much phoning it in as scheduling an email response to everyone else. The only way you can tell that Ares has started to develop human emotions is that he starts talking about how much he likes Depeche Mode.

(Save me, Greta Lee. Image via YouTube // Disney.)

Ah yes, I suppose we need to talk about Leto. Actor, singer, possible cult leader, and accused sex criminal: Leto just won’t go away despite the forces of the universe trying to push him out of the way. Yes, he’s an Oscar winner (for a performance that has not aged well), but when was the last time he put in the work? I know some people love him in House of Gucci ,but I thought he seriously misjudged the tone with his clownery. He has a long string of critical and commercial flops to his name. Even his music is flopping. You’d think that the industry would have dropped him years ago, but now that we have a very detailed report of multiple accusations of sexual misconduct made against him, what is the excuse? Who is rooting for him? Jordan Catalano is dead, guys.

At the heart of this movie is a battle between AI conglomerates. One is evil because they sell to arms dealers, and the other is good because they want to feed starving kids. Sure, the choice is clear, but I also live in a world where the latter doesn’t exist and that kept creeping into my mind. It’s almost shocking how little Tron: Ares has to say about its own concept. Don’t play God? Human emotions matter? Be responsible with your ridiculous powers because computers might get feelings? Didn’t we already cover most of this in other Tron films? Or really any movie about AI? Maybe it was too much to expect from Disney to really delve into something with heft, but I don’t think it’s all that outlandish to hope for a reason to care about your $180 million movie.

And the numbers show that people didn’t seem to care about Tron: Ares. This feels like a film flung out of time and intended for an older audience who didn’t even turn up for the other two movies. The most interesting scene comes when Ares meets with Flynn in the original Tron grid, which is a throwback to ‘80s video game tech. It looks great and offers a visual difference from everything else, but it also drives home the big issue with this entire movie. It’s stuck in the ‘80s, cracking Depeche Mode jokes and reminiscing about the classics, all hoping that new generations will be this hopelessly nostalgic for something so thematically flimsy. If you’re going to make a 2025 film about modern technology’s appeals and foibles, make it about modern technology. And not Jared Leto.

But hey, the Nine Inch Nails score is great.

Tron: Ares is in cinemas now.