Jared Leto is the biggest problem with Tron: Ares. The legacy sequel to the classic franchise introduces a new cast of characters, including Jared Leto’s тιтular program turned rebel. The film’s big emotional core is predicated on his character, focusing on how a program only designed to be a soldier could become his own person.

Unfortunately, the performance behind Ares is also where the film suffers the most. Jared Leto’s performance as Ares fails to land the proper emotional balance needed to really ensure that emotional arc fully landed. What makes this frustrating is the way it should work, but Leto isn’t able to keep the purposefully restrained character from feeling wooden.

Jared Leto Wasn’t The Right Casting To Make Ares Work

Jared Leto is a distracting presence in Tron: Ares, with his unfortunately one-note performance, ultimately proving to be the most frustrating element of the film. As an Executive Producer on the film, it’s unlikely that there was ever going to be a version of Tron: Ares that didn’t feature Leto in the cast. However, he’s the wrong pick for Ares.

There’s a natural disconnect and curiosity to the character that needs to be conveyed as Ares learns about the world. That’s where his arc lies, a perfect killing machine learning to be human. It’s a tricky balance to make a character with cold logic have a certain amount of uncertainty, and it’s one that Leto doesn’t nail down as Ares.

Ares is curt and direct, always. There’s a confident disconnect to the character, leaving the character feeling like too much of a cipher as the plot expands his worldview. That colder edge works early on, but even that is hindered by Leto’s acting choices. There’s too much human doubt in his delivery immediately, undercutting the surprise of his “betrayal.”

Leto gives the character’s cold beginnings too much personality, but doesn’t develop it any further when Ares eventually gains a certain amount of unexpected humanity. It ends up making the performance feel wooden across the board, instead of the intended arc of a robotic figure becoming an empathetic hero. It’s distracting, especially in relation to the rest of the cast.

On top of Jared Leto’s complicated personal life, the casting is ultimately a distraction that takes the audience out of the experience of the film. Leto plays Ares fairly one-note, with a bluntness that works for the character in theory but makes him unappealing in practice. It makes him a boring protagonist, something Tron: Ares needed to avoid.

A Different Performance Might Have Improved Tron: Ares

The biggest frustration with Leto’s performance in Tron: Ares is that other actors have done something similar, but achieved what Leto’s performance was missing. Leto gets a certain amount of the right disconnect at the top of the movie, but the character is too quickly a hero asking questions of his cruel master, too late to develop a genuine personality.

A perfect example of this kind of arc done well can be found in Blade Runner 2049, a movie that actually featured Jared Leto as an antagonist. Ryan Gosling plays that movie’s lead replicant, K, with a cool and detached air that steadily develops more human shades. It’s a deceptively subtle performance that makes the evolution of the arc feel natural.

It’s the kind of performance that needed to be at the core of Tron: Ares. The тιтular character and his growth is the emotional bedrock of the film, but Leto doesn’t deliver the shaded performance that kind of growth that the story is begging for. He never feels like a machine becoming human, just a machine with a pleasant atтιтude.

Leto’s performance lacks the quiet depth of the emotional arc. He never seems conflicted or even reluctant about his choices. There’s no hesitation, no conflicting programming, so much as stern decision-making. This is contrasted against Jodie Turner-Smith as Athena, who finds a lot of tragic weight in her portrayal of the character’s doomed loyalty and bruised feelings towards Ares.

Leto plays the part with a disconnected aura that never quite lands, because his blunt robotic confidence is there even when the character should be lost. There’s a certainty to the performance, even when he’s lost for words or overcome with newfound emotions. There needed to be a sense of vulnerability, minor but undeniable, to make the character’s arc land.

The biggest problem with Tron: Ares is that the depth needed to make the character work simply isn’t there with Leto’s performance. Making a dry and robotic character still feel real is tricky, but it’s something other actors like Michael Fᴀssbender in Prometheus, Alan Tudyk in I, Robot, and Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner have achieved.

If Leto had found that, the movie would have benefited from it. Leto acquires himself well to the action, but there’s a depth missing from the dramatic aspects of the performance that hurts the overall storytelling. Tron: Ares would have been better off casting Leto in the Dillinger role and bringing in someone else to play Ares.