The trailer for Tron: Ares looks cool right up until Jared Leto shows up

One of the pieces of Disney’s CinemaCon presentation was for Tron: Ares, which I did not mention because Tron: Ares stars Jared Leto and life is short, and I try to make wholesome, self-loving decisions like not talking about Jared Leto. But now there is a trailer for Tron: Ares, so, ugh, fine, let’s talk about Jared Leto.

Tron: Ares is a threequel to the cult classic 80s movie, Tron, which came out in 1982, starred a young Jeff Bridges as a guy who gets sucked into a video game, and it was one of the first films to incorporate CGI alongside live-action cinematography. Tron is a solid story but the film was conceptually ahead of its time, the technology of the early 1980s in no way capable of keeping up with the film’s ideas, especially the “light cycles”, the digital motorbikes ridden in the virtual world of Tron.

Tron endured, though, inspiring video games and a devoted following, and in 2010 there was a sequel, Tron: Legacy. Finally, technology could do light cycles justice. But despite vastly improved graphics, the film is mediocre at best and its huge budget made its $409 million box office haul barely acceptable. The film does, however, have a banger of a score from Daft Punk.

Now, we are onto Tron #3, subtitled Ares. This one isn’t about someone going INTO Tron, it’s about an AI from Tron coming OUT (is this a Jumanji situation?). Jared Leto plays the AI, named Ares. He’s on a mission to find something in the real world. Since Jeff Bridges is returning for Ares, I assume that has to do with his character, Flynn. Tron: Ares is an improbable October release, which tells me Disney is hoping for a little of Dune’s spice magic and that Tron’s blend of visuals, epic storytelling, and sci-fi will appeal to the audience as Dune did back in 2021.

Things I like about the trailer for Tron: Ares:

-The red color coding

-The music

-Most of the cast

Tron has always had a blue/red color scheme, with blue representing the good guys. Tron: Legacy went heavy on a teal color scheme as most of the movie takes place inside the virtual world of Tron. Since Ares seems to be mostly in the real world, it’s the red/bad guy coloring bleeding into reality. I like that. It’s consistent, it’s high contrast, it looks cool. Tron has always been a visual-first franchise, and this is consistent.

The trailer also includes new music from Nine Inch Nails, and if this is a preview of what we’ll get with the full score, we’re in for another banger of a soundtrack. Tron has also always had good music—the original film’s score is by Wendy Carlos—so once again, this is consistent. I’m not sure the hunger for more Tron justifies $200 million budgets, but I will allow that Disney has never skimped on Tron, and there is remarkable consistency across 40+ years of filmmaking despite wild advancements in technology impacting the look of the films.

As for the cast, Jared Leto aside, it’s stacked. The film also stars Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Hasan Minhaj, lowkey scene stealer Arturo Castro, Gillian Anderson, and, of course, Jeff Bridges. That’s a great cast! Imagine if Ares was played by literally anyone else.

In conclusion, Tron: Ares looks cool right up until Jared Leto shows up. Oh well. At least we have new NIN to look forward to.