Following Sam Flynn’s departure and decades after Kevin Flynn’s disappearance, Encom is now under the leadership of Eve Kim, a determined CEO pushing the boundaries between the digital and physical worlds. Her goal: to give life to inorganic matter, digital constructs. When illness sidelines Tess’s sister, Eve Kim steps in to continue her sister's research, determined to see it through. Across the city, a rival company, Dillinger Systems, led by Julian Dillinger — the grandson of a former Encom head, Ed Dillinger — is chasing the same breakthrough, but with a far more dangerous vision. His focus is on weaponising the digital constructs to create a new generation of digital soldiers for profit and power. As both sides compete to achieve the impossible, an advanced AI known as Ares begins to seek a life beyond his programming. But with Enforcers closing in and corporate motives spiralling out of control, the race to bring inorganic matter to life threatens to blur the line between creation and domination.
The bottom line is, the film is decent and enjoyable, Jared Leto is really good as Ares, but as I said before, the story spends more time setting up the future of the franchise because the film has many questions it does not answer. The scope, lore, and world of Tron (the film) could go a lot further and be more expansive. I will give an example. There used to be an animated show called 'Reboot', where the User (the person who would insert a game to play for their own enjoyment - ie, anyone who plays computer games/video games) would insert a game into the system, and the system would play the game to beat the user. The system was a computer world filled with 1s and 0s, a living, breathing world and many different characters; Hexadecimal, Megabyte and others. For some reason or another, whilst brother and sister, Megabyte and Hexidecimal would always try to corrupt and overthrow/rule the system, as well as battle each other. However, a security programme, a guardian within the system named Bob, would join the games and often try and help the user to win the games, but mostly, try to stop Hexidecimal and Megabyte from corrupting the system. There were likely other villains or other programmes like Hack and Slash as other computer programming that were different to the 1s and 0s, but Hexadecimal and Megabyte are the two I remember clearly. Bob is clearly based on Tron, the character within the Tron movies, and Clu is equivalent to either Hexidecimal, Megabyte or any other villain, so with all that said, whilst Tron: Legacy began opening up the world of Tron and the various different characters within the system, Tron: Ares does not expand on this at all. Tron does nothing to expand the world within the grid, and with Ares being as capable as he is, it made me question the whereabouts of other characters or why there were not any other characters within the system. I could see a world where there are different factions within the grid, lost tribes, factions or religous zealots etc, living within the system and something happens that ends up being 'Battle of the Five Armies', something where there is a fight for the control of the Grid (ok, as I type that, it is starting to sound expensive due to everything in the Grid and special effects money), but the Grid does not need to look like how it did in Tron: Legacy, maybe it could look like the real world with accents that inform the viewer that it is a game world, such as imagery, design or something. Think the movie 'Free Guy' or something. All this AI becoming self-aware and wanting to come into the real world could come later within the franchise when maybe the collapse of the Grid occurs due to ongoing wars within the system and manipulation in the real world via some competitor like Dillinger Systems. This was touched on at the beginning of the movie, but the film is lacking depth, and I feel a lot of Disney films are doing this of late.
The special effects are superb! It is a Tron film, so if I am honest, this is what you are paying your big money for, to see something on the screen that looks really cool. The Recogniser, the light cycles, and just like Tron: Legacy, the film introduces a few more vehicles that look very cool, especially in the real world. Some new vehicles and some old school favourites, but Tron will always provide something so cool you wish it was available in real life. Along with the vehicle shots, the visuals were top-notch from the fight scenes to the birdseye view when the light cycles race through the city, leaving light trails; it was great. I am not 100% sure how they work, but they were cool in the 80s, they were cool in Tron: Legacy, and they are still cool now. Even when the computer characters die, it looked amazing, and they have one-upped from the previous movie, although it does look very painful.
As I stated before, the acting by Jared Leto was really good. Whilst I heard he was great, I am not sure I would put great in there, but I had no issues with the portrayal of his character and in some instances, he was very funny. He was able to deliver some funny lines in only the way a self learning AI construct could, as it learns and adapts quickly to everything around it. The supporting cast, whilst not many, were also good, nothing spectacular, as they did what they were scripted to do or asked of them with no real standouts. Actors like Evan Peters as Julian Dillinger and Gillian Anderson as his mother could have been given a lot more to do, more lines, motivations or something, but unfortunately, how they were written was only to serve the plot, which is ok at best, because the storyline is fairly flimsy. Jodie Turner-Smith gave me T1000 vibes in a cool, sleek and sexy way. And I am not saying that because, as an person in real life, she is sleek and sexy (because she is), but ever since Tron: Legacy, everything was sleek, stylish and sexy, and this film continues that and Jodie was simply excellent in her role being the "Clu" of the third film, determined and relentless and I will just leave it at that for now. Greta Lee as Eve Kim was good in the role as well. I understood her pursuit and the reasons as to why she was doing what she was doing, and I could even see where she may go in the future with her thoughts or inorganic life and digital constructs, whilst she battled for her life over life. Her business partner, Hasan Minhaj as Ajay Singh, provided some laughs and brought some added levity to the movie, which also made the film entertaining. Lastly, seeing Jeff Bridges was great, and he served a small purpose in the movie, but I think I needed some of his background and his existence explained.
And to save the best till last, the music is superb! It is a Tron film, so if I am honest, like the special effects, this is what you are paying your big money for, to see something cool, enjoy a simple to ok storyline, but vibe with the music and bop your head from the beginning of the movie until the very end. The music is from Nine Inch Nails, and the music was a GREAT vibe, and unfortunately stands out more than the movie does.
Upon reflection, the Tron movies never really made ALL THE MONEY. The original movie was made for 17 million, and it made 50 million. Tron: Legacy was made for 170 million, and it made 409.9 million. These are making a profit, albeit, not something to write home about, but still a profit nonetheless. Tron: Ares was made for 180-220 million, and so far it has only made 106.4 million, so in industry standards, this is a flop (so far). I do not anticipate this movie making double what it has made thus far, because nobody is really watching it, and that could be due to a variety of reasons. But what I will reiterate, if you have a problem with Jared Leto, fine, but this film is really entertaining and he is good in it too, but with a flimsy storyline, missing characters and the focus on extending the franchise, especially with the end credits scene, this is still an enjoyable movie and I am curious as to where they were looking to go next. I would like them to dip their toe back into this franchise, but they really need to do more going forward, because retrospectively, watching this film made the second film a little better in comparison, as it elevates the world of the grid. Seeing the Grid in this movie is breathtaking, so why not see more of it and more characters and lore built in? Definitely go and watch it because it is really enjoyable.
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