Director – Joachim Rønning – 2025 – US – Cert. 12a – 119m
A CEO uses robots and vehicles from the digital world, which disintegrate after 29 minutes, to hunt down his corporate rival – out in UK cinemas on Friday, October 10th
****
Third movie in Disney’s Tron franchise doesn’t presuppose much knowledge of the original film (Steven Lisberger, 1982) beyond Jeff Bridges vanishing into the world of computer games, and coloured motorbikes leaving instantly recognisable colour trails behind them in the computer graphics-styled grid world. In its day, when computer graphics effects were few and far between in the cinema, it’s visuals were memorable. Which instantly states the problem for any contemporary Tron movie: it has to stand out from the crowd of CG augmented movies released in contemporary Hollywood cinema.
The plot here is pretty flimsy (I don’t say that as an adverse criticism: the movie is what is is, a serviceable, effects-laden Hollywood blockbuster) and is as follows. Two big corporations are vying for market dominance in the area of realising computer programmes from the CG world into our own. Dillinger Systems, run by the youthful and ruthless Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), shows shareholders at a flashy presentation how he can bring the ultimate, obedient, robot warrior Ares (Jared Leto) into our world to provide buyers with the most effective soldier imaginable. What he doesn’t tell them is that these digital entities can only last 29 minutes I our world before they collapse via de-resolution.
Meanwhile, Eve Kim (Greta Lee from Past Lives, Celine Song, 2023), CEO of Dillinger’s rival ENCOM, along with her somewhat hapless right hand man Ajay Singh (Hasan Minha), goes to the isolated, Alaskan hut set up by Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges in the original film) to trawl through his floppy disks in search of the so-called permanence code which allows digital entities to survive permanently in our world. Locating the code, she tests it on a digital tree and successfully breaks the 29 minute barrier.
Speculating that Eve may have discovered the code his market dominance requires, Julian sets out to steal it from her. He has in his arsenal not only Ares, but also Ares’ equally ruthless digital assistant Athena (Jodi Turner-Smith). When his mother, former Dillinger CEO Elizabeth Dillinger (Gillian Anderson from the soon to be rereleased The House of Mirth, Terence Davies, 2000; The X-Files, TV series, 1983-2018), discovers what he is up to, she is horrified. for her, the end clearly does not justify the means.
As far as plot goes, that’s pretty much it except for Ares’ character becoming self-aware enough to see that Eve Kim is good and benevolent while Julian Dillinger is a tyrannical despot who might not be the wisest person Ares could choose to follow. This provides the perfect plot mechanics space for numerous car / bike / other vehicle chases, made all the more effective by the fact that Eve’s digital pursuers only have 29 minutes to complete each mission before they disintegrate.
Ares and Athena’s initial costumes, bikes, and other vehicles are in the Tron style in black augmented with red lines and bike trails, while their rivals (including Ares when he switches loyalties) replace red with white, making the fast-paced, action packed conflict easy enough to follow in terms of who’s who. Watching this, you tend to take it for granted, but it’s a much harder feat than it looks to pull off and I’ve seen plenty of films which have failed at this and fallen flat on their faces. Perhaps helped by the 29 minutes disintegration device, the film is beautifully paced and edited too.
The film benefits no end from the casting of Greta Lee as Eve Kim, who brings a much needed quality of humanity to the character and renders the proceedings far more compelling than they would otherwise have been. As for the rest of the cast, Gillian Anderson is particularly good as Julian’s horrified mother.
In the end, this is an enjoyable and highly serviceable (second) sequel to a film that’s not really as remarkable as its cult following might suggest. Its spectacular visuals – which, frankly, are the reason to see it – benefit greatly from being seen on a large IMAX screen such as Leicester Square’s Cineworld Odeon where it was screened to UK press.
Tron: Ares is out in cinemas in the UK on Friday, October 10th.
Trailer: