Tron: Ares — A Program Without Purpose

I went into Tron: Ares with an open mind. I hadn’t watched trailers, read reviews, or seen any early buzz — I just wanted to experience it cold. Having enjoyed both the original Tron (a clunky but daring experiment) and Legacy (stylish, flawed, but emotionally coherent), I was hoping this third entry would expand the Grid’s mythology and give the franchise new energy.

Instead, Ares feels like a lost process running in the background — technically functional, but devoid of focus or direction.

The film never settles on what it wants to say. It teases intriguing ideas — AI creation, the ethics of autonomy, the blurred line between program and person — but never follows through. The supposed villain is undefined, the stakes are vapor, and the titular character has no real arc to speak of. Ares himself drifts through the narrative like an empty shell of a concept that might’ve once been profound.

Visually, it copies Legacy’s aesthetic sheen but without its pulse or emotion. Even the music — once the lifeblood of the series — feels like a ghost of Daft Punk’s original score.

By the end, Tron: Ares doesn’t crash; it just fades. It’s a film that mistakes design for depth, leaving behind a world of digital glow and emotional emptiness.

In short: Tron: Ares isn’t broken. It’s just hollow. A beautiful, soulless simulation of a better movie.