Tron: Ares (2025) Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YShVEXb7-ic

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

If there is one thing Walt Disney Pictures is known for is milking the cow in areas they never need to. Tron was popular over the years because it took the time needed to connect with audiences. Reinforcing that energy was quite the gamble in the third film, Tron: Ares.

PLOT


The 2025 film takes place 15 years after the events of Legacy. With Sam Flynn stepping away from the public eye after his experience in the Grid, ENCOM is in a race with Dillinger Systems over bringing digital constructs to reality. ENCOM’s current CEO Eve Kim and her assistant Seth Flores have been trying to master the program in a remote station in Alaska left by Sam’s father Kevin, but need the original permanence code that can enable constructs to exist without a 29 minute interval. Julian Dillinger, grandson of the late Ed Dillinger, now runs Dillinger Systems and has introduced shareholders to Ares, a master control program meant to be expendable soldiers to use down the line and needs the permanence code as well to not worry of the intervals. His mother Elizabeth does worry for this very reason so in order look for the code sooner, he sends Ares through ENCOM’s grid and download Eve’s personal data. Ares however shows a conscience when trying to save another program named Caius (Cameron Monaghan), but Julian chooses to extract him before he can do anything. When later redeployed, he and second in command Athena are sent to pursue Eve & Seth who return to Center City with the permanence code. Eve would split up from Seth when being chased, especially after her colleague Ajay Singh alerts her that Julian cyber-attacked her. Right at the end of his lifespan, he destroys the drive containing the code but brings Eve to the Dillinger grid with him. He lies to Athena that Julian is indisposed and makes a deal with Eve that he’ll help get the code in exchange for freedom as he continues to gain self awareness. Suspicious, Athena reports to Julian is malfunctioning and requests for him to be deleted. That doesn’t happen yet since he is able to re enter the real world with Eve and when reuniting with Seth, they head to ENCOM Tower believing a copy of the code will be in Kevin’s office. This leads to Ares getting uploaded into Kevin’s grid via particle laser to find it, but Athena is able to ambush them and destroy the laser to trap Ares. In the grid does he meet a now digital manifestation of Kevin and he gives him the code after being intrigued of his desire to live. Using it does Ares re-materialize to the real world. Elisabeth does try to regain control of the situation by turning off the particle lasers, but Athena kills her when she deems her a threat to prevent her getting the code by any means. As this is happening, Ajay and his assistant Erin (Sarah Desjardins) join Eve and Seth try using the laser against Athena to hack the Dillinger grid. Athena does try to capture Eve, but is stopped by Ares’ return who intercepts her unit. The distraction gives time for Eve’s friends to shut down Dillinger’s mainframe, preventing Athena and other Dillinger programs from re-materializing once wounded. When the police raid Dillinger headquarters, Julian boldly chooses to digitize himself into his grid and a pst credit scene shows him transform into his grandfather’s program Sark. When Ares parts ways with Eve, she intends to use the permanence code to benefit the world while the film ends with him searching for Sam and his companion Quorra, the first program to ever enter the real world.


THOUGHTS


It has been pretty hard to find the right words for this movie because it comes off like a legacy sequel to an already legacy sequel, which is meta for the wrong reasons. In the long run, you can say Director Joachim Rønning does succeed in making an entertaining blockbuster, but it doesn’t really the point of its existence. To be fair, the Nine Inch Nails score was on point in creating an electric atmosphere and the VFX you’re invested in are outstanding. I mean before the nostalgia kicks seeing the original 80s style grid in the climax, things like the Light Cycle Chase, showing off the sinister landscape of Julian’s grid that is expressed with the color red and the Recognizer ship passing through the city gave me the most goosebumps. The big problem that comes after looking past said pros is that writers David DiGillo & Jesse Wigutow get carried away trying to replicate the theme of how important of free will and how the fragility of mortality is what makes life special. I already picked up on this when seeing Legacy which is where everything feels quite repetitive and that’s not a good thing to feel when you’re expecting something to be much different. The most neutral part that comes from this situation has to be the cast that gets their part right. Evan Peters owns it in making Julian a greedy villain that is willing to stoop as low as he can just to get to the top of the world. His decision to get in over his head is what costs him the life of his mom and recklessly become the new Sark. I think this is one of the more wasteful cliffhangers out there because there is no guarantee when we’ll see a follow up on this. Ironically, Gillian Anderson made Elisabeth the only Dillinger against bringing programmed soldiers to the real world since you can’t guarantee the outcome on what to prepare should they overthink their duties. With Edward Junior, Julian’s father, absent for whatever reason, it makes sense why the latter would have somewhat of a clouded mind to make irrational decisions. Thankfully like past blockbusters, we get to root for those who are more capable in thinking ahead on what technology can do for better purposes. Greta Lee is great as Eve because rather than use the loss of her sister Tess to brain cancer send her down the rabbit hole of depression, it became her motivation to create new benefits such as food sources and medicines. If it ain’t so obvious, that’s way better than combat warfare. It’s easy to deem Seth and Ajay as secondary figures, yet Arturo Castro & Hasan Minhaj are able to make it believable in portraying them as loyal friends who may not understand technology as well as Eve, but genuinely believe in her vision. The biggest debate in this movie really goes Jared Leto as the titular lead since you can’t tell if he’s not robotic enough or too robotic, but I think that is the point since he is a program evolving with individuality. Athena is his true opposite however because Jodie Turner Smith is perfect in being too obedient for her own good as she’s principled and simultaneously cold enough to unknowingly become worse than her maker which she didn’t realize until defeated. This does affect Ares as much as when it came to Caius because he saw her as a friend for being equally strong willed. His decision to search for Sam & Quorra became his new purpose because he just wants to understand life better than she could, but I think he got the true jist of it when it came to encountering the true digital messiah. Jeff Bridges’ return as Kevin Flynn was the true selling point for me because whether or not he’s a ghost in the grid, he’s wise enough to still see the good in technology past his control, which backs why gives the code to Ares. And if someone who used to be in the center of it all can see this in such a situation, then that does remind us any kind of technology can still be used for the greater good. Because most of the characters can be complicated half the time, it leads to a bunch of other things that make sense storywise. Like for starters, Julian completely jinxed any protocol would be useful when it came to any MCP going rogue because that’s exactly what happens to Ares and he fails to delete him after hacking ENCOM or he could’ve deleted him personally rather than over-rely on Athena to do so. And it’s kinda ironic how Ares knows what the term ‘feel’ is, but Athena doesn’t. If he wants these programs to be smart enough to be obedient, the concept of feeling shouldn’t have been ruled out since Ares becomes the first of his kind to know. I even refuse to believe Elisabeth was able to Julian was hacking ENCOM from afar reading it upside down. There’s no way she knows what it is as she’s walking toward her son’s desk. She shouldn’t even be surprised he would then send MCPs after Eve in public. Heck, Ares should’ve been de-rezzed the moment he got what was needed and way before Caius gets wounded. Because of that, he shouldn’t even be surprised Athena would bring in a freaking Recognizer to the real world when he tasked her to do whatever means to get the permanence code back. Next, Ajay should’ve also reported Julian’s actions way before Eve returned because his hesitance makes him look like the enemy when that’s not the case with him. It’s also on Eve to take out the drive from her jacket if she didn’t want it taken from her. To wrap up, Tron: Ares is an interesting three-quel that does seem to succeed in being entertaining, but struggles to be just as philosophical due to forcing the repetition within the narrative. Whatever kind of fan sci fi fan you are, I hope this is worth your while.