Tron: Ares

The third entry in the franchise is more style than substance

Despite amassing a devoted cult following, the Tron films have never been box office hits. The first one, Tron (1982) was admired more for its daring use of computer effects and technology than any groundbreaking story or character work. Its decades-later sequel Tron: Legacy (2010) was kitschy in a safe, big budget way. Neither film broke even. Yet Disney, refuses to let the IP die. As such, we get yet another follow-up with Tron: Ares (2025).

Tron: Ares doesn’t pick up where Legacy left off, in fact the existence of the second movie is barely acknowledged. Instead, the film exists tangentially to the main storyline, borrowing heavily from its concepts. While in previous films humans were sucked into a computer and the grid, in Ares, computer programs escape out into the real world. This is led by the greedy tech CEO Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who employs his security program Ares (anthropomorphized into Jared Leto) into stealing crucial programming information from rival company Encom, and its CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee).

Ares is directed by Joachim Rønning, who appears to be the go-to director by Disney to unearth sequels that audiences hadn’t exactly been clamoring for, such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). Thankfully, in Tron: Ares Rønning takes inspiration from the cyber punk and electronic dance music (EDM) world to craft one of his most visually pleasing action films in recent years. As programs escape, they are donned in black suits with red neon highlights. One particular use of a solid laser trail made by programs’ motorcycles was an inventive way for chase sequences to be crafted. Yet, despite two films worth of set-up and world-building, Rønning and the screenwriting team of Jesse Wigutow, David DiGiglio, and Steven Lisberger fail to mold much of narrative at all.

Ares is a stripped-down story structure of the chasing of a McGuffin. Yet even in this pared down narrative no attention or depth is given to the characters at all. Instead, it falls into much of the same pitfalls as the previous two films, which focused more on aesthetics and visual wonders than the essentials of storytelling. In this respect, Tron: Ares is a spectacle, but a shallow one that chooses style over substance at every turn.

One of the aspects of Tron: Legacy that proved such a draw for fans was the soundtrack by Daft Punk. Many, in fact, joked that the new Daft Punk album came with a movie. In Tron: Ares, Rønning and Disney top that great soundtrack with a pulsating techno rave from Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor (who are credited under the old band name Nine Inch Nails). The pairing of their incredible music alongside the stunning visuals makes for the best and most memorable parts of the film.

Yet there is only so many chase scenes and neon extravaganzas you can throw on screen before an audience’s attention starts to wander. The performances from the cast were committed if slightly abandoned by the empty script; Leto certainly makes up for the embarrassment of Morbius (2022) by slotting back into a slightly odd character that has been his acting strength. Lee meanwhile is short thrifted, given a protagonist with a hacked and patched backstory.

In the end, Tron: Ares appears more like an inspired Tron film than a true next entry in the story and franchise. The film is visually stunning with a memorable soundtrack, yet the lack of a cogent or substantive story or any attention and depth donned to its characters means that Ares remains impressive hardware with a sloppy software.

5.9/10