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The Problem with the TRON: Ares Teaser
Apr. 6th, 2025 02:42 pmOr maybe more accurately, the problems (emphasis on the 's' there). I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about the teaser trailer for Ares (watchable here [link]), and all the little things it implies that the film will be about, but my primary issue is this: so far, all it is, is "cool". I know it's just a teaser, and that its primary function is to tease what's to come, but still.
If you watch the teaser for TRON: Legacy (watchable here on a Disney site [link], though it might not be viewable outside the US, sorry!!), there are more hints there of story and character elements than we get in the Ares teaser. The Legacy trailer gives us a semblance of a story--Kevin Flynn is missing, and his son Sam must find him in the digital world--and a little bit of character to Sam, who is clearly jaded and somewhat adrift in his life. There's at least something there to emotionally connect with, a reason to care about the film outside of its flashy digital effects.
In comparison, the only character I felt connected to in the Ares trailer was Greta Lee's character, and her few shots just show her staring in fear and running away. The voice-over dialogue from Leto's Ares and Jeff Bridges' cameo as Kevin Flynn is scant and lacks context. There's no reason to care about what they say, because we don't even know what they're talking about. The visual effects are pretty cool, but that's about the only thing the teaser offers as a reason to see this film. It's all style and no substance, and that makes me worry that the whole film is going to be the same way.
The only real story element the teaser introduces is "programs are invading the real world", which itself implies that programs want to invade reality. It portrays programs as a mindless invading force, which is a far cry how they have been portrayed in the previous films.
(On that note, I want to mention this: some of the casting announcements for Ares early on included a mini-synopsis that talked about Leto's Ares character being a "sentient program", which is utterly baffling for anyone familiar with the franchise. I will note that said mini-synopsis has apparently vanished from all those casting announcements, but I distinctly remember it being there, and I wonder if Disney made Variety, et al, remove it from their articles because it revealed too much about the film.)
Every piece of TRON media up to this point has portrayed all programs as sentient, all the way back to the original 1982 film. In TRON, Sark expresses doubts about the MCP's plans; Tron grieves the loss of Ram and Flynn; in a deleted scene, Yori has a secret apartment that she's decorated herself. Legacy and the animated series Uprising do the same thing--Zuse in Legacy goes from helping Isos to collaborating with Clu, and every character in Uprising is portrayed as a full person with their own thoughts and motivations. On the other hand, this initial teaser for Ares seems quite content to portray programs as mindless bad guys. There isn't a single program shown without red circuitry, which has been used as a shorthand for the antagonists in TRON stories ever since the '82 film, not to mention the color's villainous connotations in countless other properties.
Another worrying aspect of this teaser for me is the implication that this film will be entirely set in the real world. Everything we see is apparently set in our ordinary reality. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, it makes me feel like the writers and or the studio have completely missed the point of the whole franchise.
The point of TRON as a universe is that the Computer World, while dangerous, contains a multitude of possibilities. The Computer World is both beautiful and strange, offering a view of things like nothing on Earth. The programs that populate it are beings with their own lives, with beliefs and desires and feelings and friendships just like humans have. And it seems to me that Ares is rejecting that idea completely in favor of a tired story about the dangers of technology and "artificial" "intelligence." Which is truly the opposite of what TRON is actually about.
And I'm aware that we don't know the actual story of Ares yet--as I said, the teaser offered hardly any hint of it--but from what little info has come out, the "technology wants to invade and or supplant us" story seems like a distinct possibility. There might be a dash of a Pinocchio-type story as well--a program (Leto) "develops" "sentience" and "becomes" a "person" (scare quotes here because programs are already sentient)--but that's just a guess on my part right now.
Those are the main issues I have with Ares right now. I have wanted a TRON 3 since Legacy came out, but I've been increasingly nervous about Ares ever since it was announced. The casting of Jared Leto has not inspired confidence in me, nor has the passing-over of Bruce Boxleitner for a cameo as Tron or Alan Bradley. I want to be excited about this film--there are going to be like four female characters! two composers I like are doing the soundtrack!--but there is just too much that's keeping me on the side of trepidation. And I'm very worried I might actually be right about some of this.
