If the cult techno sci-fi films “Tron” (1982) and “Tron: Legacy” (2010) were about humans going into the “grid” of the digital world, then the newest installment in this franchise, “Tron: Ares,” is about the digital world invading our own. Allegorically, this feels right for our particular moment, the film depicting AI super-soldiers wreaking a path of destruction through human cities, but despite the ethical questions the film presents, it still can’t shake the franchise’s enduring techno-optimism (or inevitability), even as it encourages getting “offline.”
This iteration of “Tron” is helmed by Norwegian director Joachim Rønning, with a screenplay by Jesse Wigutow. The Flynn men, Kevin (Jeff Bridges) and his son, Sam (Garrett Hedlund, who starred in “Legacy”), are now out of the picture, and two warring tech companies are locked in an arms race for the future of artificial intelligence. Eve Kim (Greta Lee of “Past Lives”) is at the reins of the Flynns’ company, ENCOM, while bratty upstart Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) runs Dillinger Systems under the watchful eye of his mother (Gillian Anderson).
While Eve searches for a message from her late sister, an AI optimist who believed in the tech’s possibility to improve human life, Julian is 3D-printing digital tanks and “expendable” super-soldiers for investor presentations. Too bad these warriors’ real-world lifespan is only 29 minutes. When he gets wind that Eve has located a “permanence code” thanks to her sister’s message, Julian sends his two best soldiers, Ares (Jared Leto) and Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith), to retrieve the code by any means necessary.
If the appeal of the original “Tron” was its groundbreaking computer-generated imagery and forward-thinking concept, then the appeal of “Legacy” was its sleek sci-fi design and digital disco score by Daft Punk, offering more of a vibes-based experience than an absorbing narrative. “Ares” tackles more story, but the style is borrowed from “Legacy,” just with spiked colors — Dillinger’s digital squadron is cloaked in menacing red neon — and a crunchy, industrial, sexy soundtrack for the action by Nine Inch Nails.
But the plot itself is bitten from a tale over 200 years old, one that now seems a part of our primordial DNA, or at least the DNA of the stories we tell ourselves again and again. That is, of course, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” If the themes of creating a monster that starts to think on its own weren’t clear enough, the book is directly referenced when Ares, stalking Eve, catches a glimpse of her reading it in a social media video. As he quickly processes the novel’s content, a few lines make an impression. Ares is already starting to question things, like Julian’s words about his soldiers being expendable and the deletion of a fellow “program” during a hacking mission. Combined with a new sensation, a “feeling” when he experiences rain,Ares’ system is primed to go rogue.
Typically in sci-fi, AI gaining sentience means bad things for human beings. But as Eve posits in a televised interview, “What if its major malfunction is benevolence?” What “Tron: Ares” suggests is that independent thinking can result in empathy. Meanwhile, following the rules is what results in death and destruction.
With his searching but empty blue eyes, Leto is physically perfect for playing a questioning computer program, and Lee brings her steely presence to bear on Eve. Turner-Smith demonstrates her “Terminator” bona fides as well. But the problem with “Ares” is the script, which spells out everything for us. There’s no subtext, no room for interpretation or ambiguity, especially as it plays out like the scene of Frankenstein’s monster discovering a daisy. Wouldn’t it be more fun if we could uncover these themes on our own, without being prompted?
Rønning, who helmed a “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel and “Young Woman and the Sea,” provides serviceable direction of the material, without offering much innovation. The film loses focus toward the end when it becomes a crashy, pixelated monster movie, the real world having no capability for hosting the sleek, bloodless appeal of the grid.
Ultimately, “Tron: Ares” lands on the diplomatic argument that AI is only as good as the person wielding it, but doesn’t offer answers on how to ensure that (aside from a big old battle). But furthermore, it can’t answer the question that stumps all AI evangelists: Why try to make AI more human when we can just be human ourselves?
Perhaps that’s too much to ask of a sci-fi movie that should be more about style than substance. All “Tron: Ares” needed to be was a mood, but it delivers existential questions that are pre-chewed pablum rather than searching moral quandaries.
Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.
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