Film review: TRON: Ares

It is kind of the future but not really. A pair of rival computer companies are close to a breakthrough on something that will change the world, but both have very different visions of how. People get sucked into the computer world and end up on the cold, hard battlefield that is The Grid. Questions are raised about what’s actually alive, and the ethics of handing over power and control to machines.

If the shorthand plot hasn’t changed much from the original TRON in 1982, the baubles and details have in this third entry in the franchise (though nothing to do with 2010’s TRON: Legacy). Mainly, the game in TRON: Ares is to bring things out of the digital world, 3D printing whatever you’ve programmed to make it real. Like its own products, in the event, it doesn’t quite deliver on the sales pitch.

Predictably, the engineers at ENCOM, the legacy company of Jeff Bridges’ Sam Flynn from the original, have a lovely, fluffy, utopian idea of this machine’s use, creating an orange tree that it might eventually lead to an end to world hunger. At the sinister Dillinger, meanwhile, douchebag tech bro and founder Ed Dillinger’s grandson Julian (just in case you didn’t spot he was the bad guy) has summoned a bunch of generals and other war shits to behold his creation: an obedient, completely expendable AI super-soldier, Ares. In the unlikely event that Ares should be bested in battle, he promises, “I can just build you a new one.”

Getting killed fighting won’t be a problem, though, because Ares and his CG ilk can’t stay in the real world for more than half an hour before they automatically de-res and disintegrate, and have to start again from scratch. So unless it’s a very short, very local fight, he’s fairly useless. Ditto the oranges.

What’s needed is a hidden piece of programming, the Permanence Code, to keep stuff real forever. ENCOM CEO Eve has found it, hidden on Flynn’s old, original floppy disks, and has to get it back to HQ before Dillinger can use Ares and fellow soldier Athena to mug it from her, causing chaos around the real-world city as they track her down.

Dillinger’s other problem is that Ares has heard what he said about his expendability and started questioning everything, changing sides and becoming more human, realising his creator isn’t doing good. When Dillinger orders Athena to take over from Ares and get the code “by any means necessary”, he brutally learns why a ‘computer says no’ way of working isn’t good – eventually literally needing a Dillinger Escape Plan (wocka wocka!). On top of that, his mum, a perma-stressed Gillian Anderson, thinks he’s being a dick and is working with the board of directors to have him removed.

When TRON: Ares does TRON stuff, it’s very cool. Flipping the action on its head so it mostly takes place in the real world, rather than a human in a computer, means the potential for destruction and mayhem is ramped up. The lightbike chases around the city look great, as do the bits when they get de-resed. Seeing one of the feared recognisers from the original hulking around is rad, even if it is sent packing relatively easily. When they’re in the computer world, it’s staggering, and when Ares goes back to the original, ’80s version, it’s a neater touch than the very obvious first movie poster in the background.

Jared Leto is half and half. As a non-human entity struggling to get his head around things like feelings, morality and jokes, it’s a character that fits well. In fact, the closer he gets to being something of a real boy, the less convincing he becomes, until you get to the end and he beats Johnny Depp’s rubbish cologne advert in the cringe Olympics.

Talking of jokes, like an AI, he continues to look like someone who’s seen and heard them, but still isn’t quite sure how they work. This is fine when he’s leading a team of programs into a rival computer to steal code, but makes the scenes where he begins to awaken less than dramatic. When it goes full fish-out-of-water – including an American Psycho-ish attempt by Ares to explain why he likes Depeche Mode – the comic relief is crap, and jars with the digital darkness elsewhere.

Much better is the ruthless Athena, a digital domina with no emotion and a bean-counting attitude to killing, and Jeff Bridges’ turn up as Flynn, to offer Ares dude-like wisdom on what ‘permanence’ might actually mean.

Then there’s Nine Inch Nails’ staggering soundtrack, which fills in a lot of the gaps in the vibe and atmosphere on the occasions where the jumps between the computer world and reality are less than smooth. Also: keep your eyes peeled for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Even with the oddness of TRON as a franchise, releasing new instalments almost generationally, two of which have fuck-all to do with one another (and work on this started almost as long ago as the release of Legacy), Ares feels stretched and disjointed. When Eve enters The Grid, there’s no sense that she’s done something absolutely bonkers. The atmosphere jumps around. The threat from Athena feels underused – when she escalates things beyond human control, it still doesn’t feel far enough.

Still, in a world where tech dickheads are trying to shove AI into everything even when nobody asked for it, including – yay! – weapons to do a better job of killing you, the cautionary tale that handing control to the computer world isn’t such a good idea is a very modern moral. The effects and staging, meanwhile, will ignite an excitement in you. But, like Jared Leto’s main guy, the problems and holes keep it from its potential, and make it ultimately replaceable.

Verdict: 3/5

TRON: Ares is released on October 10 via Disney