October 28, 2025
ENCOM and Dillinger Systems are in a race to figure out how to make digital constructs last more than their 29-minute limit before they disintegrate. Current Dillinger CEO Julian (Evan Peters) was pitching a perfect expendable soldier named Ares (Jared Leto) to his investors. Meanwhile, ENCOM CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) was in Julian Flynn's old station in Alaska looking through his floppy discs until she finally find the elusive "Permanence Code."
A story about a digital construct or AI in a humanoid form getting self-aware and going rouge against his programmer is not exactly a new story. In this case, Ares seemed to getting self-aware from his very introduction, showing interest in events happening in real life. When he was sent to hack into the ENCOM grid to search for Flynn's code, Ares gets distracted with memories about Eve Kim, her achievements and her family.
Like the first "Tron" (1982) and its much-delayed sequel "Tron: Legacy" (2010), the main reason to watch this new film on the big screen are its artfully-futuristic neon-lit special effects. Dillinger was red, for authoritarianism and absolute control. ENRON was blue, for purity, freedom and choice. Those chase scenes around busy city streets were great to watch because of these coded lights and the roaring musical score by the Nine Inch Nails.
I only knew Greta Lee from Celine Song's super-serene "Past Lives" (2023), so seeing her here in extreme action as Eve rode big motorcycles was quite a thrilling surprise. Evan Peter's Dillinger was quite the one-dimensional villain from the start, but he did have the honor of having Gillian Anderson play his mother Elisabeth (but she was criminally underused). Jodie Turner-Smith's Athena was an Amazon warrior in the Dora Milaje mode.
Ever since he won his Oscar in 2014, it seemed like Jared Leto never got a positively-reviewed performance at all, as he was bashed for "Suicide Squad," "Justice League," and "Morbius." Not that this role as Ares was anywhere as challenging, but Leto was likable here with his thoughtful and restrained portrayal. The quiet scenes he shared with Jeff Bridges (as Kevin Flynn) bound his new character to the foundation of the franchise. 7/10
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