If you watch the teaser for TRON: Legacy (watchable here on a Disney site [link], though it might not be viewable outside the US, sorry!!), there are more hints there of story and character elements than we get in the Ares teaser. The Legacy trailer gives us a semblance of a story--Kevin Flynn is missing, and his son Sam must find him in the digital world--and a little bit of character to Sam, who is clearly jaded and somewhat adrift in his life. There's at least something there to emotionally connect with, a reason to care about the film outside of its flashy digital effects.
In comparison, the only character I felt connected to in the Ares trailer was Greta Lee's character, and her few shots just show her staring in fear and running away. The voice-over dialogue from Leto's Ares and Jeff Bridges' cameo as Kevin Flynn is scant and lacks context. There's no reason to care about what they say, because we don't even know what they're talking about. The visual effects are pretty cool, but that's about the only thing the teaser offers as a reason to see this film. It's all style and no substance, and that makes me worry that the whole film is going to be the same way.
The only real story element the teaser introduces is "programs are invading the real world", which itself implies that programs want to invade reality. It portrays programs as a mindless invading force, which is a far cry how they have been portrayed in the previous films.
(On that note, I want to mention this: some of the casting announcements for Ares early on included a mini-synopsis that talked about Leto's Ares character being a "sentient program", which is utterly baffling for anyone familiar with the franchise. I will note that said mini-synopsis has apparently vanished from all those casting announcements, but I distinctly remember it being there, and I wonder if Disney made Variety, et al, remove it from their articles because it revealed too much about the film.)
Every piece of TRON media up to this point has portrayed all programs as sentient, all the way back to the original 1982 film. In TRON, Sark expresses doubts about the MCP's plans; Tron grieves the loss of Ram and Flynn; in a deleted scene, Yori has a secret apartment that she's decorated herself. Legacy and the animated series Uprising do the same thing--Zuse in Legacy goes from helping Isos to collaborating with Clu, and every character in Uprising is portrayed as a full person with their own thoughts and motivations. On the other hand, this initial teaser for Ares seems quite content to portray programs as mindless bad guys. There isn't a single program shown without red circuitry, which has been used as a shorthand for the antagonists in TRON stories ever since the '82 film, not to mention the color's villainous connotations in countless other properties.
Another worrying aspect of this teaser for me is the implication that this film will be entirely set in the real world. Everything we see is apparently set in our ordinary reality. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, it makes me feel like the writers and or the studio have completely missed the point of the whole franchise.
The point of TRON as a universe is that the Computer World, while dangerous, contains a multitude of possibilities. The Computer World is both beautiful and strange, offering a view of things like nothing on Earth. The programs that populate it are beings with their own lives, with beliefs and desires and feelings and friendships just like humans have. And it seems to me that Ares is rejecting that idea completely in favor of a tired story about the dangers of technology and "artificial" "intelligence." Which is truly the opposite of what TRON is actually about.
And I'm aware that we don't know the actual story of Ares yet--as I said, the teaser offered hardly any hint of it--but from what little info has come out, the "technology wants to invade and or supplant us" story seems like a distinct possibility. There might be a dash of a Pinocchio-type story as well--a program (Leto) "develops" "sentience" and "becomes" a "person" (scare quotes here because programs are already sentient)--but that's just a guess on my part right now.
Those are the main issues I have with Ares right now. I have wanted a TRON 3 since Legacy came out, but I've been increasingly nervous about Ares ever since it was announced. The casting of Jared Leto has not inspired confidence in me, nor has the passing-over of Bruce Boxleitner for a cameo as Tron or Alan Bradley. I want to be excited about this film--there are going to be like four female characters! two composers I like are doing the soundtrack!--but there is just too much that's keeping me on the side of trepidation. And I'm very worried I might actually be right about some of this.
