Tron: Ares Spoiler Free Review

 Tron: Ares

Genre: Science fiction/action

Director: Joachim Ronning

Released: 2025




     I can't prove it, nor would I have the knowledge required to recognize proof if it existed, but I'm pretty sure Tron: Ares turned the mild headache I was suffering from into a full blown migraine. Certainly its florid digital vistas and retina-scorching color palette of searing red and blinding white are, to put it mildly, a bit much. The designers have clearly taken a "more is more" approach to the film's aesthetic, leaving the viewer (at least this viewer) more overwhelmed than wowed. 

     I start this review with the visuals because I imagine for many people weighing up a potential Tron movie night, whether or not it looks cool will exert an outsize influence on their ultimate decision. By the time the first trailer ended, I think everyone knew this movie wasn't going to have much to recommend it vis a vis characters, plot or acting, but from the very start of this franchise people have been more drawn to its world and effects than its cast of players.

     Tron: Ares is, unfortunately, the worst of both worlds. As I said, I found its visuals to be garish and excessive, and they have the added disadvantage of feeling weightless, too. So much of the action plays out in painfully obvious volume screens or in entirely computer-generated set pieces that lack the punch or texture of even the bare minimum of physical grounding. Had the effects artists been given more time or more money, maybe there's a world where sheer digital wizardry overcomes these drawbacks, but neither were apparently forthcoming during this film's production.

     Weightlessness is an appropriate term for the rest of Ares, too. I don't know how much I buy into the theory that significant portions of today's movies are made with the explicit intention of appealing to people on their phones, but this movie definitely fits that bill. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that every piece of character development is stated in the most bluntly obvious terms imaginable. Rather than allowing the audience to put the pieces together themselves, characters just have their thoughts stated by another character or, if none are handy, say them out loud to no one.

     Ares himself is by far the worst offender here. The dude will not shut up about the stuff he likes, the way he feels, even the music he prefers, all to ensure that even the most disinterested observers get that he's becoming a real boy with real emotions. 
     That's not to say that anyone else is subtly drawn, of course. Julian Dillinger, the main villain, is a paper thin caricature, protagonist Eve Kim is a one dimensional bore, and all others just serve to needlessly fill out an overstuffed cast. None of them are interesting or even likable, especially since they all talk in that quirky, unserious, Marvel dialogue that won't just die already. 

     I usually end these reviews by trying to imagine who might want to watch the movie and recommending it to them, even if that hypothetical person is of an exceptionally niche taste. For Ares, however, I find myself coming up short. Who would enjoy this movie? Tron fans probably won't like the way it all but ignores the preceding installment, casual action/sci-fi enjoyers will be put off by the uninteresting, retreaded worldbuilding and anemic fight scenes, and people who watch movies on a purely superficial level are just as likely to be put off by the visual excess as I was. 
I suppose if you are the kind of person who puts on movies in the background while they tap at their phones, you could probably do worse. 




D-