Disney already attempted to revive the world of TRON in the 2010 sequel, TRON: LEGACY, which starred Jeff Bridges and Garrett Hedlund in a modernized story that delivered stunning visuals and killer music, though the story was a bit disjointed, and the visual effects met with mixed results from audiences. I enjoyed it, but I could also tell it wasn’t going to resonate with everyone. The new attempt is TRON: ARES, which brings back Bridges (briefly), and puts Jared Leto in the lead, focusing on a story that takes the game world of The Grid into the real world in a very dangerous way. It’s also safe to say you really need to watch the original TRON to properly understand this newest sequel, though surprisingly it does little to tie in with TRON: LEGACY.

In the original movie, the villain was a corporate tech big wig named Dillinger. In the new movie, his grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) is doing his best to control the family business, coming up with new technological innovations that could change (and perhaps control) the world. His latest advancement allows him to take programs he creates and manipulates, and essentially “print” them into the real world, to where he has highly advanced machines and humanoid weapons that will do his bidding. But as impressive as this is, he’s hiding a major limitation from the shareholders and investors, in that these real world programs and machines cannot exist past 29 minutes before disintegrating. His mother Elisabeth Dillinger (Gillian Anderson) thinks he’s pushing things too far, and isn’t ready to handle these big responsibilities. Julian relies on Ares (Jared Leto) to be the leading force for his new directive, eventually sending him on real world missions to serve the company. Adding to the company’s headaches, their competition Encom, led by Eve Kim (Greta Lee), has discovered a secret “permanance” code hidden decades ago by the missing Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), and this gives her the power to also create programs and even living vegetation from the computer, only now her work isn’t limited by the 29-minute limitation. Needless to say, Julian needs that code to win, and orders Ares to track down Eve and retrieve the code by any means necessary. But Ares begins to see the innocence and emotion of Eve, and goes against his protocols to protect her, leaving Julian to send other programs to stop him and Eve before it’s too late.

Directed by Joachim Rønning, TRON: ARES is a visual masterpiece, and looks like a billion dollars on the big screen. The stunning presentation is complimented by a powerful and hypnotic musical score by Nine Inch Nails (with Trent Reznor leading the way, after proving himself a force to be reckoned with in the film composer world), and the music alone makes this a treat to take in. But all of that doesn’t quite overcome the sometimes bland characters and unremarkable script, that pretty much devolves into a TERMINATOR-like story, with Jared Leto’s character being the Kyle Reese to Greta Lee’s Sarah Connor archetype. There was an opportunity here to deliver some major commentary toward the positives and negatives of AI and how Artificial Intelligence could affect the real world in profound ways, but AI is barely mentioned in a corporate presentation early in the movie. There are other missed opportunities in the film to have this be a more topical and thoughtful story, and instead we’re given something that feels very by-the-numbers.

The cast is doing their best to sell the concepts unfolding on screen, but Jared Leto’s Ares just isn’t that interesting of a character, and while he does become sensitive to humanity in some regards, I kept waiting for him to transcend his computer origins, and it just never happens. Greta Lee is a likable presence as the co-lead here, and a far more engaging character to follow, even if she’s limited by the simplicity of the script. Evan Peters tries his best to make his role energetic and bold, with mixed results, and while I love Gillian Anderson’s work, she’s very underutilized and underwritten here. One of the best characters in the film is Athena, played by Jodie Turner-Smith, who is the determined and deadly protege of Ares, who eventually is tasked with taking him down by any means necessary. She is the “terminator” of the story once it gets to that point, and she’s inspired casting that works rather well. Jeff Bridges does show up for an extended cameo, but also isn’t utilized quite well, and feels more like forced fan service than a necessary plot point.

This brings me to my biggest gripe of this new entry, which at times feels only tangentally connected to the other movies. There is no “Tron” in TRON: ARES, I’m fairly sure they never even say the name Tron in here. TRON: LEGACY not only included Bruce Boxleitner in a key role, they also made sure the character of Tron was in the story in an important way. TRON: ARES has no sign of Tron in it, so why use that name in the title? I’m sure Bruce would have been happy to cameo alongside Jeff Bridges, but I guess no one thought to ask him. This new movie also has little to do with the video game concepts the original films implemented, other than passing mentions of these companies being known for promoting them.  I’m starting to wonder if Disney just doesn’t really know what to do with the TRON franchise, beyond using some of the same visuals we’ve grown to love. They do successfully include a scene that is a loving throwback to the original film’s low-tech visuals, but it’s more of a nod to the fans than a logical plot point.

TRON: ARES is an impressive spectacle and makes for good entertainment on the big screen (we saw it in IMAX, and it’s really impressive that way), but ultimately it offers little to advance the franchise in any new direction, and feels more like a cash grab than a thoughtful or necessary sequel. There’s nothing about this movie that warrants or even encourages repeat viewings, and it’s unfortunate that the powerful score and visuals just don’t compliment a solid cinematic experience. Beyond it being expensive eye candy, I’m not entirely sure why it was made.

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