One of my favorite movie memories is when me and one of my friends went to see Tron: Legacy in IMAX 3D. He had never seen a movie in that format before, and was sufficiently blown away by the pre-show countdown alone. I had only just seen the original film in anticipation of the sequel, so it’s a stretch to say I was a diehard fan of the property. Full transparency, we both bought our tickets solely on the strength of Daft Punk’s game-changing score. The film itself turned out to be an awesome spectacle with a somewhat interesting story that expanded upon the mythology in compelling, albeit hammy ways. Still, most viewers hated it (as they often do before reclaiming films like this one within the next few years as misunderstood classics — I’m pleased to report that I was ahead of the curve yet again).
After the film, the two of us returned to my apartment and used the lid from a barrel of Cheese Balls as a Tron disc, throwing it back and forth and saying things like “it’s biodigital jazz, man” and “TRONNNNNNN!”
Naturally, we reconvened for TRON: Ares, this time on the strength of our shared nostalgia and not on the contents of the soundtrack (which, to be fair, is a solid album in its own right, but NIN didn’t pull off quite as epic a feat as Daft Punk). In the past 15 years we’ve matured and aged to such a degree that our post-movie shenanigans are doomed to be less lively, but fortunately for us, and unfortunately for you, this long dormant third entry in the TRON saga is not worthy of much excitement, except in the most surface level sense. I probably shouldn’t be eating Cheese Balls anyway.
First and foremost, Jeff Bridges, who still has a lower lip packed with chipotle mayo, as is his right and his duty, fails to say “it’s biodigital jazz, man.” Secondly, all of the cool mythology that was introduced in Legacy (namely, the spontaneous birth of “ISOs” from The Grid) is dismissed in exchange for a chase movie that plays as a soft, Disney-fied T2: Judgment Day. The MacGuffin comes in the form of a “permanence code,” the secret sauce in keeping together any tangible item that is laser printed from The Grid itself. Be it a tank, a weapon, or Ares, the humanoid representation of a security program, without the code, all are doomed to crumble to pieces after a mere 29 minutes. This won’t do for Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), son of the original film’s big bad, who hopes to turn his enterprise into the military industrial complex’s next big thing. You can tell they’re a bad company because red. Unfortunately for him, the only person who may have access to the permanence code (which I’ve come to enjoy singing to the tune of The Who’s Eminence Front) is Eve Kim (Greta Lee), the current head of ENCOM (the good guys — their programs are blue!). As such, Dillinger prints out Ares (alleged sex offender, confirmed dipshit, and occasionally interesting performer Jared Leto) to hunt down Kim … at least until his empathy sensors get all screwy.
You read that right.
What follows is an intermittently exciting chase flick that has nothing interesting to say about artificial intelligence, capitalism, or anything, really. But that isn’t to say it isn’t a visually impressive film with fantastic sound design. As a feature length music video for NIN’s score, it’s quite well-designed and moves at enough of a clip to never be outright boring, but it fails to compel on any level other than the most superficial. This wouldn’t be a problem if the film were aware of this limitation. Alas, the script isn’t nearly as smart as it thinks it is, and is impressive only in the ways that it manages to invoke a wide array of previously established TRON imagery. There’s even a short sojourn into the OG Grid, which would be really cool if Jared Leto’s soulless face weren’t at the center of it. On paper, Leto seems a perfect fit for the material: no one does “the completely dead eyes of an automaton” quite like he does, and at that, his performance is a success. But when his Ares starts to learn about humanity, and his “fish out of water” existence is played for comedy, the actor is unable to find the humorous beats.
Leto is no Schwarzenegger.
But to blame Leto fully, as ridiculously fun as it is given his reputation for being Hollywood’s Turdmaster General, it would be wrong to lay the blame entirely at his feet. I don’t know much yet about Greta Lee, but as the “straight man” to Leto’s attempts at humor, she brings little to the table. I think the movie would work better if the two of them swapped roles. On the other end of the acting spectrum, Peters is giving a suitably large performance that matches the film’s desired tone, while Jodi Turner-Smith, as Athena, one of Ares’ digital contemporaries, gives the film the sole bit of pathos that it has. Gillian Anderson is sadly underused.
The film ends with a sequel tease, and despite my general lack of passion for this third entry, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious to see what the next chapter brings, even if my hopes for it are low. At any rate, it’s surprising that TRON has proven to be one of Disney’s most durable franchises, zapping through the mainframe for nearly half a century, since long before the gigantic company moved away from compelling storytelling and toward rehashing IP and giving in to the petulant whims of fascist politicians.
Directed by Joachim Rønning
Written by Jesse Wigutow, David DiGilio, based on characters created by Steven Lisberger
Starring Evan Peters, Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Jeff Bridges, man
Rated PG-13, 119 minutes
