Fifteen years after the previous installment in this sci-fi franchise was released, Tron: Ares has finally arrived. The film picks up several years after Tron: Legacy‘s conclusion with a whole new roster of characters, including a skilled computer program named Ares, who’s looking for the secret to existing permanently in the real world.
While Tron: Ares is very much its own narrative, there are still many connections to the larger TRON franchise that place it firmly within the existing timeline. However, unlike many legacy sequels from recent years, these connections often feel quite tenuous and unnecessary. It’s ultimately unclear what this movie is trying to be, and that’s ultimately its fatal flaw.
Tron: Ares’ Franchise Connections Feel Forced
Although Jeff Bridges shows up for a brief cameo toward the end of Tron: Ares, this isn’t his movie at all. In fact, despite the fact that he’s referenced constantly, Kevin Flynn could easily have been written out of the story altogether.
This isn’t like Legacy, which continues to tell his story through the perspective of his son. Ares is a new story, with new characters. Flynn’s company has been taken over by Eve Kim, and she’s the one responsible for discovering the permanence code and using it to bring down Julian Dillinger and his corrupt enterprise. But instead of letting this story play out naturally and having the characters resolve their own conflicts, Ares feels the need to bring back an old character to save the day.
This represents one of the biggest problems with the latest Tron sequel: it’s so bogged down by the weight of the franchise that it never gets to shine on its own merit.
Sequels can be firmly integrated into their franchises, even when made years later – one need look no further than Tron: Legacy for a great example – but they don’t have to be. So much of Ares feels like the film wants to separate itself and forge an idenтιтy of its own, but its reliance on the previous movies reduces that impact. Ultimately, in trying to do both, it does neither.
The most likely explanation for this narrative dissonance is that the filmmakers felt forced, whether through pressure from the studio or fans, to bring the TRON universe back to life at all costs. This clearly meant sacrificing much of the current story to set the stage for the future.
And yet, even Tron: Ares‘ sequel teases don’t feel substantial. Having Julian Dillinger enter the Grid and showing that Ares is searching for Quorra from Tron: Legacy adds nothing to this story. It’s just another example of this otherwise-fascinating screenplay having to bend to the demands of the franchise.
While it’s fun to see Bridges back in this iconic role, the TRON franchise will never find its feet if it continues to rely so heavily on nostalgia and unnecessary connections. This truly feels like a great sci-fi movie that’s been diluted simply to make it fit more neatly into the existing franchise.
It stings even more because Kevin Flynn’s death in Tron: Legacy perfectly set the stage for Ares to be a more distanced, self-contained sequel that moved away from Flynn’s story and allowed the new characters to carry the torch. Unfortunately, the sequel’s approach feels very unsure of itself and never quite achieves this.
