The Pirates of the Caribbean movies were a lightning in a bottle for live action Disney projects, films that lit up the box office in a dry period of Disney’s live action attempts. The studio would come to purchase Marvel and Star Wars to bolster their live action output, and their live action remakes of beloved animated classics would bring up their numbers, but Pirates brought Disney the idea that they could replicate that success. Through the 2010s, and even moving into the 2020s, Disney would make multiple attempts to create successful live action franchises that could stand alongside Marvel and Star Wars. From the Dwayne Johnson-starring Jungle Cruise that was released during the COVID-19 lockdown, to the box office bomb John Carter in 2012, and even the Johnny Depp-starring Lone Ranger from 2013, which the studio marketed thoroughly, included the characters in their crossover game Disney Infinity.
The most notable live action attempt however would come in 2010, with the release of Tron: Legacy. A sequel to cult classic film Tron, released in 1982, the film followed the events of that film by seeing lead character Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges, becoming lost in the Grid, a virtual reality game he had created. His son would follow him into the game many years later and help stop a rogue AI from escaping the game. Though not being as much as a box office bomb as the original film, the film was only a moderate success and would only become popular in the years following release. The overall franchise has become a cult classic and spawned comic book follow-ups and a Disney XD animated series, which ran for a season. The popularity comes from the visuals that stand out from the normality of Hollywood visuals, from the white and game-like visuals of the original to the neon and colourful look of the 2010 follow-up, and the immensely popular soundtracks that come from Wendy Carlos and Daft Punk.
A Legacy sequel has been in the works ever since that film became a cult film and was in production until being abandoned in 2015 after the failure of another Disney live action attempt, Tomorrowland. Tron was finally back alive again in production by 2017, when Jared Leto boarded the project as lead star and producer, moving the project from a direct follow-up, to instead a soft reboot which would strike out on its own narratively. After swapping directors and production designers in the years since, the film has finally hit the big screen eight years after initial announcement, as Tron: Ares. The film follows Leto’s character Ares, an AI from the Grid, created by tech billionaire Jullian Dillinger, who has cracked the code on bringing AI programs into the real world and back. Using the programs to make money with the armed forces, his plans go wrong when Ares goes rogue.
For fans of the Tron franchise, the film’s lack of continuing key storylines and bringing back the lead characters of Legacy will hit hard as a negative, but the film continues the franchise’s core focus of music and visuals. The movie is worth the price of admission for the music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who make up the band Nine Inch Nails. The rock band has made a prominent movement into film soundtracks since working with David Fincher on The Social Network in 2010, as frequent collaborators on Finchers’ releases since then, alongside director Luca Guadagnino. The music works hand in hand with the visuals to give the movie a futuristic mood, a sense of gravitas and awe that matches the visuals of the previous features. As a visual focused movie, the film however lacks its own identity outside of just copying designs and visuals from the previous film. The visuals are impressive all the same, but the jump between the original film and Legacy came from the change in the visual style, and this lack of originality in the visual department makes this film feel lesser in some ways. Legacy was directed by visionary big budget director Joseph Kosinski, director of F1 and Top Gun: Maverick, and brought his own special-effects history to the franchise, crafting a unique visual style. Joachim Ronning, a director who seems to be contained to just making sequels for Disney, delivering films like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, seems to be more of a work-for-hire gig here, lacking any clear unique visual style.
The plot of the film is relatively simple, it is essentially a fetch quest to obtain an item to save the day, and that would not be negative against the film if the lead characters were not all incredibly uninteresting. The previous features did not have the most compelling or complex narratives, but they survived on likeable leads, a pleasant score and incredible visuals. When those likeable protagonists are stripped away, it is easy to see the flaws in the script and the lack of creativity. After receiving critical acclaim as the lead of 2000’s Requiem for A Dream and then receiving an Academy Award for 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club, Jared Leto has become a hot commodity for Hollywood.
His franchise roles however have been less impressive than ever lately, from his panned performance as the Joker in 2016’s Suicide Squad, and then the 2022 box office bomb Morbius, and his performance as Ares here continues to show this lack of passion for the actor in franchise roles. His performance is incredibly flat, and when the AI starts to gain a conscience, he continues to act the same without any added personality. The lead is uninteresting, and his performance makes him even more unlikeable, and it does not help that he shares zero chemistry with co-star Greta Lee. Lee just gained prominence from her starring role in the Oscar-nominated Past Lives, and she feels lifeless here, lacking any central charm as she sleepwalks through her dialogue. Evan Peters’ antagonist, Julian Dillinger, is the highlight of the cast, capturing a spoiled rich nepo-baby fantastically, Peters has the charisma for a franchise like this, and it’s a shock he wasn’t considered for the lead role instead.
The film’s narrative just suffers incredibly from its lack of originality, mixing its plot points from the previous Tron films and then throwing in other film influences throughout. The second act feels increasingly like it is inspired by T2: Judgement Day through the interactions between Ares and his new found allies, but Leto’s delivery doesn’t do any wonders like Arnold’s did in that feature. The fetch quest featured in the film feels like it only exists to dwell in nostalgia in a drawn-out scene which brings back Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a nostalgic sequence that seems out of place in a franchise such as this. The goal of the movie seems to remind the audience of the previous feature, and the sequel that would never come. The soundtrack and visuals are fantastic as expected, but reminding the audience of another film only leads to being reminded, you could just be watching Legacy instead.
Rhys Reviews 