INTRO:
I’m Hank, a nineteen year podcasting veteran, filmmaker, and YouTuber, and this is my review of Disney’s Tron: Ares.
This is a spoiler-filled review of the movie so if that’s not your cup of tea this review won’t be for you. Note: I saw this movie in 3D and I have never seen Tron: Legacy. I’m neither a Tron fan nor do I know much about the lore.
BUDGET:
$180-$220 million for production and another $100-ish million for marketing. We're looking at around $300 million dollars when it's all said and done. Three weeks in and we're at about roughly $125 million. OUCH! Profitability is way out of reach.
SETTINGS:
The world of Tron: Ares is pristine! The saturated colors jump off the screen even in the often dark settings. I found the visuals of this movie to actually match the inflated budget. Moreover, even the regular settings were shot with depth and attention to detail that is simply missing in most modern movies.
CHARACTERS:
I’m not going to reflect on all the characters, but I’ll talk about the main cast.
Jared Leto plays the one note Ares computer program that comes to life via the permanence code. I’ve heard a lot about how bland the Ares character is and I thought to myself how would I direct an actor to convey lines as a computer program made real? Probably just as stilted as his delivery. Could you have made the character be the one “special” character who delivers lines in a human way to set him apart from the others? I’m sure you could, but the way he delivered the lines, while bland, is probably the most logical course. I did like how he questioned what was happening, but those nuanced lines seem lost on many moviegoers.
Greta Lee plays Eve Kim the CEO of ENCOM who is trying to find Kevin Flynn's "permanence code" to use for humanitarian purposes. While the character type has been done to death I did find myself having a soft spot for her based on her arc being tied to the death of her sister Tess. Her purpose driven story made sense but has been done ad nauseum.
Jodie Turner-Smith as Athena seemed to finally be a role that worked for her. She’s basically a 3D printed Terminator and I liked that they didn’t stray from her mission and try to make her likeable.
Evan Peters as Julian Dillinger was where the wheels started to come off of this movie. This tech billionaire trope is even worse than the Eve Kim checkbox character.
Gillian Anderson’s Elisabeth Dillinger was a waste in my opinion. She should have played the antagonist and been desperate to cement her legacy and then let things go off the rails from there. I’d of yeeted Evan Peters from the film faster than my ex can make a box of Girl Scout cookies disappear.
Jeff Bridges (Kevin Flynn) is the white Samuel L. Jackson. He has devolved to a caricature.
Arturo Castro as Seth Flores is simply miscast. That character has to be much younger in my opinion. Instead of a 40-year old, I’m casting someone in their early to mid 20’s.
HITS:
The overall visuals are astounding! There’s simply too much eye candy to ignore. From the suits, to the literal hacking where programs fight each other, I was blown away by the look and style of the film.
I found the 3D printing insertion into the story to be both timely and cool. The effects for laser printing things in the real world were especially awesome.
The 29 minute time limit for Ares and the others coming through to the real world was an idea I really liked. It reminded me of the recording limits back in the early 2010’s where cameras that could record for 30 minutes or more were taxed at a higher rate than cameras that recorded for less than 30 minutes. It could be a nerdy deep cut or it could simply be a coincidence.
As every other review you’ve heard notes, the music is good although I wasn’t a big fan of some of the 8-bit musical risers in this movie, however they fit the film.
MISSES:
The Permanence Code is simply a mechanism they chase because plot is needed. Honestly, why on earth did this genius woman go to Alaska searching for this elusive code but it actually was just in the boss’s museum office the whole time. That is pretty ridiculous and could have saved about 15 minutes of runtime which would have knocked off some of the massive budget.
The Grid seems more like a wasteland than a vibrant environment. It reminds me of how Marvel initially did Asgard. Where it was the bridge and the main location and that’s all you ever saw. I’ve heard that the Legacy version of Tron does a much better job but I haven’t seen it.
The characters have all been done far too often. There’s simply nothing new here. I would have loved to see a different take on all of these tried and true character types.
The invasion force consists of one recognizer and 3 soldiers. That’s it…
Where is Bruce Boxleitner aka Alan Bradley? He says he was never even asked to be in this film. What a shame! This movie is Tron in name only.
The exposition dumps were 1) obvious and 2) obnoxious. It can be challenging to give audience members information they need without it looking like it did in this movie.
Do you want to tell them or do you want me to tell them that a particle laser can’t create organic matter? We all suspended our disbelief together on that one.
MOVIE SCORE: 5/10
DIRECTION: C
WRITING: D
CINEMATOGRAPHY: A
POST PRODUCTION (INCLUDES: SCORE, SFX, COLOR GRADE) : A
REWATCHABILITY: C
1 Awful content = Fails on every single level.
2-4 Poor = Terrible on almost every front.
5 Mediocre = Some of the content is worthwhile but mostly broken.
6 Average = Okay writing, acting, storytelling and execution.
7 Good = Solid writing, acting, storytelling and execution.
8 Great = Great writing, acting, storytelling and execution.
9 Almost Perfect = Very minor nitpicks but otherwise excellent.
10 Perfect = A masterpiece! No writing, acting or storytelling flaws. Would hold up against all time classics (e.g. M.A.S.H., Lost, Game of Thrones etc).
