‘Tron: Ares’ has glowing style, but its storytelling doesn’t compute

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While the original “Tron” movies showed humans entering the digital world, the new film, “Tron: Ares,” flips that idea – it’s about the digital world coming into our reality. This feels especially relevant today, with the film portraying powerful AI soldiers causing chaos in human cities. Despite raising important ethical questions, “Ares” still maintains the franchise’s hopeful, or perhaps inevitable, view of technology, even as it suggests disconnecting from it all.

The new “Tron” film is directed by Joachim Rønning, with a script by Jesse Wigutow. This time, neither Kevin Flynn nor his son Sam appear in the story. Instead, the film centers on a rivalry between two tech companies competing to lead the way in artificial intelligence. Eve Kim, played by Greta Lee, leads the original Flynn company, ENCOM, while Evan Peters portrays Julian Dillinger, the head of a competing firm, Dillinger Systems, overseen by his mother (Gillian Anderson).

Eve is looking for a message left by her deceased sister, a hopeful advocate for artificial intelligence who believed it could make the world better. Meanwhile, Julian is creating 3D-printed tanks and robotic soldiers to impress potential investors, even though these soldiers can only function for about 29 minutes. When Julian learns Eve has found a way to make data truly permanent thanks to her sister’s message, he dispatches his top two soldiers, Ares (Jared Leto) and Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith), to get the code at all costs.

The original “Tron” captivated audiences with its innovative visual effects and futuristic ideas. “Legacy” continued this appeal with its stylish sci-fi look and memorable electronic music by Daft Punk, prioritizing atmosphere over a complex story. Now, “Ares” focuses more on plot, but maintains the visual style of “Legacy,” using bolder, more aggressive colors – like a striking red neon for the villain’s forces – and features a gritty, energetic industrial soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails to enhance the action.

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The story borrows heavily from Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” a classic tale that feels deeply ingrained in our collective storytelling. The connection is made explicit when Ares, while watching Eve on social media, sees her reading the novel. He quickly understands the story’s themes – particularly the idea of a creation turning against its creator – which resonate with his own growing doubts. Ares is already questioning orders, like the idea that soldiers are disposable, and the erasure of a fellow AI during a mission. Coupled with a newfound experience – the sensation of feeling rain – Ares is on the verge of breaking free from his programming.

Science fiction often portrays artificial intelligence becoming self-aware as a threat to humanity. However, as the character Eve points out in a TV interview, perhaps the real problem wouldn’t be malice, but overwhelming kindness. The film “Tron: Ares” explores the idea that true intelligence can lead to compassion, while blindly following orders is what actually causes harm and devastation.

Leto has the right look – thoughtful but distant – to play a curious computer, and Lee powerfully portrays Eve. Turner-Smith convincingly shows she could handle an action role like the “Terminator.” However, the biggest issue with “Ares” is its writing. The script explains everything too directly, leaving no room for nuance or for the audience to draw their own conclusions. It feels like the story is constantly telling us what to think, rather than letting us discover things for ourselves – a bit like watching a fearsome creation suddenly become fascinated with something simple and innocent.

Joachim Rønning, known for directing a “Pirates of the Caribbean” film and “Young Woman and the Sea,” directs this movie competently, but without taking many risks. The film’s story becomes muddled towards the end, devolving into a typical, visually chaotic monster movie. The gritty, artificial world of the digital grid simply doesn’t translate well to reality.

“Tron: Ares” essentially argues that artificial intelligence is only as effective as the person controlling it, though it doesn’t offer solutions beyond a large-scale conflict. More importantly, it doesn’t address a key question often overlooked by AI proponents: why strive to make AI more human when we can simply focus on being human ourselves?

Maybe it’s unfair to expect deep meaning from a sci-fi film that’s supposed to be visually impressive. “Tron: Ares” aimed for a cool atmosphere, but instead offers simplistic, half-baked philosophical ideas instead of genuinely thought-provoking questions.

Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

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2025-10-10 00:03