I know, I know. Of all the movies out right now and set for release in the immediate future, why waste my time on Tron: Ares? Honestly, I had hoped to give this one a proper DVD post-mortem, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen before year-end. I waited as long as I could, after the dust had cleared, the verdict rendered, and the financial losses tallied.
I needed some distance before I could give this anything close to a fair shot. The lead actor is poison, and the ad campaign made it look like everyone was rightfully ashamed to have his face in the movie. The film was directed by Joachim Ronning, such an artistically bankrupt filmmaker that Young Woman and the Sea might as well have been helmed by Jerry Bruckheimer himself. The script is credited to Jesse Wigutow and David DiGilio, neither of which have had a feature screenwriting credit in twenty goddamn years. (Wigutow’s was It Runs in the Family, which came out in 2003. DiGilio was a co-writer on Eight Below in 2006. Yeah, those qualifications are nicely encouraging.)
On top of all that, we’ve got a studio pathetically desperate and chronically inept at courting the young male demographic. Everything about this smells like a product that was rushed out the door because Disney wants to capitalize on the recent successes of game-to-film adaptations, and they’ve got no in-house video game properties to work with. (Because no way in hell is “Kingdom Hearts” getting made into a coherent movie.) What’s worse, someone got the bright idea of signing Jared Leto onto a Tron sequel back in 2017, when it looked like Suicide Squad and Blade Runner 2049 were going to make him into a bankable star. Even worse, that same idiot went and made Leto a producer on the project, so he couldn’t be kicked off the film when he turned toxic.
We all knew what was coming, and it was indeed exactly what we got.
We open with a montage to briefly recap the first two movies and everything that’s happened since. Sam and Quorra from Tron: Legacy have both disappeared for unknown reasons, so now Encom is under the control of sisters Eve and Tess Kim (respectively played by Greta Lee and Selene Yun). Alas, Tess recently died of cancer, leaving Eve as the sole CEO.
Meanwhile, the Dillinger family has apparently split from Encom, as the Dillinger Systems corporation is now Encom’s chief competitor. The latter company is run by the progeny of Edward Dillinger (played by the late David Warner in the first movie), specifically his grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) under the careful eye of Julian’s mother (Elisabeth, played by Gillian Anderson).
(Side note: For the record, Edward Dillinger also had a son: Ed Junior, briefly played in Tron: Legacy by Cillian Murphy. This character is never even mentioned here.)
Anyway, it’s public knowledge that Encom and Dillinger are in some kind of arms race to achieve a groundbreaking technological revolution, but nobody knows exactly what they’re chasing. As it turns out, both companies have not only rediscovered the digitizing technology that sent Flynn and son into the Grid in the previous two movies, but they’ve figured out how to reverse the process and materialize digital constructs in the real world.
Put simply, they’ve invented replicators. Let’s take a moment for that to sink in.
Encom wants to use this technology to make a post-scarcity society where food and medicine can be easily and quickly made in endless supply. Dillinger is more interested in military applications, materializing soldiers and hardware that are perfectly obedient, void of biological needs, and endlessly disposable.
The big problem both of them are facing is that any materialized constructs can only last for half an hour before disintegrating. For whatever inexplicable reason, this apparently has nothing to do with material integrity or power needs, but it’s a coding issue. And somehow, the Permanence Code to resolve this is… wait for it, wait for it… somewhere in Kevin Flynn’s old files.
And just like that, I facepalmed hard enough to break something. There is so much wrong with this basic premise, I don’t know where to start.
First of all, it bears remembering that in continuity, Kevin Flynn disappeared in 1989. That is directly acknowledged by the characters in this movie. Which means that the most brilliant software engineers of today — working with unlimited funding and the most cutting-edge technology on the planet — are incapable of solving the same problem that one guy could figure out with pre-Internet computing tech from over 35 years ago. Moreover, this implies that Flynn knew about the half-hour lifespan before anyone else. Which implies that he figured out how to materialize programs before anyone else. And gods above, this whole continuity keeps unraveling as I keep on pulling this thread.
