When Jared Leto emerges from the grid as an AI fighter, it results in a breathless chase in typical Tron style.
Immersing yourself in a virtual world with extensive computer animations – this is what “Tron” scored in 1982, which has long since been declared a sci-fi cult film. The sequel “Tron: Legacy”, released in 2010, was available to admire in IMAX 3D, with an old and a digitally rejuvenated Jeff Bridges competing against each other. Programmer Kevin Flynn's wild digital twin wanted to get out of the computer world of the “Grid” into the real user world in order to redesign it according to his wishes.
Luckily that didn't work. So in 2025 we have arrived at “Tron: Ares” – and this time a highly developed program called Ares in the form of Jared Leto actually manages to cross over into our world. What does this AI creature want there and how does its contact with people work?
Scene from “Tron: Ares”
Specialist in blockbuster sequels
Instead of Joseph Kosinski, the Norwegian Joachim Rønning took over the direction this time. With films like “Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge” and “Maleficent: Forces of Darkness” he has already positioned himself as a specialist for blockbuster sequels. Here he manages to cleverly integrate the plot of the two earlier films and still develop the story into something independent. If an order recipient, who can be replaced at any time, suddenly develops the will to permanence and no longer obeys his creator/client, this results in a predictable but certainly effective plot twist.
Scene from “Tron: Ares”
Stylish Tron races
Soon we meet typical Tron characters in black wetsuits with bright red stripes, racing around on low-slung but beefy machines – who wouldn't want to get on board, trail an orange light trail behind them and cause total traffic chaos? But the AI creatures are not only allowed to let off steam in the real world; It becomes clear that the reverse path is also possible again when one of the main human characters ends up in the grid.
Scene from “Tron: Ares”
Jeff Bridges as Grid God
The show value is great: For example, there is an unusual hacker attack in which the battle is fought in a very warlike manner directly in the system. Above all, the film offers a clever play with visual contrasts: After the ultra-cool red and black accents of the hyper-modern AI fighters, we finally end up in the original grid, where everything still looks so beautifully old-fashioned and a bit begs to be heard. Of course, the significantly older Jeff Bridges finally appears as the grid god, who literally has the power to give life.
Scene from “Tron: Ares”
Between Terminator and Kaiju
Great role models become clear: Because much of the story consists of chase scenes, we inevitably think of “Mad Max: Fury Road”, in which a similar concept was used just as profitably. Some sequences, however, take us back to the early days of the “Terminator” films, when the action scenes were still really exciting and surprising. But also the monstrous ones Kaiju films say hello when the finale is a bombastic battle with huge machines in the middle of urban canyons and skyscraper rubble raining down.
Scene from “Tron: Ares”
Leto needs to return as Ares
We probably won't see Jared Leto again as the living vampire Morbius because the corresponding film turned out to be a disaster, but his Ares certainly has the ability to appear in the cinema again in the near future, as there are some developments in the third “Tron” part that point to a sequel.
In other roles we see “Dahmer” actor Evan Peters as an unscrupulous corporate boss, while the always captivating Gillian Anderson embodies the voice of reason as his mother, but is unfortunately a pretty lost cause. Greta Lee (“The Monring Show”) plays a tough technician who everyone is after for certain reasons – her pursuers include the relentlessly stubborn AI Athena in the form of Jodie Turner-Smith.
“Tron: Ares” is a film that you should definitely treat yourself to in IMAX: apart from visual ones Get special class excursions we There's also something for the ears and the thumping soundtrack provided by “Nine Inch Nails” will really shake you up in the cinema seats. You'll enjoy a musical full-body massage like this.
4 ½ out of 5 police car halves