Tron: Ares

Tron: Ares is the movie Tron: Legacy should have been. Largely ignoring the events of Legacy, the new film give us corporate espionage while also playing on the real-life debate of greed and fear of the proper use of Artificial Intelligence. On one side we have Eve Kim (Greta Lee), stepping in as the head of ENCOM following Sam Flynn's departure. On the other side we have Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters). Both are pursuing the breakthrough to manifest physical objects and programs into the real world for longer than 29-minutes (at which they become unstable and dissolve into dust).

While Eve is driven by using the technology to help solve problems like world hunger, following in the footsteps of her sister (Selene Yun), the more ruthless Dillinger is after weaponizing the programs for military use and high corporate profits. The head of his army is Ares (Jared Leto), the Master Control for Dillinger Systems he sends into ENCOM to steal their secrets and then after Eve after he learns she has made the breakthrough which will stabilize the programs in the real world.

Peters works well as the melomaniacal grandson of Ed Dillinger whose questionable methods begin to bring the wrong kind of attention to the company in his all-out attempts to get his hands on the "permanence code." Lee provides the tough but thoughtful counterpoint to his world views, who sees Ares as more than just an expendable piece of code. Their initial encounter and then team up will lead to a variety of action sequences including a trip back to the world of the original Tron and Light Cycles and a Recognizer roaming the real world.

There are some issues here such as heavy expository dump during the opening credits to set up the film and the highly coincidental timing of events with Dillinger hacking the network on the day Eve has made the breakthrough. But these are mostly minor complaints, and if you strap in there's a hell of a ride waiting for you once things get going both on the grid and in the real world.

Nothing surprised me more than enjoying a franchise movie starring Jared Leto. Ares' more controlled demeanor and sardonic wit fit the actor much better than some of his notable missteps. Tron: Ares may not have all the magic of the original but it has more than expected while providing a fun, beautifully rendered (bringing back a bit more classic palate to the washed out colors of Legacy) adventure set to a rocking score by Nine Inch Nails that, while not necessarily my favorite music, fits perfectly with the tone director Joachim Rønning is after. It far exceeded my expectations (especially in IMAX). I don't know if we'll get the sequel the film teases in both the epilogue and stinger, but I'm certainly be onboard for more of this Tron.

• Title: Tron: Ares
• IMDb: link