Visually Rambunctious Tron: Ares Makes the Digital Physical
It’s hard to think of a more frustrating, yet also lastingly influential and mesmerically enthralling, major Hollywood studio franchise than the world of TRON. The first film directed by Steven Lisberger was released back in 1982, received wildly mixed reviews, underperformed at the box office, and earned two Academy Award nominations (for its costume design and sound). It then spent 28 years building up a giant cult following and inspiring countless artists across countless mediums to unimaginable heights.
Its sequel, Tron: Legacy, released in 2010, earned equally mixed reviews, also fell short of expectations at the box office, spawned a hit Daft Punk soundtrack, received an Oscar nomination for its sound editing, and helped plant director Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick, F1: The Movie) on a path that led to A-list behind-the-camera superstardom. In the succeeding 15 years, the film has also amassed a substantial following, big enough to get Walt Disney Pictures to dive back into this cybernetic wonderworld for a third time.
Enter Tron: Ares. Directed by Disney veteran Joachim Rønning (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) with workmanlike efficiency and far less ambitious creativity than either of his predecessors Lisberger or Kosinski. But where neither he nor writers David DiGilio (Eight Below) and Jesse Wigutow (It Runs in the Family) seem interested in pushing boundaries or taking any giant risks, they still craft a moderately wild ride of mayhem, destruction, and video game-inspired ingenuity that can be a decent amount of fun. Just don’t expect a great deal more than that.
Picking up the story over a decade after the events of the previous picture, Encom is now run by Eve Kim (Greta Lee), a Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) disciple who, after the death of her beloved sister, is eager to return the tech company to greatness by bringing the digital realm alive in ways no one previously thought possible. But it’s a race against time. Her company’s greatest rival, Dillinger Systems, now run by Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), the cocky, morally bankrupt grandson of founder Edward Dillinger (played by the late, great David Warner back in 1982), is also after the same tech breakthrough, and he’ll stop at nothing to get there first.
The cybernetic world comes into play in that both companies have found a way to bring creations off of Flynn’s “The Grid” and allow them to physically manifest in the real world — but only for 29 minutes. This includes Dillinger’s Master Control program, otherwise known as Ares (Jared Leto), who is charged with protecting the company’s cybernetic domain while also being their major weapon against all adversaries. But after a glimpse of the real world and learning all there is to know about Flynn, Kim, and so much more, the program discovers it has outgrown its creator. Ares wants physical permanence, and so he disregards Dillinger’s orders to erase his competitor and teams up with Kim as her protector instead.
It all gets slightly more convoluted, various subplots battling it out for supremacy as characters race back and forth between The Grid and the human world as if they were Jennifer Lopez leaping in and out of Vincent D’Onofrio’s dreams in 2000’s The Cell. Honestly, though, it’s pretty straightforward. Everyone is after a lost code that can give these otherwise digital creations physical longevity outside of cyberspace, and, much like author Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio or David in Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence before him, Ares longs to be a real boy. That’s basically it.
Of course, the idea of these cybernetic creations leaping outside of the computer and into the physical realm was already hinted at in Tron: Legacy, so it’s not shocking that this sequel would want to follow through on the promise of that concept. The thing is, Rønning and company seem almost determined to disregard as many facets of Kosinski’s sequel as possible, and while characters portrayed by Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde are briefly mentioned (and continually referenced via photographs), neither makes an appearance. Stranger still, Tron (and even his human doppelgänger Alan Bradley) aren’t around at all; they’re not mentioned, not even in passing, and that’s a mystery no one involved with this installment seems to care about attempting to solve.
Be that as it may, where Rønning excels is staging breathtaking action sequences that utilize the IMAX frame beautifully, each shot with precision by cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and edited to perfection by Tyler Nelson (The Batman). There’s a Lightcycle chase that must be seen to be believed, the whole thing a kinetic masterclass of adrenaline, rambunctious visual effects, stunt choreography, and suspense that held me giddily spellbound. There’s another during the climax when a massive Recognizer busts into the real world and creates all sorts of unimaginable havoc, Rønning craftily and confidently blurring the line between the practical and the digital with skillful exuberance.
Another highlight is a brief segway back into The Grid of the 1982 film, complete with unexpected selections from legendary electronic composer Wendy Carlos’s iconic score and a requisite appearance from a suitably jovial Bridges. What makes the sequence so marvelous is that it isn’t nostalgia only for nostalgia’s sake. Instead, it propels the story forward with character-driven urgency, and, if anything, it’s a pity we don’t spend slightly more time there than we do. Interesting questions are asked. Precious few of them receive an answer.
There are other virtues worth emphasizing. Leto underplays his questioning A.I. algorithm nicely, and for a character purposefully named after the Greek God of War, the lack of histrionics is refreshing. Even better are Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith. The former adds an emotional intricacy to the material that is otherwise absent from the adrenalized thrills and chills of the constant action. As for the latter, she plays Athena, a fellow resident of The Grid and Ares’s trusted lieutenant. When he goes rogue, she’s the one tasked to bring him down and complete his mission of destroying Kim. Turner-Smith is magnificent, the full magnitude of her performance something I didn’t see coming. This is one of the year’s best supporting turns.
As terrific as all that is, there’s still something frustratingly underwhelming about where everything ultimately ends up. Rønning blatantly sets up further sequels with a pointless cliffhanger and an annoying post-credit scene. None of the themes involving A.I.’s insurgency into the real world are satisfyingly pondered, let alone dealt with in a manner that might provoke meaningful conversation. There’s little about Tron: Ares, other than Turner-Smith, the visuals, sound design, and the undeniably glorious Nine Inch Nails (a.k.a. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) score, that I’m going to be thinking about for all that much longer than the time it took to write this review. I find all of that and more curiously disappointing.
– Review reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle
Film Rating: 2½ (out of 4)
