Tron: Ares (Christian Movie Review)
Tron: Ares is far from a great film, held back by dull characters and a script that is never as interesting as its core premise, but its trademark visual aesthetic and music satisfy enough to offer an enjoyable spectacle.
About the Film
Grab your neon-lit jumpsuit and hop aboard your Light Cycle because Disney is transporting audiences back into The Grid. Following 1982’s cult classic original Tron, and the long-awaited sequel, Tron: Legacy (2010), the iconic series returns with Tron: Ares, a story that sees AI programs infiltrate and wreak havoc in the real world (hmmm, sound familiar?). Tron: Ares is far from a great film, held back by dull characters and a script that is never as interesting as its core premise, but its trademark visual aesthetic and music satisfy enough to offer an enjoyable spectacle.
For the uninitiated, Tron: Ares is an accessible entry point with an opening montage that effectively establishes the world and plot of the existing films. At the same time, it offers plenty of nostalgic callbacks to please longtime fans, including a fun sequence that recreates the now-dated aesthetic and graphics of the original 1980s film.
Much about our understanding and relationship to technology has changed in the four decades since the original film was released. Tron: Ares reflects some of the contemporary anxiety about AI, with the recent controversy about AI actress Tilly Norwood giving the film an increased sense of cultural relevance (see themes below). At its core, however, Tron: Ares is still all about the vibes.
The sleek, neon-lit aesthetic has never looked better. The film is at its best when serving up striking visuals against the backdrop of its signature pulsating music. The irresistible power of the visuals effectively masks many of the film’s shortcomings. For example, an early Light Cycle chase scene, with trails of neon light streaking behind the racing vehicles, is visually captivating, even if the actual chase choreography feels uninspired and oddly sluggish. The same is true of the climactic battle sequence. The visuals of the AI ships are stunning, including an impressive money shot of an army of drones pervading the city; their trails of light (shown from a top-down perspective) visually recreating a grid. It looks incredible, but the conflict itself is uncompelling.
The strength of the visuals is most evident in their absence. The film loses momentum whenever the focus shifts to the human (or humanoid AI) characters. The actors themselves are serviceable, but the characters are painfully dull. Jared Leto’s Ares (an AI-gaining-sentience) is interesting on a conceptual level, but his intentionally stoic and emotionless personality requires someone more energetic to play off of. Greta Lee’s Eve Kim (a tech/gaming company CEO) is unable to provide it.
There are hints of a compelling backstory and complicated motivations for Eve, but the film never allows her space to explore them. Despite the makings of prototypical modern female protagonist—a brilliant, motorcycle-riding, CEO in a male-dominated world — she remains oddly passive. Other than an early motorbike chase scene, where she demonstrates some grit and agency, she is largely reduced to being the keeper of the story’s MacGuffin — the “permanence code” that will allow the AI creations to stay in the real world. Thus, she spends most of the film reacting as the story unfolds around her. Consequently, the audience doesn’t have much reason to care about her beyond her importance to the plot.
Another problem with Tron: Ares is that the script doesn’t seem to trust the audience. At one point, in the middle of being chased, Eve pauses to unzip her jacket, pull out and stare at the disc drive containing the permanence code, tuck it back into her jacket, and resume her run. It’s one of many clunky moments where characters make nonsensical decisions in service of smacking audiences over the head to ensure they really get what’s happening. A later scene involving a row of arcade machines almost had me screaming at the screen.
Despite its shortcomings, I still enjoyed Tron: Ares for what it was. I appreciate that there are no problematic worldview or content concerns for Christians to navigate. With a better script and more interesting characters, the film could have been great — a blockbuster that combined stunning visuals with a thought-provoking exploration of social issues and anxieties. Instead, the movie offers some flashy spectacles and groovy music. As a Tron movie, maybe that’s all it needs to do.
For Consideration
On the Surface—(Profanity, Sexual Content, Violence, etc.).
Language: There are around 5-10 minor profanities, including several uses of “God.”
Violence: Most of the violence is directed toward non-human AI characters, who burst into particles when they die. One woman is stabbed and killed, although no blood is visible.
Sexuality: None.
Other: None.
Engage The Film
AI and What It Means to Be Human
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein serves as the central metaphor for the film, with the classic novel shown or referenced several times throughout the runtime. As with Shelley’s novel, Tron: Ares explores the complicated relationship between the creator and their creation. The film asks whether AI is inherently bad or merely reflects those who wield its power. In the movie, two tech CEOs seek to control the potential of AI; one desires power and personal profit, and the other (Eve) wants to use the technology to make a positive difference in the world. The film ultimately suggests that AI (like all technology) is merely a tool that can be used for good and evil, and asks whether we are willing to accept the inevitable abuses of it to gain the benefits.
That question serves as an extension of the film’s deeper theme, and the question of what it means to be truly human. Jeff Bridges’ character remarks that rather than the “Permanence” code, he should have called it the “Impermanence” code, since to be human is to be mortal. As an AI, Ares is essentially permanent. When he dies, he is regenerated. For him to gain “permanence” in the real world is actually to embrace mortality and loss.
From a biblical perspective, Tron: Ares serves as an apologetic for human free will and answer to the age-old problem of suffering. The Grid represents a world without pain or suffering, where the inhabitants live by the “directive” of a controlling creator. While the god-like ruler of The Grid is capricious and unlike the all-loving God of the Bible, the film shows the beauty of free will, and how the gift of feeling — even in pain and suffering — is where the good life is experienced in its fullest. Eve is grieving the death of her sister to cancer, and while such hardships of life are difficult, it is such experience — the ability to “feel” — that make life precious.
