I’ve been a fan of all things Tron since I was five years old. Movies, video games, TV shows – you name it, I’ve consumed it. Hell, I once made a 200-mile round trip just to pick up a rare and out of print game for the PS3. Tron: Legacy is actually one of my favorite filmgoing experiences having watched it in theaters in IMAX 3D the day it came out. Considering how gimmicky 3D had become, it was refreshing to see it once again used to help tell the story instead of just having random stuff fly at you out of the screen. Needless to say, with the announcement of Tron: Ares, I was more than excited to revisit this world that I loved so much back in IMAX where it belongs. And while it was enjoyable, and I had a good time, I can’t say that it ended up meeting my or really anyone’s expectations.
Picking up 15 years after Tron: Legacy, we find that both ENCOM and rival Dillinger Systems have developed technology that will allow them to bring digital creations from the Grid into the physical universe. The problem is that they derezz after only 29 minutes. Current ENCOM CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) is convinced that their founder Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) hid something called the permanence code that will allow them to exist here indefinitely. Sure enough, she finds the code, but the new CEO of Dillinger Systems, Julian (Evan Peters) figures this out as well and sics his new Master Control, Ares (Jared Leto), on her to retrieve it at any cost. While on his quest, Ares begins to question whether or not he can be more than just a mindless program, but he can only serve one master, and a wrong choice will mean he will be wiped from existence.
Each iteration of Tron prides itself on showing us something we have never seen before. The original utilized, at the time, cutting-edge graphics and technology to introduce us to a strange and vivid world. Legacy more fully immersed us there and made it seem more alive, and the conceit of Ares is that the two worlds are merging, or at least that is what we are meant to believe from the trailers. In reality, this feels much more miniscule in the grand scheme of the entire project. Sure, it’s fun to have light cycles, tanks, and programs chasing our heroes around the city, but it ends up feeling like we’ve been led along by a carrot and then only given a few bites as a reward. The threat of The Grid is ever present, and we do spend some time inside of it, but the potential of what we could have had hangs heavy.
I will say that the spectacle we get is hugely entertaining but also repetitive. Light cycles using their deadly trails to cut through cars and trap people is a sight to behold, but it gets a bit old once flying drones are released and use them to down military jets.
While I never ended up being bored, there is a sense that the actors didn’t feel that way. While Evan Peters is completely unhinged as the tattooed and frantic (and one-note) villain, you can tell everyone else is just there for a paycheck. The worst being Gillian Anderson who is almost always fantastic but exists here just to chide Julian for being a petulant child. We’re not looking for award winning performances, but having all the actors bought into their roles would have helped.
Fans of the series will have fun here as it’s not all doom and gloom. What it does well it truly exceeds at, and seeing it in IMAX is the preferred and almost required way to go. That said, it is the least of the Tron movies, and those who aren’t already in love with them aren’t going to find anything to change their minds. While we’ve never expected life-changing outcomes from any of them, it would have been nice to get a bit more than what amounts to a never-ending stream of cotton candy. It tastes good at first, but once you eat too much of it, you end up with a stomach ache that can’t go away fast enough.