That time period makes it easier to understand and perhaps even forgive the ways that Tron: Ares eventually gives in to another millennial trademark: ’80s nostalgia. For all the inert storytelling of the 2010 Tron legacy sequel, the one literally called Tron: Legacy, it wasn’t especially besotted with the 1980s, reimagining its aesthetics accordingly. That’s true for much of Ares, too, until a late succession of references, visual cues, and terrible dialogue sucks up to the ’80s-obsessed Gen-Xers who treat the same dozen movies made between 1977 and 1989 as their merchandisable religion. Of course Eve Kim (Greta Lee), the latest CEO of tech company ENCOM (now that two Flynns in a row have gone missing), is interested in the world-changing possibilities of A.I., especially as a means of virtually resurrecting the dead. The movie may claim it’s because she misses her departed sister, but she may as well be a Disney executive, hoping like hell she can reanimate the corpse of Luke Skywalker.
According to the movie’s streamlined screenplay, however, Eve is on the hunt for something that’s shorthanded as the “permanence code”—a computer formula that will allow programs and objects to be imported from the grid, the virtual landscape of the previous Tron pictures, into our world. Both Eve and a rival, nominally more evil CEO Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) have been able to get this to work for about a half-hour at a time before the subjects crumble into a kind of half-virtual, half-physical dust that may defy the laws of physics, but not such that anyone in the movie notices. Julian’s repeated test subject is Ares (Jared Leto), a security program, as well as his faithful lieutenant program Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith). They enter our world, absorb information like a Terminator, then disintegrate when their time is up—supersoldiers stuck in demo mode. Their programming does not preclude them screaming in agony every time this happens, however. Again, no one seems to much notice this bug. Maybe for some of the scientists, the derezzing is the point.
Early on, Eve discovers the code that will allow these programs to stabilize, and Julian sends Ares after her to retrieve it. He isn’t so sure he likes taking orders, though. It’s a bit like a nonsense-heavier speed run through Terminator and Terminator 2. As such, Tron: Ares spends much more time in the real world than its predecessors, though it does make several trips into the grid, which we will forthwith refer to as Tronland. This sounds like a low-rent development, but it brings us to the second great blessing of the Tron series: Its ability to convince Walt Disney Studios to spend a big budget on looking sleek and cool as hell, with the best colors and shapes money can buy. Compared to the clean-line strategy of Legacy’s Joseph Kosinski, new director Joachim Rønning (a longtime Disney hand) is more of a surprise showoff, sending the camera steadily zooming into digital tunnels, twirling through various vortices, and zipping alongside glowing-red motorcycles and minijets. If DP Jeff Cronenweth hadn’t been available to bring his Fight Club expertise to the picture, Rønning might well have imported Conrad W. Hall from Panic Room, the other Fincher showcase for zooming into and around things. Whether capturing the famous lightcycles wreaking havoc on a real-world city or capturing semi-live-action stars free-falling into a Tronland bay, Tron: Ares is as eye-filling as its predecessors. Occasionally, the imagery is allowed to expand or blur into abstraction; it’s not quite Speed Racer-style psychedelia, but it’s electric enough for lamentation: Why can’t any of Disney’s superhero movies look like this?
The cast doesn’t inspire the same kinds of questions. Greta Lee, sporting an insanely long ponytail and a cool motorcycle jacket, is fine; this isn’t where she’s going to make her career, but she’s plucky and likable, even as a CEO. Jared Leto, however, is wrong for this part two or three times over. He seems to be aiming for the Zenlike superhumanity of Keanu Reeves, which is a great idea except for the part where it reminds you of how much better Reeves would be in this role. It wouldn’t have to be him to work, though. Ares could also have been played by an otherworldly body type, like Arnold Schwarzenegger; a more skillful deadpan comic; or an old-fashioned charismatic action hero who gradually reveals his sensitive side. Leto doesn’t cut it on any level. Even his best bits, like Ares using his vast accumulation of cultural knowledge to praise Depeche Mode, land less gracefully than they should. Leto’s refusal to retreat into character acting is a terrible miscalculation enabled by a mystifying corporate faith in his leading-man powers. Has Michael Morbius bewitched everyone?
Or maybe the early-2000s vibes of Tron: Ares really are that powerful, bending time to pluck a semi-canceled leading man from his prime. Certainly the movie’s ideas about A.I. (which it variously conflates with video game avatars, 3-D printing, and old-fashioned robots) don’t feel especially informed by anything happening in 2025. In the world of this movie, we’re still dawning on a potential new age of information revolution, or whatever, and the coming hybridized life is what we make of it, off-grid or on. And in the context of our world, that’s enough for Tron: Ares to work as escapism. The result is a pretty dumb movie with beautiful visual effects, cleanly shot action, and a kickass soundtrack. Wouldn’t it be great if the future of blockbusters was only this bleak?
Director: Joachim Rønning
Writers: Jesse Wigutow, David Digilio
Starring: Greta Lee, Jared Leto, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Gillian Anderson, Arturo Castro, Jeff Bridges
Release Date: October 10, 2025
