Some retro charms bring out the best of this threequel.
The reports of the A.I. actress Tilly Norwood has driven us up the wall. “I think for the movie industry, in terms of labour, it’s a disaster,” said Brenda Austin-Smith, the film studies professor at the University of Manitoba. And “I write movie reviews with my fingers on my hands on my body. I have a very strict no A.I. policy,” said me, Christopher Zweig, the film critic of CJ @ The Movies and NEWHD Radio.
I prefer to watch movies about A.I., because at least they’re made by human beings. Consider how the awful “Electric State” and the under-developed sequel “M3GAN 2.0” have been trying to fight against it. And consider “Tron: Ares,” which uses an A.I. character and tries to make it more human than Norwood will ever be. At least he’s played by a real actor, who happens to be Jared Leto.
This is the third entry in this exciting franchise that began in 1982, and continued in 2010 (“Tron Legacy”) and this year. I may not be an expert on the whole computer world, but I know a strong sense of nostalgia when I see it, and I know amazing special effects when I see them. The light cycles from different generations, the colors of red and whites, and how the transitions of people and things from the digital world to the real world look like something out of a billion dollar 3D printer all look exciting. And they’re all handled with style and energy with the right music by Nine Inch Nails (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) and direction by Joachim Ronning.
As the film begins, Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), the arrogant grandson of Ed Dillinger and new CEO of Dillinger Systems, is developing a new A.I. program, which he plans to take from the virtual world to the real world. His creation is Ares (yes, like the Greek god of war), who is the A.I. played by Jared Leto and can only last 29 minutes in the real world. Unless, Dillinger can hack into the rival company ENCOM, which honors the world of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges back in his iconic role) and is about to make a breakthrough. Its CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) is that person about to make that breakthrough. And all it takes is one code.
It would be inevitable that Ares would begin to develop human qualities, considering that we had Haley Joel Osmond in “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” and Amie Donald in “M3GAN,” among others. His second-in-command Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith), however, that’s a different story. They’re required to capture Eve for the code, unless Ares goes off the grid and helps her.
The cast also includes Gillian Anderson as Julian’s mother, who tries to talk him out of his dastardly ways, Arturo Castro as Eve’s comic relief colleague, who helps her with her vision, and Hasan Minhaj as Eve’s business partner, who is in the middle of a big product launch.
I saw “Tron: Ares” in IMAX 3D yesterday, and while I haven’t been that big into 3D movies lately, I still think it looks great in that format. I think it would also look great in 2-D format, but I was mostly distracted by the great visuals to even care. It might goof off a bit with some of the characters, but there’s a lot of appealing ones, who are likably played by Leto (who is also a producer here), Lee, Peters, Anderson, Castro, and Bridges. I mean, what wouldn’t be a “Tron” sequel without the man of the hour?
I know it sounds typical that I would praise a Disney movie about A.I. over a Universal movie like “M3GAN 2.0,” but I think my enjoyment has something to do with the quality and execution. We need to keep going to the movies to keep the movie-going spirit alive, and I’m doing everything in my power to persuade you to keep doing so. Will “Tron: Ares” help? I should hope so. And again, I’m writing this review with my fingers on my hands on my body.