Secondly, after Eve discovers the Permanence Code, Dillinger materializes a couple of programs (namely Ares and Athena, respectively played by Leto and Jodie Turner-Smith) to capture her and bring her back to Dillinger Systems HQ. As a reminder, these same constructs can only last for half an hour. Not that I’m an expert in such matters, but it looks to me like half an hour shouldn’t be nearly enough time for anyone to accomplish such a task as presented in the film. So if it’s even remotely plausible for these digital soldiers to pull this off in the specified time limit, why the nine hells does Dillinger need the Permanence Code in the first place?! Seriously, take all the Pentagon funding you need to build a materializing facility wherever the battlefield is and the half-hour limit won’t be an issue with how quickly these soldiers can apparently move!
Thirdly, Eve is introduced looking for the Permanence Code in rural Alaska, where Flynn Sr. apparently built some outpost so he could work undisturbed. Cut to the third act, when the characters go looking for a copy of the Permanence Code in one of Flynn’s old backup servers. Which means they never had to go to Alaska in the first place. Gentle readers, somebody in good standing with the WGA got paid at union rates to write this script.
Speaking of Eve, I find it deeply perturbing that our human lead in this movie is a tech CEO. That runs entirely counter to the anti-corporate themes of the prior two films. I might further add that it’s Hasan Minhaj’s character — name of Ajay, the Chief Technology Officer of Encom — who’s repeatedly shown to be the public face and voice of the company. If the two positions had been reversed, so that Eve was some high-ranking software engineer and Ajay was the CEO, everything would fit together more smoothly.
Jeff Bridges pokes his head in to reprise Flynn Sr. for a scene, and the movie probably would’ve made a lot more sense if he hadn’t. There are a great many nods to the previous films, and they all feel like perfunctory nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. (Perhaps not coincidentally, I found it highly similar to the Sonic the Hedgehog movies and their shout-outs to the ’90s.) The filmmakers seemed to forget that the iconic light ribbons were strictly included as a gameplay feature for a specific game in the original film, and the gimmick makes no lick of sense when applied to weaponry in the greater world. For that matter, the world-building in this movie is pitifully inconsistent and contradictory with itself, never mind with the previous two films.
The filmmakers’ understanding of the source material is pretty much as shallow as their understanding of AI. I get that the filmmakers are trying to make a statement about drone warfare and the use of AI in the military. That’s all well and good. The big problem here is that the filmmakers are trying to examine the point by way of one-dimensional characters going through the motions of a Frankenstein plot. (In fact, Mary Shelley’s work is directly name-dropped and quoted.) Oh, sentient robots might turn on their human creators if we give them weapons? That’s how hard this movie leans on ’80s nostalgia — it’s rehashing themes that were done and done better by the freaking Terminator movies!
To be clear, I don’t fault the filmmakers for trying to make a statement about AI. Using this particular franchise in this particular time to comment about the issue makes all kinds of sense. The problem is that we’ve already seen so many other outstanding recent movies about AI, and these filmmakers didn’t want to put in the necessary effort it would take to stand out. Hell, a lot of these same thematic points were already covered by M3GAN 2.0 earlier this year, and that movie made its case with far more thoughtful creativity. Hell, for all its faults, M3GAN 2.0 actually did a halfway decent job of examining AI in a poignant and thought-provoking way while also delivering straightforward action fun — Tron: Ares doesn’t come anywhere close to striking that same balance.
It seems like the filmmakers wanted to deliver a brainless CGI action spectacle that wouldn’t challenge viewers — after all, Disney saw how well that’s worked out for the Avatar franchise. But say what you will about Avatar, that franchise is consistently — often bluntly, laughably, and absurdly — clear on its morality. There’s the big evil corporation, there’s the rural native underdogs, we know what the conflict is and what the message is. By contrast, Encom and Dillinger are both massive conglomerates and they’re trying to make headway in totally different industries, so they’re both getting obscenely wealthy no matter what happens. The only real difference between them — and it’s admittedly a big one — is that Encom is only trying to materialize inanimate objects and there’s no sign that they’re trying to create and control sentient cyber-life the way Dillinger is.
