Movie Review: Tron Ares

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“Tron” is a science fiction movie franchise that started in 1982, starring Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner. The last Tron movie was released in 2010 “Tron Legacy”, starring Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde, with below average IMDB ratings on a par with the first movie, 6.8 out of 10.

The new movie “Tron Ares” is yet another example of name recognition, fans of the old movies and TV series, where the producers in charge think that throwing special effects at an audience is more than enough to get people to see any science fiction movie. Forego the screenplay, which takes too long; just pay a special effects company, and all we need is some dialogue. This summarizes this movie perfectly, because there is no story, no continuity, and no understandable screenplay anywhere in this disaster of two hours.

This movie stars Jared Leto as Ares, who is a robot, Jodie Turner-Smith who is another Tron robot with an appearance late in the movie of Jeff Bridges who once again plays Kevin Flynn and Gillian Anderson, who plays an executive, Elisabeth Dillinger. For all who see this very bad movie I suggest getting on your cell phones before the film starts and ask ChatGPT what this movie is about, otherwise nobody will have any clue with what is going on in one scene, after another scene, with no connection or logic, anywhere. The synopsis from rom ChatGPT, says it all:

  • After the events of Tron: Legacy, companies ENCOM (run by Eve Kim) and Dillinger Systems (run by Julian Dillinger) are competing to integrate digital programs from the Grid into the real world.
  • They’re limited by a problem: the materialized “digital constructs” only last ~29 minutes in the real world before “deresolving” (they degrade and disappear).

Discovery of Flynn’s Permanence Code

  • ENCOM and Eve Kim believe Kevin Flynn left behind a hidden piece of code (the “Permanence Code”) in an old remote Arctic research station which might allow constructs to stay permanently in the real world.
  • Eve successfully uses the code to bring a digital orange tree into the real world — it lasts much longer, proving the code works.

Introduction of Ares

  • Julian Dillinger creates Ares, a super-intelligent digital Program, intended as an expendable weapon, to deal with ENCOM’s threat and exploit the real-world materialization tech.
  • Ares is sent into the real world, and once there he begins to observe, question, and — to some degree — develop a sense of self, especially when confronted with nature, suffering, and real human consequences.

Conflict and Betrayal

  • Eve and Ares eventually align, as Ares starts diverging from Dillinger’s control. This sets up conflict between creator (Julian Dillinger) and creation (Ares + Eve).
  • Eve becomes a target because she has knowledge of the Permanence Code and maybe because Dillinger wants control of it. The stakes include asking who has the right to “create life” or let digital beings live permanently in our reality.

As far as Rotten Tomatoes critics reviews, which are a very low 53%, one critic Kyle Logan from Chicago Reader wrote: “Ares is also saddled with a truly atrocious script. Awkward attempts at emotional and thematic heft are laughable”. My rating for this very bad movie is around 15% only for some special effects. Hopefully this is the last we ever see the word Tron, anywhere, ever again. Run from this special effects mess.

HBO Series Review: The Pitt

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When a movie or a TV series reaches of the highest levels of quality and perfection that the HBO Series “The Pitt” does, it should be celebrated with Awards, in this case, 4 wins out of 13 Emmy nominations, including best drama series and best lead actor in a drama series, Noah Wiley. From what I have seen, this series should have won all 13 Emmy nominations.

More importantly, this HBO Series of 15 episodes, demonstrates better than any medical show I have ever seen the lives of the heroes who work in the emergency rooms of hospitals. The Hospital for this series is the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, inspired by Allegheny General Hospital (AGH), Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.

Throughout these great 15 episodes there are flashbacks from the years during the COVID pandemic and the realization of so many deaths and the suicides of doctors and nurses during the years 2020-2022 where 1,091,715 people lost their lives. Working in an intense, high population area emergency room requires the highest level of medical expertise and stamina. The ability to make accurate life and death decisions for shifts that can last from 12-15 hours, one after another, is an ability beyond impressive. The knowledge and experience that is required that includes the many medical machines that are involved, on the fly surgical skill, the numerous medical tests, the hundreds of different drugs that for any given patient may or may not save a life, is of the most impressive parts of the depiction of impossible people who have impossible jobs.

