Sophia Sullivan
Staff Writer
“Tron: Ares,” the third installment in the Tron movie series, was released on Oct. 10, and, for me, its comparison to the other two films brings up a rather interesting point about the fight between technological innovation and raw human intuition. This can be seen in analyses of past and present characters, metaphors, and set designs. It is what makes this movie worth the watch and wonder!
The film, starring Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, returner Jeff Bridges, and many other amazing actors, is a wild ride through the fictional worlds of both Center City and the technologically created Grid that fascinatingly illustrates the event and implication of their collision. This beautifully crafted story draws wonderfully on past and present and its perfectly placed symbolism cannot be ignored.
Ares starts as a rather mechanical, war machine, AI-like program but grows as a character. In director Joachim Rønning’s own words from a recent D23 interview, Ares learns “what it means and what it takes to be human.” I feel that this idea is significant and, especially in comparison to his victory over his inhuman rival, Athena, implies that the strategic intelligence of technology will never be enough on its own; something more, something human, will always need to exist in tandem.
The addition of the movie’s other main character, Eve Kim, played by Lee, and Jeff Bridges’ returning character Kevin Flynn also further this point. Kim’s role and actions in this current film point to such themes as though the program Athena is depicted as a powerful nearly unstoppable, secondary Antagonist; she and Ares can defeat her. It is also implied that such a thing is possible largely due to her raw human ingenuity and determination. The film’s reprisal of the role of Kevin Flynn and the parallels to his depiction in the proceeding flicks also bring this point to light as, being the fictional game’s human creator, he is with no exception implied to be the guiding light and determiner of all actions leading to victory and positive change.
I would even go so far as to argue that the choice of the names Ares and Athena plays into the same argument in a rather brilliantly metaphorical way. The associations of the two names align them with key mythological figures. The ancient Greek God of War, Ares, is described in the mythology as representing the brutality and rawness of war whilst his counterpart, Athena, is known as the Goddess of battle strategy, a characteristic which tends to be more highly revered. I think that, therefore, the inclusion of these aptly named characters adds in itself to the film’s symbolic argument because the story’s end goal cannot be met without the humanity and grit of Ares and the installment’s other main/supporting heroes.
I also really love the ways that his team, in Rønning’s own highly justified words from the same interview, are “paying huge homage and respect” to the original 1982 Tron film, especially as it pertains to the set design in the pivotal scene where Ares is sent back into Kevin Flynn’s initial game to retrieve the stories all important “permanence code.” I’m of this opinion because the contrast of the early set design (created through a mix of live action footage, preliminary CGI technology, and special effects such as backlight animation) and the digitally modified and heavily CGI incorporating “Tron: Ares” set seemingly explains that times and technologies have clearly changed, yet the clear value put on human innovation and strength has remained the same throughout it all.
With all of the elements that have been added to this awe-inspiring film and the meticulous effort that has clearly been put into its creation, I feel it’s been clearly stated, as was done in the other two films, that technological and scientific innovation can never exist without human innovation. I would definitely say that the film is worth watching even solely due to its rather intriguing and applicable central theme about AI usage in the modern world.
“Tron: Ares” makes some great points about the human condition and our ever-changing relationship with technology, so if you love to learn, and you love some amazing sci-fi action, it’s definitely the film for you.