All that beautiful red in the trailer. That’s the main thing that drew me to Tron – Ares, the latest in the Tron franchise, a series of films about the internal digital world of computers.

Directed by Joachim Rønning, Tron – Ares, the third movie in the franchise, after Tron (1982) and Tron – Legacy (2010), centres on a highly sophisticated program that’s sent on a dangerous mission into the real world. 

Starring Jared Leto, Evan Peters, Gillian Anderson, Greta Lee, and Jodie Turner-Smith, it’s no surprise then that out of everything else in the film, I enjoyed the special effects, along with the opening music and visuals, the most.

Granted, I still haven’t seen the original movie, but I can take a guess at why it achieved cult status. Nevertheless, I’d probably likely feel similarly about it as I do about Ares, in that I consider it ‘sort of okay,’ at best. Because, for me, dare I say, Rønning’s film has a general air of silliness, but not in a good way.

The silliness is in part because of the writing, but also the overly robotic speech/movement of some characters, which proved distracting. Additionally, as a non-enthusiast of 80s  electronic music, I admit that the musical score soon became annoying, as did the visuals that showed us what/how the programs see, while they’re out in the world.  

So yes, red visuals may have been reason enough for me to tune in, but it’s not enough for me to be enthusiastic about Tron – Ares post-viewing.

Of course, as always,  watch it if you absolutely must. 

Happy Film Loving,

G