Old School. Biblically Independent.
By TK Burton | Film | October 14, 2025
1982’s sci-fi actioner Tron was an unexpected choice to return to modern cinemas. Something of a flop in its original release that received mixed reviews, it lived to attain some cult status but was hardly any kind of juggernaut. Yet 30 years later, with the release of Tron: Legacy, it returned, bolstered by the reappearance of Jeff Bridges, great visual effects, and a pounding soundtrack by Daft Punk.
And now, 15 years after that, we revisit the Tron universe, this time with Tron: Ares. A lot has changed since those halcyon days of Master Control, Tron, and the dynasty of Flynns from the first two films. Garrett Hedlund, who played the younger Sam Flynn (son of Bridges’ Kevin) in Legacy, is gone - explained away in a bit of introductory exposition - and now replaced by a new protégé in charge of ENCOM, Eve Kim (Greta Lee), a thrill-seeking genius seeking to fulfill her deceased sister’s legacy and use the technology of ENCOM to help the world.
On the other side is Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), leader of the rival company Dillinger Systems, who is working on bringing programs from the alternate digital universe to the real world to be used as soldiers for whatever nefarious reasons he has… they don’t really matter, if we’re being honest. Most importantly is Ares, the lead program (played with rare but pleasant understatement by Jared Leto), a sort of digital warrior Pinocchio who wants to find a way to become human and who allies with Eve to fight against the lawless evil of the Dillinger Corporation. And if you’re wondering about the symbolism of names like Ares, Eve, and Dillinger … well, you shouldn’t be, because they lay it on pretty damn thick.
Tron: Ares is almost exactly like its predecessors in almost every way. It features capable, if unspectacular, performances (except for Jodie Turner-Smith as Athena, a single-minded true believer program who blows everyone else out of the water). It features some utterly amazing effects and some spectacular set pieces, especially since now the digital world has found its way into the natural world, allowing for some wild and weird action sequences. It has a gorgeous soundtrack - this time, Daft Punk is replaced by Nine Inch Nails, and their grinding, pounding noise is the very pulse of the film. And, like its two predecessors, it makes very little sense, has little grounding in actual technology, and has a story that struggles to find its footing.
It’s been the fatal flaw of this franchise for going on 40+ years now - some great visuals to try to mask the fact that the story is a garbled mess that defies logic. The advantage (I guess) that Ares has is that it leans hard into that incoherent technobabble that passes for a plot, just throwing out words and phrases and creating its own rules, even though those rules have no right to exist. Tron: Ares doesn’t care. It’s a light show passing for a story, a stoner’s wet dream without context or coherence. It hopes that if it cranks up the dazzle factor, you’ll forgive the cracked and fragile eggshell at its center that’s leaking plot like so much runny yolk.
There are moments when it tries, for sure. There are some rudimentary passes at understanding family, particularly when Lee’s Eve is lamenting the loss of her sister and Ares is struggling to understand, or when Dillinger clashes with his mother (a stupendously wasted Gillian Anderson). The old clash between following orders and following your heart is sluggishly stumbling around in there, too, but it’s no more worth paying attention to than the film’s silly Pinocchio theme (which they go on to blatantly explain, as if the audience couldn’t grasp something so insanely on the nose). It’s filled with what it thinks is symbolism but may as well be billboards screaming out its themes. This is no surprise given director Joachim Rønning’s history of directing inferior sequels that confuse quantity for quality—see his previous works Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales as examples.
The thing is, taken as a glorified light show, Tron: Ares is pretty fun. It’s a wild ride, and it genuinely is visually arresting. If you’re going to see it, find a Dolby Atmos theater to take full advantage of Nine Inch Nails’ impressive soundtrack. It’s just … everything else is hollow and unmemorable. In many ways, it becomes its own allegory - much like Pinocchio, it very much wants to be a real movie. But Rønning is no Geppetto, and by the end, we’ve watched something beautiful and exciting yet also strangely lifeless.
