The First Tron: Ares Footage Is So Good That It Made Me Forget I Don't Like Tron That Much

The Walt Disney Company umbrella is so massive, and encompasses so many characters and franchises, that the definition of a "Disney fan" feels impossible to pin down these days. As I sat in the Honda Arena during this year's D23 fan convention in Anaheim, California, I wondered about the make-up of the audience. How many of them were Marvel folks? How many of them worshipped at the altar of Star Wars? Did some of them still pledge allegiance to good ol' fashioned Disney Animation, with a comparable appreciation for Pixar? And naturally, were there some folks who just loved all of the above?

I consider myself a pretty big fan of many of the characters and worlds that live within the Disney bubble, but I'm also perfectly capable of brushing off the stuff that just isn't for me. So as the evening's two-hour Disney Experiences Showcase panel entered its third hour, I found myself switching between being 100% engaged by what was on the screen and knowing when I could take a breather (and in the case of the first footage from "Snow White," when to recoil in horror).

But then something unexpected happened. A film franchise that I have no love for whatsoever grabbed my undivided attention. The first footage from "Tron: Ares" screened exclusively for the D23 audience, and ... well, I was gripped by what was shown.

I don't like the original "Tron." It looks stunning, but it's pretty dull. I don't like the decades-later sequel, "Tron: Legacy." It looks stunning, but, uh, it's pretty dull. And yet! "Ares" looks so different, so off-kilter, and so unexpected in its tone and vision that I left the panel thinking about it, and only it. Heck, I was won over before the seat-shaking soundtrack was revealed to be the work of Nine Inch Nails, a group who, once upon a time, wouldn't be caught within a respectable distance of a Disney stage.

The film's bonkers premise was revealed before the footage, setting the tone: What if a warlord named Ares (played by Jared Leto) from the computer world of Tron finds a way to enter the human plane and decides to conquer our world and remake it in his own image? We were told that the footage was unfinished, but frankly, I couldn't tell. What was projected had my attention instantly.

Director Joachim Rønning seems to be going for a horror movie vibe with "Ares," drenching the screen with eerie reds and blacks while leaning on imagery that would read as gothic horror if it wasn't so clearly science fiction. The tone on display in the footage had the feel of an alien invasion film rather than a poppy sci-fi adventure, and the visuals of the Tron grid leaking into the human world were presented as domineering and overwhelming rather than awe-inspiring. If the footage is accurate to the tone of the actual movie, and not just a feeling cooked up by a talented editor, it certainly looks like this will be a frightening, oppressive experience. In good way, of course. The dread infused throughout this footage, and its downright apocalyptic vision of a world utterly transformed by a nightmare from another dimension, reminded me of "Blade Runner" in its sheer dystopian scope.

Yes, there is also a shot where a lightcycle cuts a police car in half during an intense chase, but the action beats didn't linger with me as long as the atmospheric moments, like a lonely hover bike riding over a placid ocean, the sky filled with the grid's vehicles and structures, all illuminating the sky with a menacing red.

Is it possible that this horror-driven footage is a bait-and-switch, or at the very least not an entirely accurate depiction of the final film? Of course! That wouldn't be the first time this happened. But the final reveal that the film would be scored by alt-rock band Nine Inch Nails felt like a strange confirmation that the menace dripping from every frame was intentional. You don't bring in Trent Reznor to make something sonically upbeat — you bring him in when you want to feel panic inside your bones as your skin rattles off your body. For now, I can only assume that "Tron: Ares" is aiming to be a more upsetting, unsettling experience than the previous films in the franchise, a hard left turn into something more horror-flavored.

And frankly, that's the kind of choice that can get me, someone powerfully agnostic about "Tron" in general, genuinely interested in what the final film will feel like. I would love nothing more than to love a "Tron" movie, and with this first footage, the film has put its freakiest foot forward.

I spoke about my experience at D23 in length in today's episode of /Film Daily, which you can listen to in the player below:

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