Opinion Tron: Ares is so bad it makes you wish AI would hurry up and destroy Hollywood - A shambolic film populated by some of the most aggressively charmless characters ever seen in a blockbuster

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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/tron-ares-review/
https://archive.is/F4w3q

Robbie CollinChief Film Critic
07 October 2025 5:01pm BST

1.5/5 stars

There is a small group of films whose names double as reviews, and Tron: Ares is just a switch of its last two letters away from joining the club. The American film with the most unfortunate title in Britain since Our Souls At Night is a balloonishly pompous science-fiction smashathon, starring Jared Leto as the world’s greatest artificial intelligence programme, who beams out of his evil programmer’s mainframe and into the real world via an enormous 3D printer.
It’s a semi-sequel to 2010’s Tron: Legacy – which, at a time when cinematic universes were springing up everywhere, made a belated attempt to convert 1982’s Tron into a viable Disney franchise.

Ares makes an even less persuasive job of this than its predecessor, largely because its one good idea – the series’ signature high-speed motorbikes, the Light Cycles, streaking through a real city – comes buried under two hours of bloated and un-absorbing non-plot, populated by some of the most aggressively charmless characters seen in a blockbuster since the Star Wars prequels.

Leto, who also produces, is merely the most prominent offender, and the Morbius and Suicide Squad star is painted in an absurdly flattering light throughout. His Ares (pronounced Aries) is a sort of Byronic philosopher-ninja, and was developed by Evan Peters’s tech tyrant – the grandson of the original film’s David Warner – as the ultimate soldier for the AI warfare age.
The only catch? After 29 minutes on the loose, Ares’s programming glitches, and he collapses into a pile of pixels. So off he goes to find a mythical chunk of code written by Jeff Bridges’s Kevin Flynn, which can extend his lifespan to that of a regular human. Alas, the whereabouts of this digital holy grail is known only to Greta Lee’s programming whiz Eve Kim, who – double alas – as a heroine, has all the personality of a doorknob.

In the film’s wholly shambolic first act, Leto serves as the villain. But after rebelling against his creator and being supplanted by his former right-hand woman, Jodie Turner-Smith’s Athena, he reinvents himself as Eve’s sworn defender – and soon the two are hopping between corporeal and virtual planes, dodging peril that feels no realer in the flesh-and-blood world than the computerised one.

Elsewhere, Gillian Anderson has nothing to do but tut as Peters’s disapproving mother – one of a number of spots where the reshoot joins are visible – while the Leto-centric epilogue is an unwitting hoot: a David Brent vision of maverick cool. If AI really is about to destroy Hollywood, Ares has certainly got the ball rolling on its behalf.

In UK cinemas from October 10
 
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John.Doe said:
With the absolutely amazing visuals in both design and direction, combined with the incredible soundtrack, Legacy really is a feast for the senses. I was lucky enough to see it on the big screen with full 3d and it blows you away with the depth and music. The script needed polish and some actors replaced, so the parts between the set pieces were kinda dull but inoffensive. Its a real shame, if they had nailed the writing to make the story and characters as compelling as the visuals it would have been a hit.
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I envy you seeing it like that. Even on a good quality big screen TV with a decent sound system, scenes of this movie blow me away. 3D, full experience, must have been a blast.

I full acknowledge the films flaws. And probably enhanced a little by never having seen the original so "Tron" is just a name to me. However, I will give credit where it's due and the film is gorgeous. Even if this critic is condemning it, even if it has Morbius in it, I still kind of want to see Light Cycles in the real world.
 
Tron was a cool concept, though the movie itself suffers from a very lackadaisical 80s movie pacing. Like others said, the Tron 2.0 game took the concept and ran with it pretty well and presented itself as the sequel to the movie in a way that worked better than any of the actual sequels. Legacy was beautiful but dumb, I considered it really disappointing given that they'd had like thirty years to do a better job writing the thing. Ares is retarded right out of the gate; the whole deal with Tron was that the whole disks/light cycles/weird shit that were there were entirely because you were in a computer, them still being able to do their thing in the real world is stupid.
 
Note (posted this in several sites), the director of Legacy is the same guy who did Top Gun Maverick (a critically acclaimed and commercially successful hit), and he was raring to do another Tron, with a bigger role for the actor of Edward Dillinger Jr (who has now won an Oscar for Oppenheimer).

And what does Disney do? Get the guy behind Maleficent 2 and Pirates 5 to direct, and get Jared Leto to star.

Seriously, what the holy heck are you thinking Disney? Are you allergic to fan-pleasing?
 
Overly Serious said:
Legacy was not a good film but was a good pile of visuals.
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Good visuals, good sound, good music, and an entirely forgettable plot make for an entirely acceptable movie experience, but not one that needs to be repeated in any way whatsoever.
 
Do kids even know what a Tron is now? I wouldn't be shocked if some old Jew in Hollywood is like "OK. Get this. I got a new movie idea... It's called, Mighty Bomb Jack. And uh - It's going to star Jack Black, get it?"
 
