Too often TRON ARES feels like it’s apeing other sci-fi franchises while setting up a sequel that doesn’t look all that interesting
There’s something to be said about the legacy of Steven Lisberger’s original 1982 TRON – a marvel at the time utilizing computer generated effects while channeling German expressionism by way of Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS. The film was a marvel of its time and its influence was felt in some of sci-fi’s most influential films like THE MATRIX while its visual palette and influence touches on all forms of culture even today. It’s 2010 sequel TRON LEGACY still holds up and continued that tradition of being influential and groundbreaking in terms of its music – a score by Daft Punk that rivals some of the best film scores in genre film and the film was one of the first to tackle the now common practice of de-aging stars through visual effects.
When a sequel was announced with Nine Inch Nails leading the buzz as doing the score people were very buzzed and excited. Maybe less so when problematic star Jared Leto was announced. But one of the odd things was as the film got close to its release we still didn’t know much about it – TRON ARES doesn’t really feature TRON at all and it largely features an oddly convoluted plot that mainly ignores TRON LEGACY and introduces a very game Greta Lee as the new scion of the legacy of Jeff Bridges’ ENCOM pitted against the grandson of David Warner’s Ed Dillinger from the original film, here played by Evan Peters of American Horror Story fame.
The fact that this sounds more like SUCCESSION than Tron is one of the film’s odd missteps, one of many in a film that more closely resembles a mix of Short Circuit or T2 by way of FREE GUY than TRON. Leto plays ARES a master control program created by Peter’s’ Dillinger who has his own Grid where he is the Master Control Program his grandfather was in the original film. This level of corporate theft is hand waved as are the 3D Printers he has that can create life, weapons, things that defy the laws of physics – but only for 29 minutes. At some point, Dillinger and Lee’s Even were partners as info dumped in the film’s credits know Eve is looking for a piece of code that can make these constructs real; even though ENCOM seems to have no financial stake in this like Dillinger has.
This is the larger issue in the film’s credits thy character’s do things to serve the plot and the characterization is largely scenes of them whispering lines from Shelley’s Frankenstein set to music by NIN. Leto’s Ares is largely Frankensteined from Roy Batty, RoboCop and the T2 Terminatir by way of Johnny 5 – he’s amoral until the plot needs him to be TRON and then we are supposed to empathize with him because his boss yelled at him for thinking rain was cool and having feelings about Depeche Mode. It’s not much – and that’s what we get.
The film’s best scenes involve Jeff Bridges’ Kevin Flynn in a recreation of the aesthetic of 82’s TRON – it’s left nebulous if he’s even the Flynn we saw in Tron Legacy – he’s whatever the James Halliday in the Oasis was – a ghost, a projection – take your pick because the film actively avoids answering that question – but it’s a scenario that begs why wasn’t this the film and not a Terminator coded version of Pixels.
The Grid may never know.