Tron: Ares is like a hot Vegas hooker*: she looks sexy, she’s loud in certain situations, but she doesn’t care about you. This third Tron movie looks incredible, has an absolutely cranking score, and is emotionally distant. And yet—it is worth seeing on the big screen.
Entertaining and suspenseful for a large portion of its runtime, Tron: Ares operates on a basic script—what if a digital AI dude was resurrected in the real world in the form of Jared Leto?—and buzzes to a Nine Inch Nails soundtrack that even had my 72-year-old mom bouncing in her seat. The music rocks and, combined with stellar and colorful visual effects, makes Tron: Ares what it is: a flashy action spectacle that is better than it has any right to be.
When director Joachim Rønning (who made the excellent Kon-Tiki but also the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean) dives into the Tron world of digital cities and human-looking programs, NIN doing their thing, this movie pulses. Multiple high-grade chase scenes are the highlights, with one set in Tron-world waterways (best not ask too many questions), the other in which the colorful Tron motorcycles are unleashed in a real-world city. The climax, while predictable, is fun, too.
Tron: Ares strains when it attempts to do more than be a visually stunning, music-fueled action piece, however. Jared Leto, real-life controversies aside, makes for a fine AI autobot, but when screenwriter Jesse Wigutow starts to try to turn him into a three-dimensional character, he flounders. In fact, all efforts to get a little deeper fail to load; while Greta Lee (Past Lives) holds her own as the lead protagonist, the backstory involving her deceased sister not only falls flat but causes the entire movie to glitch. While many action movies benefit from taking a pause here and there, Rønning would have been best suited letting Tron: Ares run at full speed from start to finish–when he slows down to let Leto and Lee chat about their lives (or worse, Leto’s taste in music), it simply gets in the way.
For fans of the original, a return to the “original system” is a nice, amusing touch that offers a way to bring Jeff Bridges back into the fold. It’s harmless, really, but it also feels like a low-stakes side quest that just distracts from what is otherwise a semi-intense (or at least visually absorbing) finale.
Evan Peters deserves credit for his over-the-top villain performance, while Jodie Turner-Smith proves to be a credible force to be reckoned with in the form of Athena.
Tron: Ares is a fun action film that exceeds expectations. It has plenty of flaws, but the visual effects and Nine Inch Nails audible attack make it two hours best experienced in a theater.
*I do not know this from experience.
Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.
