Tron: Ares is the third film in the Tron Trilogy. The first Tron film came out in 1982, and Tron: Legacy came out in 2010, 28 years later. Fans of the franchise didn’t have to wait as long for the third film, though, as it’s only been 15 years since the last one this time around. The Tron property has always been one that was ahead of its time regarding predicting how AI and technology would take over the world. We as a society are so caught up with convenience that we forget about the dangers of some things. For instance, AI and technology. This has been a hot-button topic the last few years, and this movie brings them to the forefront once again. Are we as a society doomed by our lust for power and success to where we don’t see what could potentially be a catastrophic disaster? This film aims to answer that question.

When this third Tron film picks up, there has been a battle for the digital war between Encom owned by the Kim sisters, Eve Kim (Greta Lee) and the Dillinger Corporation, owned by Elizabeth Dillinger (Jillian Anderson) and her son Julian Dillinger (Even Peters). They are both looking for the key to bring the digital world into the real world. When Eve Kim finds out where the information is and how to extract it, it becomes a threat to Julian Dillinger.  He sets his digital warrior Ares (Jared Leto) after her to steal the information for himself.  The problem is you can’t trust even digital creations to not have a conscience, and so Ares figures a way to help the Lee character because it benefits him in the long run.

This movie is gorgeously shot by Jeff Cronenweth with the direction by Joachim Ronning. They do a great job of bringing the digital world into the real world via laser projectors, which play a big part in the narrative of the story. Also, the digital world itself is beautifully realized on IMAX screens. I always thought the way the digital motorbikes were shot looked cool, but the way they look in this film are even better than the past two films. There were manned jet type things and tanks to go with the motorbikes that were ridden. The digital world came alive on screen. I was genuinely blown away by how gorgeous this movie looked. It gave the picture more believability to me while watching. The visual effects combined with the cinematography were masterfully crafted, which made this experience that much better.

Jared Leto has been in some fantastic films and played some great characters like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. He has a predilection for taking weird roles like that of Niander Wallace in Blade Runner 2049 or Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club. Lately, his choices for characters haven’t paid off as much.This time around, the character of Ares is very interesting. He has an intellectually driven mind because he’s the Commander of the army inside the digital frontier known as the Grid. Leto plays the character like an android with no emotion, but he does figure out how to care. He develops a friendship with the Greta Lee character, which proves he has the ability to change his programming.This changes everything for the real world. And its relationship with the digital world of the Grid. Leto does a good job as this character, but he’s a bit wooden, as you’d imagine considering what this story is about. I did like him in this, though. He’s better than some of the other things he’s been doing lately.

The rest of the cast is fantastic in this film. Lee is terrific coming off of her breakout performance in Past Lives. I loved her in that romance centric movie, but she’s doing something different here. She is doing some action scenes on a motorcycle and riding along in a car. These scenes were fun to watch. I’m a big fan of car chases of any kind. This is the kind of thing I hope to see her in again. Jodie Turner Smith is another actress who broke out in a romantic road trip film Queen & Slim. She was fantastic as Athena, another digital soldier. At first, she worked with Ares, and then she hunted him and the Lee character. This is the best thing I’ve seen her do since that movie. She had an intensity to her that I cared about. Evan Peters has made a name for himself in the X-Men reboot, and as Jeffrey Dahmer in Monster, the Jeffrey adapter Story, as well as other Ryan Murphy, produced series. Here, he plays a villain as the son of the owner of a tech company, but he essentially runs the company. I haven’t seen him in this sort of straightforward role before, but it’s a nice dichotomy to his over the top roles he’s played in the past. He is also very good as this bad guy. Jeff Bridges has a cameo as the same character he originated in the first Tron film,  Kevin Flynn. I liked what he was doing as a God-like incarnation of this character. 

One of the things this movie was advertised as is, a film with music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, members of the fantastic grunge rock band Nine Inch Nails. That was not a bad thing. I was very much looking forward to the music from this Academy Award winning duo. From the very beginning of this sci-fi epic, the music knocked me out. It was percussive and loud at the right times and very intense and at other times. The music that this pair of legendary musicians created was beyond what I could have imagined. The score is one of the best parts of this picture, and it made me want to go listen to it right after it was done. It’s one of the best scores in any film I’ve seen all year.

There is an age-old question of what’s right and wrong about technology and how far we should go as a society with technology. AI is the main thing, and Tron movies deal with AI quite a bit. I think that movies use AI in a good way to show how dangerous it can be but it doesn’t go too far where the films it is in aren’t very fun to watch because of how the technical jargon over takes the fun sci-fi aspects of the story. With Disney being the main producer of the movies, you know they aren’t going to go too far. This time around, the story was very exciting. It’s one of those pictures where you can’t go in with too high expectations or get caught up in the lore of the previous films. Any normal person who walks in should be able to pick up on the story from the very beginning and enjoy this movie. Those who know a lot about the lore, like my brother, will enjoy the picture even more because of the Easter eggs and so forth.

Tron: Ares was a fun ride, and by ride, I mean there are some amazing chases on motorbikes and in cars. The visual effects and cinematography combine for a very good-looking movie.The colors jumped off the screen inside the Grid and out. I was blown away by how gorgeous this film looked in IMAX.The acting was much better than I thought it would be in a sci-fi epic such as this. Leto, Lee, Peters, and Turner-Smith were all terrific in their various roles. I loved the cameo by Bridges as well. Also, the music by Rezner and Ross was fantastic. The latest film in the Tron Trilogy could have gotten lost in the technical jargon and the fancy AI conversation, but it’s grounded in an entertaining action film instead. I didn’t take it too seriously, and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. This was a lot of fun, and hopefully, there will be another one in the future. Especially if Joachim Ronning has a chance to direct again. He understood the task and did a very good job with this property.

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen