#66: TRON ARES

STARRING: Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, Gillian Anderson and Jeff Bridges.  Story by David DiGilio and Jesse Wigutow. Screenplay by Jesse Wigutow. Directed by Joachim Rønning. Music by Nine Inch Nails (NIN). Budget $200 million. Running time 119 minutes.

So, 15 years have passed since Tron Legacy and in the present Jared Leto plays Ares – a programe who dreams of being human, imagine a digital Pinocchio who's also a one man killing machine. He's a program created by the Grandson of David Warner's Dillinger from the first Tron movie, and he's found a way to 3D print digital weapons and soldiers, but they only have a life span of 29 minutes. Meanwhile there's this scientist lady called Eve who's the owner of all of Kevin Flynn's, played by Jeff Bridges in the original, company and tech and she and Dillinger are mortal enemies. Anyway she finds this old Flynn code that will make all the 3-D printed stuff last indefinitely. Dillinger and his mum, played by Gillian Anderson want it, girl genius wants it and so does Ares. But when Ares escapes into the real world he teams up with genius girl, and Dillinger sends another digital warrior after Ares to get it back. And then there's this big chase and battle somewhere in an American city and Ares ends up in the original Tron world and chats with Jeff Bridges and then more stuff happens and it ends, with a post credit sequel bait sequence and there you have the synopsis for the most unnecessary sequel, since the three Star Wars prequels and sequels, the three Matrix ones and all the Terminator and Alien ones after the second. 

I left the cinema less than an hour ago and I'm desperate to get my thoughts down before I forget I've ever saw this. Interestingly enough the four other members of the audience for this film walked out after ten minutes, while I stayed to the very end and I'm rather glad i did, because I rather enjoyed it. 

Just make sure to switch your brain to neutral, disable your critical facilities, and lower your firewall and just enjoy the visual and audio spectacle because this was a mostly entertaining and exciting little romp that didn't outstay its welcome and didn't offer a world threatening global extinction event. Jared Leto, an actor I have very little enthusiasm for, did well and offered up a mostly reserved and likeable character in Ares, the effects all reds and blacks were very well done, but the highlight of the whole event was a return to the original world of Tron in a most unexpected way, I wish we could have stayed there longer, seeing the original light bike was a total delight and worth the admission price alone. The music by NIN is very good, powerful and raw and very much suited the visuals. The pacing is good, the direction won't win any Oscars but was very competent and there's a very funny bit about 1980s music which had me laughing. The great thing about being the only one in the audience is not only can you whoop and cheer with impunity, but you can also sit there in your underpants and string vest as if you were at home. 

The original Tron came out in 1982 and beyond its ground-breaking special effects had very little less to offer, the story was bog-standard and very Disney-esque. Tron Legacy arrived 28 years later and was an overblown affair mostly remembered for the terrible CGI de-aging of Jeff Bridges. This new sequel, which if it is to be believed has been in development since 2010 makes no effort to resolve the ending of the last film, which saw Sam Flynn and Kiora the female program drive off into the sunrise, or sunset, although their existence is hinted at in this and their possible involvement should there be another installment. That possibility seems very likely since for some inexplicable reason, despite their poor box-office returns, Hollywood just keeps on producing more Tron films. 

To sum up, this wasn't totally ch-TRON-ic, and it did sort of ARES-ise above expectations.

7/10