Tron: Ares Review, A Neon Spectacle That Glows Bright but Feels Hollow Inside
LOS ANGELES, Oct 8 (AP) — The long-awaited return of the Tron saga bursts into theaters this week with dazzling visuals, relentless energy and heavy expectations — yet critics and fans alike are already split, reacting with a mix of awe and disappointment hours after midnight premieres.
Directed by Joachim Rønning, Tron: Ares mines nostalgia while trying to push the franchise forward. Glowing light-cycle chases, neon-drenched data grids and epic digital warfare scenes dominate the screen. AP’s early review calls it “visually dazzling” and credits the film with balancing fan service with fresh storytelling.
But not everyone is dazzled. In The Guardian, one critic laments that many scenes feel more like screensavers than cinema, suggesting that even a dramatic slap from Gillian Anderson can’t shake the film from feeling hollow. The result: a film that’s compelling to look at, but emotionally distant.
Here’s what’s going on: Tron: Ares picks up in a future where two tech empires — Encom and Dillinger — compete to unlock a “Permanence Code” that can blur the line between virtual and real. Jared Leto stars as Ares, an AI avatar who gains autonomy (and mischief). Greta Lee, Evan Peters and Jeff Bridges deliver supporting roles aimed at grounding the sci-fi spectacle in humanity. The film’s score, now by Nine Inch Nails, layers into the cyber-industrial tone of this neon universe.
Audiences entering theaters tonight may feel disoriented by how ambitious the film is. Some moments deliver on spectacle: a gravity-defying chase across glowing towers, digital duels lit by arcs of energy, or the echo of Jeff Bridges’ Flynn as a specter of memory. These are moments of sheer cinematic thrill, and in those brief bursts, Tron: Ares sings.
But then the film stalls. Some critics argue the narrative spends too much time explaining universes, framed around corporate power plays and competing AI ideologies, and too little time connecting us to the people inside it. The emotional stakes—whether love, loss or identity—often feel peripheral to the showdown of bytes and bolts.
“There’s spectacle here, but I didn’t always feel it,” a review in New York Post warns, adding that while the film leans hard into sci-fi tropes, at times it feels like Morbius in digital armor. Greta Lee, though, gets singled out for moments when the screenplay allows her space to be more than a cipher. The contrast is stark: the visionary visuals are there, but the emotional core is inconsistent.
Disney is banking big. The studio has also announced other high-profile releases for 2025, including Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire & Ash, pacing a calendar filled with franchise bets. For Tron: Ares, opening weekend box office will determine whether the risk pays off. If the film crashes under its own ambition, the nostalgia alone may not bail it out.
Early audience reports are mixed. Some fans are thrilled to return to the grid, capturing photos next to glowing seats and cheering at early references to the original films. Others leave theaters frustrated that the story never builds a human heartbeat behind the binary. One viewer at the midnight show in Los Angeles said, “It looks amazing, but I still can’t tell who I was supposed to root for.”
The bigger question now: will this divide matter? The Tron brand has been dormant for years, and launching any phoenix from that silence demands risk. If Tron: Ares ignites the imaginations of enough fans, Disney might call this a win. If not, it may be a cautionary tale of visual ambition outrunning narrative grounding.
The lights on the grid are bright again — but in the ensuing glow, Tron: Ares struggles to find its beating heart.
