Tron: Ares

I guess I got what I was expecting from the film when I watched it on the big screen. I was just hoping it would exceed my expectations, that it would build on and progress further from the preceding 2010 film, which already had the great potential or foundation of not relying on the visuals/aesthetics alone.

I echo the same sentiments from early reviews that the film lacked much from the character depth perspective. It does not serve emotionally, but delivers on the visuals. What I love most is when it took the prior Tron films' aesthetics in a different setting - that was really cool! Love the soundtrack as well!

Overall, mostly the visuals and sound kept my attention, but all other aspects were kind of flat.

Looking forward to the next one, which I hope would not solely rely on visuals/aesthetics.

Tron: Ares is the latest film in the Tron series revolving around two tech billionaires fighting to find a mysterious code while a AI soldier goes rogue as he starts to gain sentience. I haven't actually watched the previous Tron movies but I am aware of them and know generally what happens which was fine as the movie isn't a direct sequel. Visually the movie can be stunning when you get to the Grid world and when the Grid elements start to move into our world. The music is also phenomenal as Nine Inch Nails provides the soundtrack. I saw the movie in Dolby and it made it a great experience because I was just jamming to the music and just enjoying the visuals...... which is good because the movie is pretty bland. The story is extremely uninspired. Jared Leto plays Ares, the rogue Ai trying to gain sentience which goes exactly how all Sci-fi stories go with Ai. Leto isn't bad but he plays stoic the entire time so you don't really get emotionally invested in him. The other characters are also pretty bland stereotypes of what you see in Sci-fi movies. The mechanics of the technology also make zero sense and there is a lot of dumb moments the characters do throughout. You could enjoy the movie on the background while jamming out to its soundtrack.

I'm a big fan of the Tron franchise and I was skeptical of this film as I'm not a big Jared Leto fan at all and I don't like him as a person so I didn't want to take that into account for the film. I think overall the movie is quite decent for the most part and there's some absolutely astonishing and riveting visuals which just left me honestly shocked at how incredible they truly were in this film. There's some absolutely gorgeous scenes throughout the movie with the amazing visuals. The soundtrack for this movie is absolutely amazing as well and it feels absolutely incredible with the stunning visuals throughout the movie as well and I love how loud the soundtrack is as well! I think Jared Leto gives a decent performance and although I don't like him as a person he's definitely solid in the film and Greta Lee is also pretty good too in this film. Let me get into my negatives now there's some pretty bad writing for the most part and some of it's laughably bad with how bad some of it is especially in some specific scenes which I know weren't meant to be funny but they absolutely were hilarious due to this bad writing. The story is also all over the place and it just feels so incredibly plain and predictable and I hated how predictable this movie truly was and I felt like it was just trying to be too simple with this story. Also the villain in this movie played by Evan Peters is pretty laughably stupid and just not that interesting as well due to the fact he's a complete idiot. I just don't like the direction this film went at all and I feel like they are trying to set up some multiple movies here and maybe I'll be interested to check it out but man it's just disappointing after all these years to get this film compared to the first two Tron movies. This is still a decent film but left me severely underwhelmed and I hope whatever direction they go in is better than this.

Tron: Ares totally drops the ball on continuing the legacy of Tron: Legacy, ignoring what actually made the franchise special in the first place. Instead of diving deeper into the cool ideas about the digital world and humanity, the movie gets stuck in empty nostalgia and dull corporate drama. The story's flat, the characters have no real soul, and there's zero visual innovation. The plot feels shallow, the emotions don't land, and even Jared Leto's performance just adds to the overall blandness.

The only thing that really stands out is the killer soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails, seriously, it's the one part that gives the movie any kind of pulse. But beyond that, it feels like a directionless project, a half-hearted rehash with nothing new to say.

In the end, it's a perfect example of how a classic franchise can lose its way when it relies too much on nostalgia instead of creativity. Rather than taking risks or exploring the big questions left by Tron: Legacy, it seems to be trying to play safe and ends up being a forgettable watch.

I really enjoyed Tron: Ares, despite the mixed reviews. Experiencing it in IMAX definitely enhanced the film - the visuals and soundtrack were truly impressive. The CGI and overall visual design were stunning, and the music perfectly complemented the atmosphere. Without the IMAX experience, I can see how some might rate it lower, but you can't deny the film's visual beauty and strong audio presentation.