'Tron: Ares' is a Pain in the Arse
Sometimes it's better to leave projects dead. If you're a Tron fan, you'll hate Tron: Ares; if you're not a Tron fan, you'll also hate Tron: Ares; if you fall in between, same case. This movie doesn't know who it's marketed for, nor can it tell a concise story. Tron: Ares is more akin to a two-hour music video for Nine Inch Nails than it is a coherent narrative. Even NIN's soundtrack pales in comparison to Daft Punk's score for Tron: Legacy. Where NIN's music sounds like Trent Reznor simply dragging and dropping his usual beats from a computer, Daft Punk gave it the old Hollywood feel by adding an orchestra, lending the movie some class. This score sounds like it belongs in a David Fincher film, not a Disney movie.
At first, the movie appears to be heading in the right direction. It begins with exposition, setting up the plot of the last two films, which is later largely discarded, so we can meet new characters who are as interesting as those in a monster movie. They're disposable bodies who merely exist so the audience can get back to the kaiju fighting. Now imagine having those characters in a movie that barely even features the beasts, and you get Tron: Ares.
For a Tron flick, you would think most of the picture would take place in Tron. It doesn't. 90% of this flick exists in our material world. That's why audiences want to see a Tron movie, so they don't spend most of the time on the grid. What were these writers and director thinking? The whole draw to Tron is the grid, and they almost completely abandon it? Either the filmmakers are unfamiliar with the source material or thought they were being innovative, when in reality they were being lazy.
There's nothing to emotionally connect with in this film. The main conflict is between two billionaires trying to obtain the permanence code. One billionaire is a young nepo baby, while the other is a compassionate person. You know the villain is bad because he's white, while the hero is good because she's not white. Is it woke storytelling? A little bit. Which is ironic, considering Disney's recent actions against Jimmy Kimmel bear the hallmarks of what old Walt was like. Disney is more interested in appealing to markets than people.
For playing an emotionless program that has a Terminator 2 complex or any movie about A.I. learning how to feel, Tron Ares is an example of exactly how not to approach the subject matter. Even Arnold Schwartezenegger had more range than Jared Leto does. With Arnold, you can see a bit where he's beginning to have emotion, whereas Leto's Ares says he's beginning to feel, but the audience can't see it. You'd think Ares (Jared Leto) would be the main character of the story, but he isn't.
The protagonist is Eve Kim (Greta Lee), who is a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that there's less Jared Leto on screen. The curse is that there's also less time spent on the grid, as stated before. Oh, and the plot holes. Dear lord, the plot holes are laughable. At one point in the movie, two characters are racing through water on the grid. An hour later, one of the characters from that race freezes up because she encounters water. How does she not know what liquid is when she just raced on it an hour ago?
As for the villain, he's a spoiled little brat, yet his militarized strategy is actually quite humane since it would keep the lives of human soldiers safe. Aside from disliking his situation with unearned wealth, there isn't much reason to root against him. At least the film looks good, right? Sort of.
Tron and Tron: Legacy established their own distinct looks. Tron: Ares borrows the updated grid look from Legacy, while incorporating absolutely nothing new, except for bringing elements from the grid into the physical world, which doesn't blend well at all. It's not surprising that no single original plot or visual element is to be seen, given that this was directed by an individual with a dull track record. Joachim Rønning directed Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. Joachim is a rent-a-director, someone with no vision, who's available to service the script.
Given that the film was put in cryogenic freeze for years and the original cast members from Legacy lost interest in the project, there's no reason to continue the story with new characters. A solid foundation was built upon the overlooked Tron: Legacy, which was abandoned over time. So who ends up producing and funding what looked like a dead project? The worst Joker and Morbius himself, Jared Leto. What could go wrong? With Leto's career now on hold after his Jesus complex led him to become too handsy with young women, Tron: Ares was doomed to fail. Why Disney continues to invest in a franchise that bombs is mind-boggling. It's best to deprogram this film from even being canon.
