Tron: Ares

Bluesky

Fondness for Tron, as with innumerable other movies from the Eighties, isn't always about quality but nostalgia. It looked like nothing else. While later sequences of Ares do an incredible job of replicating that look with modern technologies, the attempt at backwards compatibility has the graphics but not the goofiness. Despite comic talent like Hasan Minhaj and Arturo Castro in supporting roles, there isn't a point where Ares feels fun.

Tron: Legacy had places of outlandish glee, and while sometimes that was prompted by Michael Sheen's Castor it was often prompted by the spectacle. Even in IMAX Ares doesn't capture that. Legacy also had the advantage of an incredible soundtrack, and Nine Inch Nails do a credible job of keeping the synthetic tradition started by Wendy Carlos and sustained by Daft Punk. Everything else falls short.

There's a sequence where a character's growing humanity is ostensibly paralleled by the introduction of Trent Reznor's vocals to the soundtrack. I say that because there's a disconnect between action, acting, and ambition. Several scenes rely on the sensation of rain to awaken the artificial, but my thought when I was watching was "I've seen Blade Runner too". In fact I've seen Blade Runner 2. I've also seen Morbius and that made me uncertain that Jared Leto was still leading man material. For all that Mr Nobody is a tour de force, here flattened affect becomes almost concave.

Joachim Rønning directs. He's no stranger to Disney sequels, having helmed Maleficent 2 and Pirates 5. Jeff Cronenweth's camera has caught capers for folk like Fincher and Bigelow, and his music videos include at least one NIN track. A few sequences of snowbiking and some bits of talking are second fiddle to having to keep tracking dots in focus so special effects firms can work their industrial light and magic. That does include a couple of highlights. A new weapon in the Tron arsenal of a sort of light-cycle halberd had some invention attached and when paired with a light-disc had a touch of what different nerds might call sword and (mother-) board.

Writing credits are more complicated, Jesse Wigutow has been around for decades but has only really resurfaced before this with writing for the most recent Daredevil TV series, David DiGilio has several adaptations including Navy SEAL revenge-em-up series Terminal List and husky movie Eight Below. Steven Lisberger's on there too, but his 'characters created by' has been doing all the work since 1987's Hot Pursuit. These are not household names, and homing in on why this happened is more likely to be an exercise in accounting than anything else creative.

There are some highlights. Greta Lee, also seen in A House Of Dynamite is Eve, and to underscore that thematic weight there's an important orange tree. Gillian Anderson is a treat as Elisabeth Dillinger, but as her crypto-offspring Evan Peters is more frat-boy than ancient Greek, even with the possibility of Trojan horses. Jodie Turner-Smith as a key control shifts that focus further as the adherent Athena, but despite the names this is not the stuff of legend.

It's pretty enough, but even in IMAX I wasn't sure it was doing anything that Legacy hadn't. The recreations of the originals effects are lovely, but that sequence brings Jeff Bridges back as a guru, a contrast that feels like it's got more to do with the actor than the character. In visiting multiple systems there were opportunities to explore that Ralph didn't squander. This does.

There's a sting of sorts in the credits, but you'd be forgiven for not recognising a particular helmet design and even if you did wondering what it's meant to mean. Blurring the lines between the digital and reality, people in perpetual pursuit of profit and programs pondering their purpose, there's room in Tron: Ares for questions about the self, society, even souls. What you'll find yourself asking though is 'why?'. Tron got a sequel, 30 years after the fact, and that spawned a relatively entertaining kids' TV show that's available on Disney+. Why they're trying again ten years on is much less certain. If they projected rewards from revisiting a beloved franchise, it's very clear they miscalculated. If they hoped to capitalise on awareness of AI, they've underinvested in story and theme, and haven't splashed enough on anything else to make up the difference.

There's a technique called phishing where a message is crafted to be attractive enough to encourage the target to provide personal details. Tron: Ares hasn't got enough to bait the hook to encourage a personal connection. With Olympic names it had a chance for something legendary, but it's not woven well enough to cast a net, and so all it offers is something dangling, damp: end of line.

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