It says a lot about this film (Tron: Ares) when I’m the only paying patron in the cinema.
Explaining the plot is simple.
Mankind encounters AI for the first time when a highly sophisticated programme, Ares (Jared Leto) leaves the digital world for a dangerous mission in the real world.
The screenwriters, three of them, won’t see an Oscar nomination.
They must have had so many disagreements on what should go where and who should do what that it’s become a jigsaw puzzle with mismatched pieces, semi-circular openings and rounded peninsulas that never seem to fit.
The storyline is loopy and muddled.
It’s up to viewers to make sense of visuals and noise. Some younger viewers might see and hear it as nothing different from computer games they play.
So much for Daft Punk in Tron: Legacy (2010); now Nine Inch Nails provide the “music,” a wham-blam track of chords, strums and effects, and sound mixing that competes with CGI visual special effects.
Tron: Ares is more a sequel to the original 1982 Tron than Tron: Legacy.
In Tron, computer whiz-kid Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is sucked into The Grid, a digitised alternate universe where he rides a computerised motorbike on digitised lines.
Ahead of its time, computer graphics were relatively new with a fluorescent colour glow on screen. The computer then was a bulky machine with several bits and used floppy discs, which you’ll see in Tron: Ares.
Who’d have ever guessed that Disney’s Tron predicted the role video games and virtual reality played in reshaping our world by means no one thought possible.
Tron: Legacy had Kevin trapped on The Grid with his son, who had been running the family business ENCOM in Kevin’s absence. There were hints in this film of the rise of AI.
ENCOM now has a new chief executive officer, Eve Kim (Greta Lee).
How’d she break the glass ceiling? She wants to discover Kevin’s Permanency Code.
AI can manufacture any object and place it in the real world, but only for 29 minutes at a time. The race for the Permanency Code puts Eve on a collision course with AI programmed Ares.
Ares was named for the Greek god of war, the spirit of battle, and was known for destruction, brutal and bloodletting aspects of combat.
Generally disliked, Ares wasn’t widely worshipped by Greeks. He was the weakest of the gods for in conflicts he met defeat, even by humans.
Ares is Master Control, workable for 29 minutes before disintegrating.
Ares AI creator, yes, they make themselves, another prediction and warning, perhaps, was a big giant head matched with a big gruff voice, Disney continuing with a cartoon-like character best found in Fantasia (1940).
There are shades of Robocop (1987) and The Terminator (1982) with Eve’s and Ares’ aggressive pursuant Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith) a close-cropped white-haired British-Jamaican who disintegrates more times than you can count on your fingers, yet always bounces back with new machines that also turn to dust, wreaking havoc on humans.
Then there’s computer programmer and thief Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) and his Mum (Gillian Anderson).
Dillinger hacks ENCOM and Mummy says, “Don’t do it”
Kevin Flynn is back in Tron: Ares, the only character from the original 43 years ago.
He returns as something bio-digital, some sort of consciousness. Whatever he delivered as dialogue was masked in an echoed special effect, making it difficult to comprehend.
So I’ve no idea why he made his cameo. Maybe to resurrect the Dude?
Tron: Ares drops the ball on continuing its legacy. Instead of diving deeper into the digital world and humanity, the movie gets stuck in Marvel-like action with cardboard characters. An empty but noisy corporate drama, it’s one long, expensive music-video.
In the words of Marty McFly, “I guess you guys are not ready for that yet, but your (older) kids are gonna love it.”
Movie: Tron: Ares
Duration: 129 mins
Director: Joachim Rønnig
Starring: Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith, Jeff Bridges, Gillian Anderson, Evan Peters
Rating: **½
Reviewed by Lawrenty
