Tron: Ares Review. I grew up with the original Tron (1982)…

I grew up with the original Tron (1982) and was at the perfect age for Tron: Legacy (2010) — the sequel that fully realized the vision of Tron with modern capabilities. You could expect nothing less from director Joseph Kosinski, who went on to deliver Top Gun: Maverick and this year’s F1.

Legacy received mixed-to-positive reception, but it wasn’t enough to warrant a follow-up for another fifteen years. Now, we have Tron: Ares from director Joachim Rønning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil). Not exactly a résumé that inspires confidence.

Ares is a few strong nods short from outright ignoring Legacy. Even Tron himself is completely absent from the film — mentioned only as the title of the in-universe game.

Instead, the story follows a technological arms race between Dillinger Systems CEO Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) and ENCOM CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee). That’s right — we’ve moved from the Flynn family legacy to boardroom rivalries. The new characters are as uninspired as you’d imagine, and their supporting cast doesn’t fare much better.

Both companies are racing to bring their programs to life permanently — something they’ve failed to do beyond a limited thirty-minute timeframe.

Enter Ares (Jared Leto), the Master Control Program for Dillinger Systems. Designed to obey Julian’s every command, Ares is continually brought into the real world, where his directives begin to clash with his developing sense of morality. Like all great Tron figures, he starts to crave something beyond the confines of his own code.

While Ares fails to carry forward much of what Legacy incepted into the franchise, its visual DNA clearly draws from Kosinski’s stunning aesthetic. Proof, if any were needed, that Legacy’s visual design was simply too good to abandon.

Where Ares succeeds most is in bringing The Grid — the digital frontier — into our world. It’s something Legacy only hinted at, and credit where it’s due: Rønning does an adequate job blending the natural geometry of a modern cityscape with the sleek, glowing order of the digital world. Lightcycles race through city streets mirroring the iconic overhead view of the original game.

Another strength lies in the first half of the film, which cleverly connects the choices of real-world users to the events unfolding inside The Grid. What appears as just a line of code to a hacker, in The Grid manifests as a high-stakes heist or infiltration mission. That kind of conceptual layering is exactly the kind of imagination the franchise has always thrived on.

Accompanying the visuals is a strong Nine Inch Nails soundtrack — another clear nod to what Daft Punk achieved in Legacy. Their sound brings a darker, more industrial tone, giving several action sequences a stylized, almost music-video rhythm. It’s not a bad approach, but with such flat and unengaging characters, it leaves the film feeling more like a “vibe” than a story. Even here, Legacy remains unmatched. Daft Punk managed to expand outside their electronic roots to deliver a full-bodied orchestral score that elevated both the epic and emotional moments.

Ares’s theming centers around the idea of permanence — each character seeking it for their own reasons: Dillinger out of pride, Kim out of sentiment, and Ares out of conviction. At the heart of the film is Ares’s awakening — a morality that convicts him against his directives as he learns a purpose greater than himself.

“And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” — Esther 4:14

Despite Ares’s shortcomings, it does leave room for more. Perhaps if the film performs well enough at the box office, we might finally see a proper follow-up to the story Legacy left behind.

Conclusion

Tron: Ares can’t match the depth or innovation of Legacy, but it holds its own as a visually immersive return to the grid. Nine Inch Nails deliver a charged, atmospheric score, and Jared Leto’s Ares provides just enough intrigue to keep the lightcycle moving. It may not redefine the system, but it keeps the circuit alive.

6.5/10