Certainly 1982’s Tron from director Steven Lisberger was a groundbreaking piece of cinematic CGI wizardry, but for some reason it took 28 years for a sequel, 2010’s Tron: Legacy, a father-son story that marked Joseph Kosinski’s feature film directorial debut in a career that has since hit the heights of Top Gun: Maverick and F1. Neither has returned to the directing job but do take on producing credits for the franchise reboot Tron: Ares, which attempts to again capture magic in a hard drive. This time around it is Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Rønning running the keyboard, and he is no stranger to taking on Disney sequels like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.
Mining this gamer’s delight is more of a challenge in an era where technology and artificial intelligence are several steps ahead of Hollywood. At the press preview, a young, early-20ish man sitting nearby asked me, “Pardon, but can you tell me what this film is about? I have no idea.” Really? I had to explain to him the concept for the movie. He had never heard of Tron, the Grid, none of it. I wanted to tell him I still often wear my beloved Tron: Legacy T-shirt, but it was futile. So how do you make this 43-year-old franchise relevant for that generation? The answer here is similar to what others have done in taking the concept back down to Earth (ala such chestnuts as Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Escape From the Planet of the Apes). Fish-out-of-water ideas usually work, and this one is that where dedicated digital Program, Ares (Jared Leto), is sent out of the Grid and into the real world on a tricky mission to retrieve a much desired code for “permanence,” which was originally designed by legendary Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges returns briefly in the role for a nice nostalgic moment), who got sucked into his own digital world but whose legacy lives on.
The target of the mission is Encom CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee), who is desperate to take AI to the next level and find that permanence code that will make digital creations like Ares exist for more than just a few minutes before imploding. Hot on her trail in order to get this code is Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), whose grandfather Ed Dillinger was the key villain of the original Tron. Against his mother’s (Gillian Anderson) warnings that it is too risky, Julian attempts to hack into Encom and send Ares directly to destroy Eve and get the prize. What he wasn’t counting on is the fact that Ares discovers that humanity isn’t as bad as it is cracked up to be, and his close encounters with the human kind actually start to transform him even as he hooks up with Eve and against those who would do her wrong including his close associate, Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith), who is just following orders.
As you might expect, this third cinematic iteration of Tron is full of dazzling effects laced with frenetic action and chases. The idea behind it is what was most intriguing, that being the budding real-world relationship between AI and human beings. Can it possibly work? What does it mean for mankind?
These are questions we deal with almost daily now as the future has already arrived. Jesse Wigutow’s serviceable script misses quite a few opportunities though to really dig into these issues, settling too often for just another action set-piece. Nothing wrong with that, and it is entertaining enough on its own dazzling techno level, but you have to wonder what a Stanley Kubrick might have done with this setup and given it the real urgency and gravitas, maybe even insight, that this Tron is missing. Leto however does a good job making himself believable as a digital wonder. And with all the current upset over the emergence of AI actress Tilly Norwood threatening to replace human performers, it seems only fair that an Oscar-winning actor should get to turn the tables.
Lee, one step away from risking typecasting as a corporate CEO (check her out running UBN on The Morning Show), is totally game in the role of would-be savior of Enrom. Peters knows how to play the bad guy as we see him slowly morph into a greedy son of a bitch who wants it all for himself, no matter the consequences. The rest of the cast does what they need to do including Hasan Minjah as Eve’s comic-relief sidekick Ajay.
Producers are Sean Bailey, Leto, Emma Ludbrook, Jeffrey Silver, Justin Springer and Lisberger.
Title: Tron: Ares
Distributor: Disney
Release date: October 10, 2025
Director: Joachim Rønning
Screenwriter: Jesse Wigutow
Cast: Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, Cameron Monaghan, Gillian Anderson, Jeff Bridges
Rating: PG-13
Running time: 1 hr 59 mins
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