Legacy vs Ares

I’m a huge fan of both Tron: Legacy and Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross’ movie scores, so I found myself at the opening weekend of Tron: Ares a couple days ago.

• Intense audio visual experience? of course
• Sweet dueling motorcycle scenes? aw yeah
• Resonant character arcs? nope
• Compelling philosophical commentary? not really

The first three are a pretty natural result of mixing Nine Inch Nails, Jared Leto, and the Tron aesthetic, but after rewatching Tron: Legacy last night, I was surprised to find that the philosophy of the 2010 sequel is far more impactful than the latest installment.

Possible contributing factors:

• Daft Punk’s electronic soundscapes induce a more reflective mood
• The moral/ethical stakes are higher when the setting is the real world (not to mention, the present cultural relevance of questioning the role of AI in our world)
• Flat characters are more painful when they don’t have the plausible deniability of being “programs” (looking at you, dueling CEOs Eve and Julian)
• The crowning hypothesis, what if a program chooses to feel, is both supported by and then hamstrung by Leto’s robotic acting

To be fair, Legacy also simply poses the question of using the digital frontier to improve the human condition and makes no effort to answer it, but to be even more fair, they were stuck inside the computer the whole time. The fantasy of the inner world of computers is a wonderful space for blue-sky thinking about what is possible (despite the perpetual night). Whereas the real world setting of Ares simply offers the awkwardly obvious moral-less power grab of a plutocrat and the peachy cancer cures of the altruist. Again, the flat characters’ desired outcomes are just not interesting.

I loved the epic music video experience of Ares and I’ll probably watch it again for that, but for real inspiration to consider how to improve the human condition, I’ll stick with Legacy.