Tron: Ares

I'll admit, when the first "Nine Inch Nails" single came out from the "Tron: Ares" soundtrack (the first time the front-man, now full-time, Oscar-winning, film composer Trent Reznor, has attached his band name directly to a film soundtrack), I perked up. Pair that with a trailer full of eye-popping sci-fi imagery, and I'll sign up to see what the third entry in the Tron series is all about. Maybe, just maybe, it'll be the first truly great and exciting Tron.

I've seen the previous two Tron films (released 18 years apart, the third now coming a whopping 33 years after the first and 15 years after the second), and while the imagery throughout this series is really cool to look at, the actual substance of the films also leaves the viewer a bit cold. "Why do I care?" is a question I found myself asking reasonably often during the runtime of "Tron: Legacy" in particular.

Some things never change.

"Tron: Ares" has one interesting nugget at the center of its story (will not reveal here. Spoiler-free is a promise I aim to keep!), but that's about it. Jared Leto is horribly miscast as a Terminator-like security program brought to life by a digital printing press, and it's a puzzling choice. Is Leto bringing anyone into the theater here? I imagine he has a reasonably high fee here (rumored at over $8 million for "Ares"). Why pay for a star to play this part at all? Especially one coming off box office abomination, "Morbius"? Greta Lee does a good job carrying an action blockbuster for the first time in her career. She does her best to salvage mediocre material. I hope to see her in more large-format films that are more worthy of her talents in the future.

Director, Joachim Ronning now gets a third try with a blockbuster budget, and hopefully we can all call this a strikeout. A maligned Pirates sequel, a poorly received Maleficent sequel, and now a lackluster Tron reboot/sequel. Acclaimed, smaller, largely foreign-language fare from Ronning has helped him earn all of these chances with budgets well into 9 figures per film, but Ronning clearly seems to do much better with a leaner, more focused project and a smaller budget. Why Disney is letting him try for a third time here is odd to me. Do they really not have a filmmaker they trust more to carry a tentpole reboot to fruition? Perhaps their first few phone calls led to negative script feedback they should have heeded.

Yes, at times "Tron: Ares" is entertaining. At other times, it's maddeningly repetitive and lame. Ok, we get it, the ship is big. I guess that's sort of cool. Ok, we get it, the light cycles leave cool light trails while they chase each other, and you should probably not run into them. Neat-o...

This feels like a first draft of a script where the writer had a grain of an interesting idea and everyone just ran with it through the finish line, like this is actually ready for primetime. To Disney's credit, they put the full weight of their marketing machine behind a "Tron" reboot. This got the red carpet treatment, and you can't say they botched their campaign at all. Anyone who could have been coaxed into a mediocre Tron reboot movie was coaxed (yours truly included).

Then again, is this to their credit or their detriment? Why is Disney putting this much time, effort, and money into rebooting a franchise that has previously elicited two decent, but not excellent entries, which both performed underwhelmingly at the box office? Would the same budget, perhaps put towards an original film (or even two, since we're rumored at over $180M here) from a thoughtful filmmaker with a truly polished, refined script, have been a better use of this cash? Perhaps?

Maybe, just maybe, if two entries in a franchise haven't found their audience in theaters, but there is a cult following for that property that you don't want to let go of yet, try leveraging the IP in other ways, and try starting a new franchise at the cineplex. This is exactly what Warner is doing with Blade Runner. After a second highly acclaimed Blade Runner entry failed to find its audience domestically, they are pivoting with that IP to an original HBO series, where the built-in fandom of the Blade Runner franchise is more than enough to get viewership started into the millions. And if the series works, they'll see the film's currently limited fanbase grow in the years ahead. But Warner Bros. has HBO, it's not like Disney has that kind of reach with a streaming platform or a need for original series content. Oh wait...

One thing is for certain, with effects this big and an opening right near the aforementioned hard-R-rated "Bladerunner: 2049's" underwhelming start from 8 years ago (also co-starring Leto), Disney will have a write-off in store for 2025. If that was the goal, mission accomplished.

Props for a predictably great soundtrack and a few entertaining scenes! And to Jeff Bridges, in the words of modern philosophers Birdman and Lil' Wayne, "Get that money."

- 4/10