Of course, Dillinger’s grand comeuppance for all this is a post-credits tease that guarantees his place in a sequel that’s probably never going to happen. That muddies the thematic waters quite a bit.
Which brings us back to Ares himself. Supposedly the lead character. The big problem here is that the filmmakers can’t quite seem to get a clear picture of who this guy is. He’s an AI who comes to appreciate humanity and longs to be human himself, but the development arc is pitifully rough and the filmmakers have no idea how to play that out in a way that feels natural. As a direct result, this means some jarring inconsistencies with regards to how mechanical and how “human” Ares is supposed to be, which in turn does damage to his chemistry with Eve.
I hate to say it, but Leto’s gamely performance is the only thing making this character remotely watchable. I could say the same thing for Greta Lee, proving how underrated she is by elevating the material she’s given. Jeff Bridges is always a pleasure to see onscreen for however short a time, Evan Peters is working nicely within his wheelhouse, and Hasan Minhaj brings some degree of screen presence to an otherwise thankless role. Unfortunately, Gillian Anderson is pretty much sleepwalking through her role here, and Jodie Turner-Smith is stuck giving a one-note performance to a one-note character. The less said about Arturo Castro, the better.
Watching this film, it’s abundantly clear where all the money and effort went into: The action sequences and the soundtrack. The filmmakers went hard on the VFX and the action sequences, and they were fully aware of how awesome the light ribbons look, never mind how impractical they are. Sure, the action scenes are outrageously stupid, but that’s part of the charm. Hell, my favorite chase scene isn’t even a chase scene — Ares is speeding through traffic with nobody chasing him, and the whole sequence is superbly shot and edited. Of course, I’m sure it helped that it’s the only “action” scene that takes place in daylight.
Seriously, why don’t we get more fight scenes and car chases in daylight, so we can actually see what’s happening? It sure does seem like most action set pieces take place at night or in dark places nowadays. I digress.
As for the soundtrack, it’s nothing on the level of what Daft Punk turned in for Tron: Legacy, but it’s an admirable effort nonetheless. Unfortunately, the filmmakers were so committed to making the whole movie as big and loud and flashy as possible that the score is often literally loud enough to drown out the dialogue. I was uniquely grateful when the characters repeated lines of dialogue, because the score was playing too loudly for me to hear it the first time.
On a miscellaneous note, I feel obligated to point out that we do see a hacking attempt in the context of the Tron setting. I spent half an earlier blog entry complaining about how this franchise hasn’t taken any steps to adapt anything in the online world of modern computing, and this movie actually did. It may not be much and I’m sure it’s inaccurate to how hacking and counter-hacking actually work, but I’ll give due praise for what we get.
(Side note: I can’t believe I’m saying this, but more movies need to take a lesson from Transformers (2007). Don’t bother trying to stave off hackers with technobabble, just cut the goddamn hardline! Take the computer offline and the hackers can’t get in, fucking DUH.)
Tron: Ares is stupid, but harmless. The film is nowhere near as intelligent as the filmmakers seem to think it is, and the film is a spectacular failure in its commentary about AI and its implications. The film only really works as a flashy CGI extravaganza with a pulsing Nine Inch Nails soundtrack, and that kind of shallow fleeting high only lasts until opening weekend, if that. Then again, I get the distinct impression that the corporate overlords were making this to be “content”, rather than “cinema”. I’d stake my wallet somebody at the C-suite tried dumping this onto Disney+, only to get shouted down because the film was too expensive and a full theatrical release was needed to recoup costs.
With all that said, the film is an underwhelming third entry in a franchise that was all but killed stone-cold dead by the second entry. I might add that the film takes no chances and pushes no boundaries, running entirely counter to the trailblazing spirit of the previous two films. So while the film is a brazen insult to the franchise itself and its longtime fans, that damage was done 15 years ago. And the film is too safe and unremarkable to offend anyone else.
Tron: Legacy was not a great film by any stretch, but those filmmakers made a sincere effort at aiming for greatness and failed. Tron: Ares aims for mediocrity and succeeds. Let’s all take a moment of silence in honor of Tron, a once-promising franchise killed by the studio execs who brought it down to their level.