TRON: Ares

Director: Joachim Rønning

ENCOM and Dillinger System, lead by their CEO’s Eve Kim (Greta Lee) and Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), are on the verge of a tech breakthrough, the ability to bring digitally created organisms to life in the real world. But both are missing a crucial piece, the “permanence code”. Eve tries to discover the secret in her sister’s work and that of their company founder Kevin Flynn, the builder of the original TRON grid. While Dillinger has a more nefarious plan, based on his soldiers from within the Grid, led by Ares (Jared Leto) and Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith), who he brings into the real world to hunt down Eve, get the code and allow Dillinger to change the world, and not for the better.

It’s fair to say, this is a film that has not been warmly received by critics, and the question of whether we needed more TRON is open to debate. But I had a good time with Ares.

It’s not earth shattering, and there is a serious question about how much of a TRON film it actually is, as it takes the whole premise of its predecessors and throws it away, bringing the world of TRON into the real world. But, reservations aside, it’s a solidly made couple of hours of entertainment. It looks great, has a swift moving, if rather predictable story and leaps rapidly between spectacular set pieces.

Greta Lee is at the heart of the best bits of the film. Jared Leto, brings some humour to the role of Ares as he tries to assimilate with humanity. Jodie Turner Smith is imposing as Athena. And there are decent turns from Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro and Gillian Anderson. As well as a banging Nine Inch Nails soundtrack.

TRON:Ares will not change the world, but it is a perfectly serviceable sci-fi adventure, even if it does seem to throw the premise of its predecessors in the bin. It doesn’t have too much to say, but it looks good, zips along between action set pieces and if you ever wanted to see Light-cycles in the real world, well here you go. Fun while it lasted, not sure we need any more!