I blame him not saying "It's Tronning time" in the movie.

I myself was hyped until I saw Jared Leto, i just don’t wanna see him in anything

As someone who loves sci-fi films and the Tron aesthetic, and who generally enjoyed the two previous films, a sequel should have been an easy sell to me.

Unfortunately, the whole "Tron bikes" and "Tron jets" IRL was - to me - such a huge red flag I skipped opening weekend. It gave the feeling of big action set pieces in the real world where the least amount of creative work would be needed and I had no desire to watch the military or the rag tag group of heroes fight computer programs IRL.

My favorite part of Tron was going into a new world and seeing the digital landscape. I want the lore, I want the "computer program's are people and mechanics" vibe, I want the fantasy portion of the sci-fi. I do not need another boring ass marvel / Star wars movie with a Tron paint job.

We need an actual trilogy, an actual story with actual arcs, we need actual stakes. This movie convinced me from its trailer alone that it would say nothing, fail to surprise me, and play out in a safe and predictable fashion and do it in such away that it wouldn't even be fun. I'm all for repetitive dime store movies, but they have to be compelling, well paced, and self-aware. I doubt this movie was any of those.

Mostly yes.

I might stream the soundtrack someday, but I'm just not going to pay to see Jared Leto sleepwalk through another performance...

The original movie was a pretty solid OK. Now we're on a 4th retread of that, why should I care. Plus fuck Disney.

I 1000000000% didn't and won't go see this movie because of him.

And after cancelling D+ and Hulu last month because they fucked up the Kimmel thing, it may be years before I see it, who knows!

But, initially, when I saw Leto in the trailer that was a quick "nope" from me, dawg.

It's a franchise built on boomer/Gen X understandings of video games and technology. We are in 2025 now, young people don't give a shit about this stuff, yet they still try to pitch these films to a younger audience. The actual base concept of being trapped inside a video game has been incredibly popular with younger audiences in the last decade or so - look at all the stuff that has come out of Japan. The difference is that those films and TV series used modern video games as their inspiration, so younger audiences intuitively understand and connect with their worlds. TRON as a franchise is like some 50-year-old dad forcing his teenager to play some shitty 2D video game whilst rambling about how much fun he had with it back in the day. Your audience doesn't care and it's embarrassing that you haven't worked this out yet.

I went to the cinema to see the original and loved it. It blew my mind. It's iconic.

Then I went to the cinema to watch Legacy and I really enjoyed it. It's not as good as the original but it still had great aesthetics and the music is brilliant.

Then it was "oooh, they are making another one?!! Yes! I can't wait to...what? No, wait. Leto? Really? Oh well, maybe if I'm alive when the next one comes out I'll go see that instead"
The guy, to me, is just plain unlikeable. He's ok in very small bit parts in films, but when he's the main character then I can't watch it. When I go to the cinema I want to be entertained for a few hours, not annoyed.

Creativity at disney is moribund and nothing can fix it without getting rid of the old dead growth. Get rid of iger and similar execs like kennedy. They degrade any project. They dont love the products they produce. I remember one time kennedy commenting on star wars that there wasn't enough source material. Her problem was she would have to pay for it and thinks the writers are not important. That kind of weak thinking is stagnating disney. It will continue until these fossils are gone.

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer: Yes, because they made it all about him, and not about any of the previous characters.

I keep hearing that there was no marketing for the movie but I'm not even interested in the movie and I saw a lot of marketing, I assumed it was going to be popular

I haven't seen it yet, but have heard the plot wasn't good either. So while he didn't help, many films have shown even having great actors can't rescue a bad movie. He's just the rotting cherry on top of the melted sundae.

My favorite snarky critic review:

https://nypost.com/2025/10/07/entertainment/tron-ares-review-sci-sequel-is-fun-even-if-jared-letos-just-doing-morbius/

"Forty-three years later, “Tron: Ares” is groundbreaking for being the first “Tron” film with a discernible plot."

Dude creeps me out.

I saw the movie. I enjoyed it. The effects and soundtrack were the best part of the film. Jared Leto was NOT the worst part. The script had little story and character development. That was the main problem. Jared made use of what he was given.

That said, they did set it up for a sequel so it does suck that they may not pursue that. Maybe they need to work more on story/characters and less on effects. It costs less.

Disney has more than enough money to own all the popular IP in the world. But cannot do a single thing with it. I am old enough and fan enough of the original that I still have an original Tron action figure. The original was wildly stylistic and visually appealing. But even the story on it wasn't all that stellar, just serviceable.

The second was a big upgrade on the style and visuals. But the story was its weakness, setting up so much, paying off so little. It still had promise if they had continued on with those storylines for another move or two. But Disney got cold feet and chickened out.

From what I've heard of this one, there wasn't an upgrade to the style. Nor hardly any tie-ins back to any of the original storylines. Just McGuffin for the sake of McGuffin. Oh, and Morbing Time. At least Morpheus now no longer holds it's nefarious title. Even if Leto does.

The truth is, this property could have a lot done with it when put in the hands of even a good fan-fiction author. There's so much to explore. Unfortunately, Disney's lost the interest of all the original actors at this point, I think. Well, Bridges might be back for another I suppose. But today's Disney is not the Disney that green lit the original. Far too risk averse just a grand dragon sitting on its massive horde as it rots beneath it.

Disney is to blame for making this crap and screwing an entire legacy for A quick buck.

Yes.

I lost all interest in this movie when they announced he was in it. He fucking sucks.

Everything I’ve read says the soundtrack is good so we get that I guess?

I actually enjoyed this movie. They needed to do marketing, but it came out and I only found out because I get emails from my local indie theater.

Honestly, can they just sell or license Tron to someone who cares about the franchise?

Star Wars gets a fuck ton of shitty sequels because they make bank at the box office. Same for Jurassic World and any other crappy big budget franchise you can think of.

Tron doesn't have enough broad appeal to sell tickets on the name alone like Star Wars and Jurassic Park, and if they aimed for that it would lose the charm of being Tron. They could certainly improve attendance with better stories and marketing, but chose to focus on spectacle.

Also, Leto being a prominent character is why I didn't bother to go see it. He is also the main reason it was even made, so him being cast was inevitable. I'll watch it when it hits streaming.