Tripwire Reviews Tron: Ares

Game Over?

Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows takes a look at Tron: Ares, in cinemas in the UK and US now…

Tron: Ares
Director: Joachim Rønning
Stars: Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Hasan Minaj, Jodie Turner-Smith with Gillian Anderson and Jeff Bridges

The original Tron came out forty-three years ago while its follow-up Tron: Legacy is now 15 years old. So is the world crying out for a second sequel to a film that still has a cult following but the gap has been so huge now?

Jeff Bridges (Kevin Flynn), the father of Sam has been trapped in the Grid since the previous film so ENCOM is now run by Eve Kim (Greta Lee), the current chief executive officer searching for Kevin’s permanence code. At the same time, Julian Dillinger, head of Dillinger Systems, has just introduced Ares, a Master Control Program (MCP), played by Leto, who has achieved sentience and wants to escape into the real world. Bridges as Kevin Flynn has a fairly small cameo here, looking a little like the Dude if he was the actor’s actual age now.

The first Tron still has a kind of 1980s charm, the sequel tried to do something different and visually Tron: Ares is an impressive piece of work. But in a world where computers are such a dominant force anyway in 2025, with things like AI cutting swathes through creative industries, where is the novelty in such a subject? We are living in a world where technology has holds sway in most sectors of society.

Lee is perfectly serviceable but fairly generic and cookie cutter as ENCOM’s current CEO and Leto does bring a certain amount of heft to his role as the computer programme who wants to break the bounds of his digital existence but it’s all very muddled and very poorly written. Director Rønning is competent and dull, lacking any real directorial style or panache.

Hollywood never knows when to leave things alone but there really is no reason for this film to exist. It does leave things open for another sequel but having sat through two hours of this misconceived mess, you have to hope that maybe they will end it here.

Tron: Ares is out in UK and US cinemas now.

Here’s the film’s trailer

Disney Unveils New Promo From Tron: Ares