‘Tron: Ares’ Review: Jared Leto and Greta Lee Bring New Blood To Vintage Cyber Franchise, With a Big Kick From Nine Inch Nails’ Hard-Driving Score

Beyond the hardcore gamers who claimed spiritual ownership of the franchise, the limitation for many of us of Disney’s Tron movies — both the 1982 original and the long-aborning 2010 sequel, Tron: Legacy — was always the imbalance between dazzling digital landscapes and dull human drama. The first movie squeaked by thanks largely to its creation of a CG parallel universe of neon graphics, geometric lines and throbbing grids that was genuinely innovative for its time. It also got a boost from magnetic leads Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner as contrasting iterations of the holdover ’70s hunk.

Twenty-eight years later (no, not a Danny Boyle film), even car commercials were painting with cyber art, which nixed the novelty. While technological advances enhanced the visual style, the storytelling remained sluggish, not helped by the distraction of a waxy-looking, digitally de-aged Bridges doing battle with his older self. What Legacy did have going for it was a propulsive electronic score by French techno-funk giants Daft Punk, which kept the movie humming even when the narrative engine stalled.

In the same way, this latest dive into the Tron-verse — directed by Norwegian action vet Joachim Rønning and written by Jesse Wigutow — gets a considerable shot of adrenaline from the pulse-pounding score by Nine Inch Nails, billed here by their band name rather than the more customary Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Just as their big-beat grooves kept the tennis balls, rivalry and sexual tension pinging in Challengers, the composers’ work here amps up the energy of Rønning’s already-visceral handle on the action, which benefits from stepping outside the grid into reality. The robust score and sound design also make the IMAX experience worth the extra outlay.

The core story elements concerning the bridge between the human and digital worlds — and a sophisticated humanoid cyber security program that blurs the distinction when he starts to question his expendability as he begins to feel — are familiar from countless movies. In addition to the previous Tron films, there are aspects of Blade Runner, Ex Machina and The Matrix, among many others.

But a refreshingly subdued performance from Jared Leto as the eponymous program, Ares, supplies an emotional hook and even an occasional touch of humor, something missing from the earlier films. Leto is also well-paired with Greta Lee as Eve Kim, CEO of ENCOM, the tech corporation at the center of the series since the start.

After decades of shifting fortunes, ENCOM are now the good guys, but they have a serious rival in Dillinger Systems, a breakaway company headed by Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), grandson of the shady character played by David Warner in the original.

Ares is introduced as the protector of the grid, or “Master Control” if you want his actual job title. The program is designed to follow orders from its user, Julian, a tech geek with a god complex. But even during an early presentation, as investors are informed that “the future of the military is AI” and Ares is touted as its ultimate soldier, the program appears troubled by the assertion that he can be easily replaced.

What Julian hasn’t told his backers is that Dillinger Systems is still trying to figure out how to make the digitally rendered, multidimensional soldiers and their hardware last more than 29 minutes before de-resolution causes them to crumble. When Eve, driven by the determination to complete her late sister’s work, cracks the “permanence code,” that makes ENCOM a target for Julian’s corporate espionage.

After Julian sends cyber soldiers, led by Ares and his lieutenant Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith), on an unsuccessful raid of ENCOM’s server farm, they abduct Eve by using a particle laser to trap her digitized form on the Dillinger grid. But Julian’s order to extract the code and “delete the carrier” doesn’t sit well with Ares, who is so well-versed in Eve’s history that empathy gets in the way of him following directions, prompting him to go rogue and aid in Eve’s escape.

Athena has no such qualms, stepping up to finish the job “by any means necessary.” That directive puts her beyond dilettante megalomaniac Julian’s control as she supersizes a hovering “Recognizer” aircraft and heads into the real world, weaving a path of destruction. She also eliminates an unintended casualty with a matter-of-fact, “Impediment removed.” But until she can grab the permanence code she’s still up against that 29-minute clock.

Rønning’s evident affection for the Tron series allows him and Wigutow not just to riff on the mythology and reference the graphic iconography but also to layer in amusing character quirks.

One fun touch as Ares and Eve negotiate mutual trust is his enthusiasm for ’80s synth pop — Depeche Mode’s “I Just Can’t Get Enough” is his track of choice. Leto gives him a Zen countenance and a wry observational mode to contrast his formidable fight skills. Those human qualities help break down walls between him and Eve, played with great spirit by Lee as a genius holding onto her sorrow.

While Peters veers closer to a stock villain — the ubiquitous empowered dweeb, though those coding-sequence tattoo sleeves are a nice embellishment — Hasan Minhaj and Arturo Castro are appealing as Eve’s ENCOM associates. Turner-Smith makes a fierce villain with glam-rock eye makeup and a peroxide-blonde close crop, and Gillian Anderson brings her natural authority, and lots of pursed-lip disapproval, as Julian’s savvier and more cautious mother, whom he superseded as Dillinger CEO.

Bridges — mercifully this time looking like his present-age self, not Jared Kushner — doesn’t drop by for long as software engineer Kevin Flynn, the former ENCOM chief and video arcade proprietor who sacrificed himself to the grid in Legacy. But in his extended scene with Leto’s Ares, the two cool dudes groove on each other’s mystique, leaving Flynn tickled to witness his prediction of an AI-human interface coming to pass.

That’s not to say the movie is all sunshiny and upbeat about the increasing dominance of tech in our lives. On the contrary, its closing act emphasizes how essential it is that the keys stay in the right hands, which might not be the case for long given the appearance during the end credits of a pesky survivor.

Tron: Ares is a separate story rather than a direct sequel to Legacy, meaning Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde’s characters are AWOL. It’s also a marked upgrade from its predecessor, with more dynamic visuals and muscular action sequences. Only occasionally does an actor look like they are cowering from some green-screen threat (Lee more than others). More often, the stakes are elevated thanks to greater use of physical sets and in-camera effects than in previous installments.

The most thrilling example is a high-speed freeway chase (brilliantly shot by Jeff Cronenweth), with Eve on a motorcycle pursued by Athena and Ares on light cycles trailing ribbons of red laser in their wake. Along with the stompy-wompy Recognizers, that nod to the legacy of industrial designer Syd Mead makes Tron: Ares a franchise entry that honors its roots while taking significant steps forward. It’s no sci-fi insta-classic, but there are worse things to be than a surprisingly entertaining post-summer popcorn bucket.