The 607th film I have seen in theaters…
The program beings of “The Grid” venture into the real world and Encom faces off against Dillinger. Ares is the MCP (Master Control Program) of Dillinger systems. After he is sent on an espionage mission against Encom’s CEO, Ares discovers the will to grow beyond his programming. Ares wants to live in the real world.
This is likely the end of the Tron film series, despite a teaser ending. The box office doesn’t seem to be there, but I thought it was great. I actually saw the damn thing twice! Once in IMAX and again in 3D. Like the previous Tron films, the plot is nothing special. The visuals and music, aka the VIBE, is where these films excel. The original had that awesome synth score (By RI native Wendy Carlos), and the sequel featured (quite famously) Daft Punk. NIN provides the music this time, and they deliver.
Jared Leto, and his weird cult shit, is seemingly keeping people away from the theaters, but I thought he was good as Ares. Greta Lee was a wonderful co-lead as Encom CEO Grace Kim. Jeff Bridges reappears as some sort of echo of Kevin Flynn. It is not completely clear what he is, but he is welcome.
On the villain side of things we have Evan Peters as Julian Dillinger, grandson of the the original baddie played by David Warner. Gillian Anderson plays his mom, the former CEO. Jodie Turner-Smith is Athena, Ares’ lieutenant tasked with hunting down our heroes.
This was a good movie. Damn good. The only other movie I saw twice this year is Superman. I think that earns it an automatic 8 out of 10. I just wish the story had a little more meat to it, but its Tron. This entire trilogy is flashy movies with cool music that underperform at the Box Office. In that vein, this carries on the tradition. It will find its audience in streaming. I look forward to part four in the late 2030’s.
8/10
SuperStuff 