Movie Review: Tron: Ares

Coming fifteen years after the release of Tron: Legacy (2010), the third film in the “Tron” series, Tron: Ares, seeks to establish the title as more of an action/sci-fi film than a tech heavy niche-driven vehicle. For the most part, the results are favorable and Tron: Ares may perhaps usher in a new spate of computer-centric films that ask audiences to question the limits of their current realities.

The film centers around the launch of a program called Ares (Jared Leto) who has been created to identify and eliminate dangerous elements within any given computer system. Now, humanity’s never-ending brushes with artificial intelligence (A.I.) force the computer world to take immediate action against the real world in order to save it from itself and an invading force of A.I. beings.

Although that may seem like a rather dense and convoluted setup, the film is remarkably subdued with regards to the techspeak. A majority of the film takes place in the “real” world, as opposed to the digital realm. But, when it does switch to cyberspace, it is done so with the mindset that technologies have advanced quite a bit since the previous films in the series and the line between reality and the digital world seems blurred at best.

Since the first film – Tron (1982) – this series has been one of the more beloved among film fans of a certain age and demographic. This entry attempts to reclaim the series for a younger generation and, does so with varying levels of success.

Director Joachim Rønning – who previously helmed big-budget films like Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) – manages to provide a film that fits appropriately within the existing series so as to not alienate long-standing fans, but also one that embraces a less technical approach so as to be a more overall crowd-pleasing type of feature.

Jodie Turner-Smith in “Tron: Ares.” Photo by Disney/DISNEY – © 2025 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Working from a script penned by Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne, Rønning does something that the previous films have opted to not focus on – characters. One could argue that Ares (played by Jared Leto) may be the best drawn character of the entire series, and that includes Jeff Bridges’ portrayal of Kevin Flynn – who has, unfortunately become a sort of parody of his “Dude” character from The Big Lebowski (1998). There is an existential crisis faced by Ares that seems drawn directly from the conceit of the first film in the series – what does it mean to be alive? The character’s quest to answer this question makes for a far more rewarding tale than simply watching programs go through the motion of doing what their “users” tell them to do.

While it will undoubtedly be compared to not only its predecessors, but also the films in the “Matrix” series, Tron: Ares manages to capture a good deal of the magic of the first film while simultaneously pushing the franchise forward with a fresh outlook on the domain of cyberspace.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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