TRON: Ares (2025)

So after the last TRON film didn’t lead to anything. Disney decided to wait 15 years because…..well just because i suppose. The story follows Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) who runs Dillinger Systems with his mother Elisabeth (played by Gillian Anderson) as they are trying to bring the weapons from the grid but the problem is that they can’t last more than 29 minutes, meanwhile Encom run by Eve (Greta Lee) has managed it with the aim of trying to solve world hunger and Ares who is a Dillinger soldier suddenly wants to be a real boy.

First the positives, the visual effects are stunning. I just loved the colour schemes and the chase sequence with Aries and Eve trying to escape was stunning to watch. That is the only time in history that the words Jared Leto and stunning have been used seriously in the same sentence.  I thought that bringing back the original TRON effects was a smart choice and a nice bit of nostalgia.  I also thought that the score was pretty good. Not quite on the same level as what Daft Punk did but still pretty good. 

One day there will be a Jared Leto performance that makes me re-evaluate him as an actor but this film isn’t that one. This isn’t the worst Leto performance (I’m looking at your Suicide Squad). It took a long time for me to warm to Eve Kim but I think that is more down to the writing than Greta Lee’s performance. Evan Peters is fine as Julian Dillinger who is the grandson of Ed Dillinger (David Warner from the first film). The only issue is that there isn’t anything really to the character apart from being a bad guy. Gillian Anderson was fine although her character's purpose felt a bit weak. Her first couple of scenes felt like she was trying to mimic Margaret Thatcher and then that changed so I wonder if there was some discussion behind the scenes. Jodie Turner-Smith was my favourite part about the performances. She made that role much better than it would have been with someone else. She felt like the proper menace to Aries but it's just a shame that she was carrying the film on her back and getting little support. Jeff Bridges pops up for 10 minutes to mumble his way through the film. We are way past the point of where Jeff Bridges needs to have subtitles put up on the screen for his films otherwise it's just mumblecore. 

The overall issue with this film is that it doesn't feel like there is any point to it. Don't get me wrong I love being in that world but there didn’t feel like the world needed a new TRON film. The thing is that they set things up for a sequel that will most likely not happen because I can’t see this doing mega business at the cinema. The sequel-bait tease is that Julian is going to be the new Sark and that might give the character something to make him seem like a credible threat but it will for a sequel that doesnt happen cause Disney will wait too long and hit the reset button again. Feels like a wasted opportunity.