The verdict is in for this Friday’s “TRON: Ares” and the reviews are decidedly mixed. With 44 reviews counted, the film sits at 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, that’s actually better than the 51% of “TRON: Legacy” but worse than the 61% of the original.
On Metacritic it sits at 49/100 from 27 reviews. That’s actually the same score as “TRON: Legacy” and behind the original “TRON” film at 58/100.
All the reviews praise the visual style and the Nine Inch Nails soundtrack. It’s the story and script rather that are apparently the main problem. Here’s some quotes:
“TRON: Ares doesn’t seem poised to change the culture in anything resembling a similar way; while it has a lot more life to it than the inert TRON: Legacy, Ares keeps its focus on big spectacle as opposed to big ideas.”- Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
“A few key elements keep this data file from being totally corrupted… The real MVPs, however, are Nine Inch Nails, whose staggeringly brilliant soundtrack dominates the entire proceedings.”- John Nugent, Empire
“In an age bland, unimaginative cookie-cutter blockbusters, there’s something refreshing about a movie that puts a premium on looking and sounding badass.”- Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
“Tron: Ares has the visual flair of a mobile game and a thematic depth that makes the 1982 original’s premise — Jeff Bridges gets sucked into a computer — feel like it was written by philosophers.”- Clarisse Loughrey, Independent
“It’s a film whose only goal is to make “Tron” into a renewable resource in its own right… If nothing else, “Ares” might just be relevant, palatable, and undemanding enough to pull that off.”- David Ehrlich, Indiewire
“For all the creativity on display in Tron: Ares, it’s in service of a story with scant signs of life.”- Tim Grierson, Screen
“Whereas the original 1982 Disney film on which it was based felt ahead of its time, Sean Bailey’s latest attempt to franchise-ify the “Tron” brand reads mostly as an exercise in nostalgia.”- Peter DeBruge, Variety
“There is no drama or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This franchise now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.”- Peter Bradhsaw, The Guardian
“Mostly, when you watch Tron: Ares, you become aware of the degree to which this franchise has exhausted its own metaphor.”- Alison Wilmore, Vulture
In the film, a highly sophisticated Program called Ares is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind’s first encounter with A.I. beings. Joachim Rønning helms the film which stars Jared Leto, Jeff Bridges, Evan Peters, Greta Lee, Gillian Anderson, Jodie Turner-Smith, Cameron Monaghan, and Julie Andrews.
