Movie Review - Tron: Ares

I feel that I'm being a little generous with a B- grade. Maybe it's because after seeing the trailers, I thought it would be awful. But you know, I'm pretty pleased with it. I genuinely enjoyed the movie. Now, to be fair, I'm pretty much the sweet spot for the demographic that they're aiming for: late 50s, computer geek who grew up loving Tron. If you grew up later and saw the original Tron years later then it probably doesn't seem that special. But to us, at the time, it was our Avatar. It was so many light-years beyond what anyone thought was possible to do with CGI that it looked like magic.

But I digress. Tron: Ares does everything it can to upgrade the visuals, yet pay homage to the original. Some of the scenes, especially early on, are a little self-indulgent, especially with the Light Cycles in downtown. But the movie doesn't continue to lean on that crutch too many times.

7:42●●● 95%

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And let's face it, there obviously were going to be callbacks to the original. When done wrong, it feels like a gimmick. When done right, it fits within the plot and character development of the story. They did it right this time.

What impresses me the most about Tron: Ares is that the story is easy to follow and makes sense. The characters have clear motivations and reasons for change. I see a lot of movies in this genre, and too many times the movie has a paper-thin plot and the characters are inconsistent. Again, I'm not saying that this is masterfully done. It's just competent. But the bar has been set so low by so many recent crap movies that it makes this feel refreshing.

And let's not forget that the star of the movie is Jared Leto, who has been in some horrible movies recently. I don't think that he's the reason those movies were bad, but when I saw him in the trailer for this, it felt like Morbius and Suicide Squad all over again. Thankfully, no.

I hope this does well enough in the box office and streaming to green-light the sequel, because I'm already looking forward to it.

Grade: B-

Plot
A highly sophisticated Program, Ares, is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission.