A star rating of 3 out of 5.

"We are a hundred per cent expendable." So says Jared Leto’s Ares, the military-grade AI soldier at the heart of this third film in Disney’s Tron franchise. No doubt Leto and the acting community at large are probably feeling that this week following the unveiling of AI actress Tilly Norwood, which has left Hollywood up in arms. Still, that development is an unexpected, if weird, publicity boost for Tron: Ares, a beautifully designed, if slightly hollow, blockbuster.

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With its landmark visual effects, the first Tron (1982) sucked Jeff Bridges’ programmer Kevin Flynn into the mainframe ‘grid’ of the company he once worked for, a world where computer programs appear as living human entities. The franchise went back online with 2010’s Tron: Legacy, a disappointing sequel distinguished by Daft Punk’s thunderous score. Fifteen years on from that, Tron is back – with a twist. This time, the computer programs come into our world.

Evan Peters plays Julian Dillinger, grandson of David Warner’s character from the original. Drunk with power, he’s recently taken over the Dillinger company from his mother Elizabeth (Gillian Anderson, in a thankless role), as he looks to create the ultimate security software. Ares, along with several other cohorts, live inside the ‘grid’, but can materialise in our world.

“Military AI is the future,” Dillinger beams to his investors, who aren’t aware of one fatal flaw in his plan. After 29 minutes, these AI beings evaporate.

Dillinger is seeking what’s called "the permanence code" to change all that, but he’s not alone. Over at ENCOM – the company that Flynn once worked for and Dillinger’s grandfather unscrupulously ran – rival tech genius Eve Kim (Greta Lee) is doing the same. Whoever finds it first will have quite the breakthrough on their hands.

Peters, who famously played real-life serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in the Netflix show, is of course the unhinged villain of the piece, only interested in profit and gain.

The film comes directed by Joachim Rønning, the Norwegian filmmaker who has become a sequel specialist, after 2017’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and 2019’s Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. He competently handles the action, especially a thrilling chase through the city when Ares and his fellow program Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith) pursue Eve on Light Cycles, the digital motorbikes previously only seen on the grid.

Watching the Cycles trail deadly beams of light in their wake through the cityscape is a compelling sight, and Rønning exploits this to the max. Same goes for the splendid black-and-red colour scheme that runs through the film, neatly deployed by production designer Darren Gilford. With its gleaming feel, Tron: Ares feels truly like stepping into the future at times. Jared Leto and the excellent Jodie Turner-Smith add to this with their otherworldly sentient soldiers.

The music is courtesy of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the ubiquitous composers who are producing the soundtrack under their Nine Inch Nails banner. No doubt, there’s something cool about NIN and Tron together, but this electronica-driven score (which feels highly indebted to Radiohead’s Kid A at points) doesn’t touch what Daft Punk achieved for Tron: Legacy. Still, it’s atmospheric, energising and befits Rønning’s heart-pumping action.

Without giving too much away, there is room for a Jeff Bridges appearance, and also a nostalgia-driven sequence that fans of the original Tron will love. What a pity the script itself flounders, hampered by the fact Hollywood has churned out numerous AI stories of late.

Certainly, this lacks the cheekiness of, say, M3GAN. With the exception of an amusing riff about Depeche Mode (better than Mozart, according to Ares), it requires a much-needed humour injection. In Tron terms, the future is less bright than po-faced.

Trom: Ares is in UK cinemas from Friday 10th October.

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Authors

James Mottram is a London-based film critic, journalist, and author.

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