‘Tron: Ares’ review: Nine Inch Nails’ pulsating score saves this muddled sci-fi sequel

For all its super-fast lightcycles, the Tron franchise has been curiously slow when it comes to sequels. There was an 18-year gap between the groundbreaking but dated 1982 original, which established VR-netherworld ‘The Grid’, and the 2010 sequel Tron: Legacy. Another 15 years on comes Tron: Ares. The follow-up doffs its visor to what came before with a smattering of references and a Jeff Bridges cameo but it largely functions as a standalone flick.

• READ MORE: Nine Inch Nails live at Mad Cool 2025: a blistering masterclass in how to headline a festival

Audiences weren’t exactly clamouring for another Tron but those limited expectations benefit this slick sci-fi adventure. Tron: Ares serves up impressive visuals and zippy set-pieces in an unremarkable but entertaining new story.

Also working in Ares’ favour is that it’s set against the backdrop of a race for AI supremacy, giving it a timely sheen. These grapples with tech ethics are only surface level though. Its philosophising on existence is also glib, though one character does amusingly discover their humanity via Depeche Mode. In a shift from the previous films, much of it takes place in the real world rather than the Grid. A prologue swiftly excuses a Legacy character who doesn’t return and updates on the rivalry between companies ENCOM and Dillinger Systems.

Young CEO Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) is effectively 3D-printing advanced military weaponry – including supersoldier Ares (Jared Leto) – from the Grid into the physical world. The problem for now is that these items only last 29 minutes before they crumble like pixellated Lego blocks and rival ENCOM CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) is getting closer to fixing that issue by cracking “the permanence code”.

From there, the stage is set for some MacGuffin-chasing throughout the real world and the Grid as Eve, under Ares’ protection, races around to avoid the tech falling into the wrong hands. One standout sequence sees a motorcycle-riding Eve pursued through city streets by two lightcycles leaving ribbons of energy in their trails. The subsequent chases across land, air and digital sea fail to inspire the same excitement and there’s not much for plot with all these wacky races. Even a commute to the lab takes place on a snowmobile. The high-standard VFX are a welcome distraction from any script shortcomings – this is theme park cinema.

The casting is effective on the whole too – the inscrutable Leto is well-suited to unblinking program Ares and Peters goes full bore with bratty villainy. Lee has to do a lot of wide-eyed disbelief on behalf of the audience (even if her character – a goodhearted tech CEO – feels more unrealistic than an AI supersoldier come to life).

But what really supercharges the film is the soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have produced countless terrific scores (The Social Network, Challengers) but this is their first as NIN. In much the same way that Daft Punk’s pulsing Legacy score proved more memorable than the film (the electronic duo get an Easter egg nod here), here the industrial-rockers’ soundscapes are integral to the whole thing.

Director Joachim Rønning (the surprisingly decent fifth Pirates Of The Caribbean) is a safe pair of hands. He doesn’t deliver any massive surprises but confidently marshals an entertaining instalment that sits comfortably alongside its predecessors. You might feel like you could leave it another decade or so until you fancy another one but for a couple of hours it sure is fun to be plugged back into the Grid again.