Film Name: 创：战神 / Tron: Ares
Actually, I was really eager to catch the new movie Tron: Ares as soon as possible last weekend. But the overwhelmingly negative reviews before and after its release were genuinely discouraging… Still, driven by my fondness for the previous Tron: Legacy and my habit of “ticking off movies,” I went to see it yesterday.
Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. The visual effects were commendable, and concepts like laser printing and world traversal were executed well. The story structure held together reasonably, avoiding outright absurdity… But honestly, I’d be hard-pressed to praise it further. Ultimately, it’s just another Hollywood cash cow—big budget, heavy on spectacle, light on creativity, and utterly unoriginal.
So, in the past couple of days, Tron: Ares’ Douban rating actually bounced back by 0.1 points. After all, it’s merely mediocre, not terrible—but these days, mediocrity might be worse than outright trash. Its fate is often to fade away without a trace.
Reflecting on why I enjoyed Tron: Legacy, I’ve come to understand why Tron: Ares feels so bland: it’s lost its few remaining distinctive traits.
The gaps between installments in this franchise are simply too vast. From the 1982 original TRON to 2010’s Tron: Legacy, and then to 2025’s Tron: Ares—spanning 28 years and 15 years respectively. Over such extended periods, both creative concepts and visual effects undergo massive iterations… Tron: Legacy excelled by anchoring its narrative in the digital realm, amplifying the franchise’s core creative elements. Its lavish, visually stunning production design and the groundbreaking visual effects technology of the time delivered an outstanding cinematic experience.
If Tron: Legacy represented a 30-to-100 leap forward from the original TRON, then Tron: Ares feels like it’s stuck oscillating between 110 and 90: I could care less about the feud between the Flynn and Dillinger families, or the corporate tech rivalries between Encom and other giants. I could even overlook whether the female characters are attractive… But you absolutely cannot let the massive “light pollution effects” vanish entirely.
The fatal flaw of Tron: Ares lies in setting its main scenes in real-world cities, where virtual characters and laser-printed gadgets come to wreak havoc. This effectively abandons a major strength of the franchise—that uniquely immersive virtual world filled with electronic light bars. Playing to your weaknesses by retreating to the human world—how does that differ from countless other run-of-the-mill sci-fi works?
Of course, if the film could deliver compelling action sequences after shifting settings, it might still feel fresh. But alas, it fails to deliver.
My expectations weren’t high—at the very least, I hoped for one signature motorcycle chase battle from the franchise? But sorry, the entire film offers only a half-baked attempt at this—the chase sequence when Ares and Athena pursue Eve. Beyond taking out a police car and causing partial traffic paralysis, it achieves little else. While the motorcycle design is somewhat distinctive, the rest plays out like the same old chase scenes audiences have grown tired of.
Other “big scenes” follow a similar pattern. Moreover, the visual effects leap from 2010 to 2025 pales in comparison to the leap from 1982 to 2010. With no distinctive style and minimal technological advancement, these sequences inevitably blend into mediocrity.
As for the thematic substance of Tron: Ares, there’s even less to discuss. It merely layers trendy contemporary AI personality debates onto the original framework, while internally recycling the same tired tropes that have been recycled for decades. I won’t elaborate further.
Regarding the film’s box office and critical failure, I can’t help but wonder if a different subject matter might have yielded better results… But for a franchise built on creativity, stagnation is regression. Any small step backward feels like a major leap backward.
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