TRON: Ares

When "Tron" was released back in 1982, it was considered a film with amazing cutting edge technology. So with a huge box office draw, Disney, of course, took advantage of those profits, and then produced "Tron: Legacy" in 2010. It obviously wasn't as strong as its predecessor, so another sequel was quelled. But because of public input, Disney finally decided to release "Tron: Ares", and although this installment isn't as well thought as its original, itr was better than 'Legacy'. 

"TRON: Ares" follows a highly sophisticated Program, Ares (Jared Leto), who is sent by his creator, Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind's first encounter with A.I. beings. Encom, Dillinger's rival company has found a way to make the A.I. beings last longer than 90 minutes, Eve Kim (Greta Lee) being the creator of this amazing program. So, her having this information, Dillinger wants it tremendously so he can make an incredible profit. 

Others to round out the cast are Arturo Castro as Seth Flores, Gillian Anderson as Elizabeth Dillinger, Julian's mother, Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, Jodie Turner-Smith as Athena, Hasan Minhaj as Ajay Singh, Cameron Monaghan as Caius and Sarah Desjardins as Erin. 

This was intensely directed with grit by Joachim Ronning ("Bandidas" '06, "Max Manus: Man of War" '08, "Kon-Tiki" '12, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" '17, "Doomsday" (TV movie) '17, "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil" '19, "Young Woman and the Sea" '24) plus TV and shorts. What's extremely refreshing about this filmmaker is that he can handle the much size and complexity of a large big-budget film, as with this film, but also he can easily be as comfortable in manning the direction of a smaller production such as "Young Woman and the Sea", which was a very well executed film. It was written with the similarity of its predecessors by Jesse Wigutow ("It Runs in the Family" '03, "The Prince" (TV movie) '15) plus TV and shorts, based on a story by David DiGilio ans Jesse Wigutow, which is based on characters created by Steven Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. "Tron: Legacy" incorporated two screenwriters for the script, which typically can be effective. However, this installment involved only one screenwriter which can make the story more adhesive and tighter, which made this a better script than that of 'Legacy". It was interesting how this writer was able to incorporate Kevin Flynn (Bridges) into this installment as well as 'Legacy', since the original chronicled Flynn and his issues with the grid. Other than a couple of small inconsistencies in script, this story soared. It did take a little time to get the story going, but once it did, it was much more entertaining. The visual effects, predominantly designed by ILM (Industrial, Light & Magic) were stunning, as was the cinematography by Jeff Cronenweth asc!

If you are an ardent fan of this franchise, you'll revel with this. It definitely does leave the door open for yet another sequel--assuming it makes a truck load of money. If you like the up, close and personal feel, it is presented in an IMAX and a 3D format as well. Assuming you want to see this, you must see it on the big screen to get the full grandiose feeling of it. 

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                     Rated: PG-13                             119mins.