Released on Oct. 10, Tron: Ares, is a PG-13 film released by Walt Disney Studios starring Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Gillian Anderson, Jodie Turner-Smith, Hasan Minhaj, and Arturo Castro, taking place in the modern world when futuristic technology has become the reality. The music was all done by Nine-Inch Nails, and it has turned out to be one of the best films of the year.
The film follows the story of Ares, the Master Command protocol of Dillinger Industries’ servers, played by Leto. Entirely an artificial intelligence program, Ares exists in a digital world, designed to protect his superior’s data and obey whatever directive Julian Dillinger, his superior and the CEO of Dillinger Industries, gives him. Those directives do not just exist within the digital world, however, as Ares can be printed as an artificial lifeform in the real world. From there he can perform the less than legal tasks that Dillinger Industries have in mind. The problem with this, though, is that these printed lifeforms cannot exist in the real world for longer than 29 minutes, and after that they are destroyed and returned to the digital world. But the Board of Dillinger Industries does not know this major flaw in these revolutionary weapons. Fearing what could happen to his position if they did, Julian is rushed to seek out a strand of code that was discovered by ENCOM, his rival company. It can keep these weapons in the real world without a time limit, called the ‘Permanence Code.’ Ares is the operator assigned to the task of recovering the Permanence Code from Eve Kim, the CEO of ENCOM. In studying her as a target he begins to feel less like a weapon and more like a man. He begins to desire life and meaning, and Ares leaves Dillinger to pursue the Permanence Code and make himself human.
The conflict of the film is really just a political battle between ENCOM and Dillinger Industries, with ENCOM being the moral superior of the two. The theme runs a lot deeper than that. Ares believes that permanence will make him into something beautiful. When he recovers the Permanence Code and becomes human, he realizes that he will not live forever. Eve Kim teaches him that impermanence is what makes life beautiful. It really is a very deep theme for a movie that follows such a monotone character.
The best quality of the film is, as explained, the deep theme. But alongside that, the CGI and visual style are phenomenal. It’s really comparable to James Cameron’s Avatar in the way that the visual effects look so realistic. Beyond that, the music is great, all done by Nine-Inch Nails. It sounds very technological and intense, enhancing the feeling of Ares being a weapon who wants to be more (as much as music can really do that). The actors also performed very well, especially Leto, who plays Ares. He really portrays the idea that he has no emotions, does not feel anything, but wants to. He is monotone, rarely blinks or emotes, and says very obvious things.
This, unfortunately, is both a strong suit of the film but also a weakness. Because Ares is so monotone and emotionless, he isn’t a very relatable character, and sometimes he doesn’t even feel like the main character. He can feel bland at times, which isn’t really something a director should want for a main character. The only other problem with the film is the pacing is a bit too fast, and the plot can be difficult to follow, but it’s not too big of a problem because the plot’s not all that complicated.
Overall, it is a phenomenal movie. The plot is good, the visual style and music is great, and the acting is also incredible. It is deep even though it really shouldn’t be; for a character that is meant to be monotone and inhuman, Ares makes the viewer think about the beauty of life and why it’s such a beautiful thing. Impermanence. Easily in the top five movies for this year, a 10/10, and highly recommended.