For the actors, it must have been so difficult to remember all of the medical terms that are written down in a script, but for the real life doctors they are portraying, committing this much medical information to memory seems at times an ability almost impossible to attain. All of the people in this emergency room are extremely intelligent and high achievers, but the human aspect of dealing with so many patients, non stop medical emergencies and ultimately death, would take a toll on anyone, even after one bad day.

One of the best moments in this series was when Dr. Michael Robinavitch(Noah Wiley) collapses in an empty room after trying and failing to save a young woman who was shot. Another standout episodes includes a young girl who drowned and her young sister to reveals that her sister was trying to save her from a pool, and she has not been told her sister died.

The other standout in this series is Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa), who plays the charge nurse of the emergency room, her personality and work ethic keep the entire department from falling part – the acting of LaNasa in this series won her the best supporting actress Emmy. We learn that an organizer in the center of such intense chaos is mandatory for an emergency room, especially with one later episodes when they are overrun with 120 shooting victims from a nearby mass shooting.

The other standouts are all the young beginning doctors who are getting their first experiences of working in an emergency room, including Dr. Melissa King (Taylor Dearden), Dr. Dennis Whitaker (Gerran Howell), Dr. Cassie McKay (Fiona Dourif) who are all outstanding in their roles. There are the typical fights and arguments that are expected within an environment this intense and medical egos this large, and the expected abuse the doctors with less experience have to endure from other doctors, mostly
Dr. Frank Langdon (Patrick Ball), who has an ongoing series of conflicts with Dr. McKay.

The longer you watch this great first season of 15 episodes, the more you realize that a life like this is not a job, where you receive a paycheck, this is something far more important. This is about courage, education, skill and the innate ability to deal with 12 hours of stress every day and then wake up the next day and do this all over again. This is a life career where if you make a single mistake someone may die. This is a level of superhero ability that very few people could pull off on a daily basis or ever consider making this a career.

For the many huge fans of this great medical drama, season two will be released in January 2026 – way too long to wait to see what will happen next.

The Pitt gets my highest recommendation of 100%. This is by far, one of the productions including movies and television I have ever seen.

Movie Review: The Smashing Machine

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The new movie “The Smashing Machine” is a true story about a former Mixed Martial Arts champion Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson) . This film is essentially comprised of 3 main parts. The first part is about the ridiculous sport of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), which has no real rules and comes down to two men falling to the floor on each other and beating each other in the head or the face using their hands or, in this movie, frequently using their knees to knock a man unconscious. While this “hitting the man in the head with your knee” method was considered a rules violation, it was still allowed in several fights during this story, because in this sport, there are no rules, other than perhaps eye gouging.

The second part of this story is about the relationship and constant arguing of Mark Kerr and Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt). During almost the entire time on screen, Dawn and Mark would drift from one insane argument after another. Too many times, these non-stop arguments were over nothing. One time, they even argued over a cactus plant. While these intense arguments did show acting ability from both Johnson and Blunt, seeing so many of them got old halfway through these two hours.

The third part of this story is about Mark Kerr’s constant abuse of pain killers, which included dangerous opioids that almost took his life and led him to rehab. The worst part of a story like this is how depressing it is that any human being would choose to be devoted to a sport that is so idiotic, and should have been outlawed years ago. Why is it considered entertaining to see two men fall to the floor and hit each other in the face and head?

There has been some buzz about the impressive acting of Dwayne Johnson in this movie and there are indeed some scenes that do show that he can act. Even though this movie is average at best, I believe Johnson will be nominated for a Golden Globe award and possibly even an Oscar, but the quality of this movie will probably prohibit him from winning either award.

I agree with the moderate 73% ratings for this movie on Rotten Tomatoes, but due to the ridiculous fighting scenes of a sport that should be banned, I do not recommend this film.