Despite A Sort Of Weak Story, “Tron: Ares” Really Delivers With the Visuals and Action

The “Tron” series is a sci-fi franchise created by Steven Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The series started in 1982 with the movie “Tron” and later spawned a 2010 sequel “Tron: Legacy.” The series has expanded into multiple forms of media, including novels, comic books, video games and theme park attractions.

The “Tron” movies are frequently cited for their achievements in visual effects, sound design and electronic music. Despite mixed reviews from critics and some mainstream audiences, the franchise has attained cult status. So now, let’s get into the third entry of the movie franchise - “Tron: Ares.”

“Tron: Ares” follows a highly sophisticated program, Ares, who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind’s first encounter with A.I. beings.

Just like the previous entries of the “Tron” movie franchise, “Tron: Ares” delivers some incredible looking visual effects and intense music. Now while the movie’s overall story can be slightly weak here and there, the sequel’s action sequences make up for it.

The action sequences that are shown throughout this sequel really stand out. Not only is the action visually astounding, those scenes are also truly exciting.

There’s a sequence that features Ares and other programs using the infamous light-cycles in the real world, throughout the streets of San Francisco. The scene blends the signature neon style of the Grid with real world cityscapes as it features incredible cinematography. 

The final act showdown that involves Ares battling other Dillinger programs, culminates in a visually impressive set piece that’s synchronized with the awesome score by Nine Inch Nails.

Now while “Tron: Ares” does deliver great action and visuals, the latest sequel’s story can fall a little flat at times. The story does raise some interesting science fiction concepts, such as the A.I. gaining sentience and crossing into the real world, it doesn’t really fully explore the deeper implications of the technology. Even though the A.I. gaining sentience and becoming self aware can be quite intriguing, it’s almost becoming a new movie cliche for the A.I. sub-genre.

Ultimately, even though “Ares” does an amazing job with its visually compelling action sequence and visual effects (not to mention the Nine Inch Nails score that makes the action even better), fans of the franchise are likely going to enjoy this sequel more than some mainstream audiences. Even though it may not become a mainstream hit, just like its predecessors, “Tron: Ares” would likely develop a dedicated cult following - especially once it’s available on streaming.

Cast: Jared Leto (Ares); Greta Lee (Eve Kim); Evan Peters (Julian Dillinger); Jodie Turner Smith (Athena); Gillian Anderson (Elisabeth Dillinger); Hasan Minhaj (Ajay Singh); Arturo Castro (Seth Flores); Cameron Monaghan (Caius); Jeff Bridges (Kevin Flynn)

Writer/director: Jesse Wigutow (writer) (two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again); Joachim Ronning (director) (Young Woman and the Sea; Maleficent: Mistress of Evil; Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales)

Trivia: Development of a follow up to “Tron: Legacy” was announced in October 2010 by franchise creator Steven Lisberger. Even after a sequel was officially green-lit by Disney five years later, a direct sequel was eventually scrapped for the story that’s currently showing on the big screen. As of this movie, actor Jeff Bridges is the only actor to appear in all three movies.

MPA: Rated PG-13 for violence/action   (runtime 119 minutes)

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• On April 29, 2024 it was announced by Disney that Jeff Bridges would return, making him the only actor to appear in all three films.

• Jared Leto spent the entire shoot in-character as Ares, not speaking to anyone unless necessary and having everyone refer to him as such. Jeff Bridges was the only one who didn't follow this rule, reasoning that since his character, Kevin Flynn, is the creator of the Grid, he's therefore above Ares and could call him whatever he wanted.

• Oranges and the orange tree are used for testing the ability to synthesize objects from the digital world. In Tron (1982) the very first item digitized was an orange.

• The first TRON film not to feature actor Bruce Boxleitner as TRON/Alan Bradley. He has, however, encouraged fans to still support the movie.

• The real-world motorcycles used in this movie are Ducati, which was also the same make as the bike ridden by Sam Flynn in Tron: Legacy (2010).

• The first TRON movie to be rated PG-13. The previous two films were PG.

• Originally titled "Tron: Ascension," the film was conceived as a direct sequel to Tron: Legacy (2010) slated to go into production around 2012. Script issues caused the film to be delayed several years until 2015. At that point, the box office failure of another Disney sci-fi film, Tomorrowland (2015), along with the release of the first of the Disney-era "Star Wars" projects, resulted in the cancellation of "Tron: Ascension." Years later, with the onset of the 2023 WGA and SAG strikes, the script was pulled off the shelf and rewritten before getting thrown into production so Disney would have a 2025 tentpole film for the fall.