Again, a sequel that advertises itself as “from the director of Top Gun Maverick” and starring “Oscar-Winning actor Cillian Murphy” could have helped offset any obscurity.

But heaven forbid Disney actually take a golden opportunity even when it’s staring them in the face. Is that whole company braindead?
 
Breadbassket said:
I'm just surprised Leto keeps getting major roles in movies.
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I could understand it when he was younger and all the goth chicks simped for him, but he's well past the wall and nobody thinks he's a heartthrob any more. Some actors get good at acting in anticipation of the inevitable ageing out of that, like Robert Pattinson and Zac Efron are serious actors now, but Leto never did.
 
Blewberry Nausea said:
There is a small group of films whose names double as reviews, and Tron: Ares is just a switch of its last two letters away from joining the club. The American film with the most unfortunate title in Britain since Our Souls At Night
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I'm not listening to someone who apparently thinks Ares is pronounced "arrs". Unless it...is, in this case? But that would be stupid even for Hollywood.
 
Going to go see this in the proper way: in a 4DX Regal theater where the seats move like it's a fucking ride. Kids are going to love it. I don't expect anyone will want to see it twice. You don't go to one of those theaters for the plot, any more than you go on a roller coaster for the story.

With as expensive as it is for a family to go see a movie at all these days, may as well pay a few bucks more to feel the wind in your hair while you do it.
 
Bland Crumbs said:
and I remember playing Tron: Deadly Discs on my friend's Intellivision. I seem to remember that game being fun.
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That's a good game. One of my computer science friends back in high school made a bullshit romhack of it called "Tron: Deadly Dicks" where he replaced the discs with little penises and it was the funniest shit when we were like, 14.
 
I actually like both Tron movies (sue me, fags) but I know any one of us would have prefered a sequel to Legacy continuing where it left off or with a timeskip of sorts. The idea of the Grid invading the real world isnt a particularly bad one and it would be rather poetic if it wasnt the result of some malicious Grid entity but because of humanity's own hubris and now the old and new cast need to find a way to stop both sides from getting into a war that will destroy both worlds.

But Tron Ares seems to be going for a "soft reboot", tho I wouldnt even call it soft because it seems to full on ignore the events of Legacy (maybe its a bad time to mention that the creators of Ares actually said they dont care much for Legacy) to the point you would be excused to believe its an alternative sequel to the original.

There is much much you can do with the concept of going into a digital world, even more today where the lines between reality and digital become more and more blurred but seems like we are going for something rather generic.

If I had my way, it would be a Legacy sequel maybe following Flynn's grandson and his unique connection to the grid (being that he is born from a human and a grid native turned human), maybe making him some sort of "super" in the grid and possibly having the title of "Tron" in honor of the original one. He would likely prefer the grid over the real world and it could be a commentary how more and more the younger generations are burying themselves into the digital world, hell, maybe he uses this to fight off nefarious programs from the government that seek to use digital means to control the populace (I mean, I'd never dare to suggest the powers that be want to use said methods against us...). Maybe he even calls himself "Ares" as to show he is at war with those that seek to control the grid and humanity.

You can make something badass out of this, imagine Tron mixed with Metal Gear Rising (awesome action but with an intellectual edge that wants to make you think too) but no, you do something generic and boring.
 
Blewberry Nausea said:
There is a small group of films whose names double as reviews, and Tron: Ares is just a switch of its last two letters away from joining the club.
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I thought this was just a dumb joke about the movie being ass, but this:
Blewberry Nausea said:
His Ares (pronounced Aries)
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Makes me think the mong writing this is somehow just completely unfamiliar with Greek mythology?
 
It's just for me and about 6 other people worldwide. I appreciate being pandered to, even if Jared Leto is a monkey finger curling.

I'm a little surprised that the media is willing to openly and utterly trash this in pre-release, when they were running defense for Snow White this same year. They were hard on Tron Legacy too if I recall.
 
They will never make something as good as Tron Legacy and Tron Uprising.
Jared Leto is box office poison.
 
Still watching this on Friday, I don't like Jared Leto but if I enjoy the soundtrack and visuals it should be good for theaters. Legacy wasn't well received and wasn't a good movie overall yet it has a cult following due to this.
 
I remember being 13 when the original came out and I’m going to always defend it in context of the time. To me and my friends the idea was amazing because in a text game based time when a lot of us were learning LOGO, Basic, and my nerdiest friends trying FORTRAN/COBOL, the idea of our programs being real in an alternate reality was pretty epic. And for the technology available at the time the movie was awesome. Yea the story was sometimes meh but come on, it was aimed at us. Getting Bruce as Alan was a chore as he was a big star at the time, and getting that shot of the door at UC Livermore also took some doing. Anyway TL:DR Tron was pretty damned cool in 82-83. Legacy looked good but the story…and this one is being toted as all graphics even in its own ads and says nothing about story so prepare for scenery being chewed with colors.
 
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