TRON is a franchise that doesn't get enough respect and TRON LEGACY is the best written/ directed movie of the series with a killer soundtrack by Daft Punk. TRON LEGACY broke even and made it's money back, but the merchandise tanked. Disney bought STAR WARS and then they decided to cancel the sequel which would have brought back Joseph Kosinski to direct it. It was in pre-production with many of the main stars from TRON LEGACY to return. Then for various reasons, than version of the third TRON movie was canceled. TRON ARES is now the result of studio meddling and a long development period with many people involved resulting in a movie that isn't a direct sequel which has great visuals, action sequences, and a score by Nine Inch Nails which takes form the first two movies while not being as great as the Daft Punk score.

TRON ARES is full of Easter eggs and a picture of Sam Flynn and Quorra becomes a McGuffin/ Easter egg. The idea of a permanence code is a plot McGuffin surrounding a TRON sequel which is full of industrial espionage and using digital soldiers to sell for military purposes. You also have a new CEO of ENCOM Eve Kim, who is trying to live up to the genius of her dead younger sister. Sam Flynn somehow ran ENCOM in the ground like his father Kevin. He has disappeared. You don't get Alan Bradley or Tron. You get a new Dillinger (played by Evan Peters who doesn't have enough of a good script to play with) who is trying to make something of the Dillinger name after his grandfather stole from Kevin Flynn and his son was just a blip in ENCOM history. You have a digital soldier called Ares (Jared Leto) who was created by Julian Dillinger (Peters) to be the ultimate military soldier you can digitally print, but the catch is that the digital soldiers only last 29 minutes in the real world.

TRON ARES is directed by Joachim Ronning who does a passable directing effort, but he doesn't come close to the visual style and pacing set by Joseph Kosinski. The big problem with TRON ARES is the director and writers of the movie wanted to do their own thing and not respect the lore of the TRON series enough. They didn't do the obvious thing of inviting the main characters form the previous films back as they thought it was too much fan service. However, it was the thing than fans wanted most and the script doesn't have enough character development. Sometimes the movie can get boring for some viewers when you don't have action sequences, visual flair, and the soundtrack going. I felt more connected to TRON LEGACY than I do to TRON ARES. I think it was a mistake to not include the original characters of the series more (than a small appearance by Jeff Bridges). We do have Jared Leto to thank for the references and Easter eggs to previous TRON movies, but I do think longtime fans wanted a direct sequel and not the sometimes interesting film we got. Also I don't feel connected to the characters like I did in the first two TRON movies. I wanted the story to continue from TRON LEGACY and a movie that respected the lore of the series more than the final product of this vision. I do hope there will be another TRON film- a sequel that is more in line with the lore set in the first two movies, but I wonder if Disney will give it another chance and we don't have to wait a long time or never for another TRON.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
THE JOURNEY TO TRON: ARES- a behind-the-scenes making-of featurette
LIGHTCYCLES ON THE LOOSE- a look at the practical filmmaking that went into the light cycles you see in the movie
THE ARTISTRY OF TRON: ARES- a look at the production design and visual look of the movie
CAST CONVERSATIONS- The Director and Jared Leto have a conversation about the movie
THE LEGACY OF TRON- a look at some of the Easter eggs in the movie

Deleted scenes that were cut for pacing reasons and the additional character moments didn't add anything to the movie

A 1080p version film is included in the 4K set along with the above blu-ray options and there is a digital code to download or stream the film in 4K.

FINAL ANALYSIS: TRON: ARES is a movie that many fans didn't want as the people involved decided to do their own thing instead of respecting the legacy of what went before. The Easter eggs, the action scenes, the score, and production design are great. It is an imperfect side story while fans wait and hope for a continuation of the story of Sam Flynn and Quorra. The biggest disappointment of this release is that the expanded IMAX ratio version is only available to stream on Disney Plus where I loved the expanded IMAX ratio version on TRON LEGACY physical media releases (blu-ray and 4K UHD). I do wish the special features went more in-depth on the evolution of the movie from TRON: ASCENSION to TRON: ARES.

This movie review is ©10-15-2025 and 1-23-2026 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com
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