The Couch Critics
The Couch Critics is your laid-back guide to movies and TV shows that deserve your attention—or maybe don’t. Nathan, along with a rotating door of eclectic co-hosts, dives deep into storytelling, character development, and cinematic style with a sharp eye and a wry sense of humor. Whether it’s a blockbuster hit, a hidden gem, or a cult classic, Nathan’s relatable approach ensures every episode feels like a cozy chat with a friend who just happens to love film. Perfect for casual watchers and cinephiles alike, The Couch Critics bring thoughtful critique without the fluff. Grab your favorite snack, settle in, and let Nathan and friends guide you through the world of screen entertainment.
The Couch Critics
Why The Tron Franchise Keeps Missing The Mark
Neon glows. Hearts don’t. We sat down for a triple feature of Tron, Tron Legacy, and the new Tron Ares to ask a simple question: why do these movies look so good and feel so empty? With Thomas joining the couch, we trace the franchise from its groundbreaking 1982 CGI to Ares’ timely promise of AI intrigue, then sift what sparks and what fizzles.
We give the original its due for pioneering computer‑generated imagery and changing how films think about digital worlds. Then we revisit Tron Legacy’s strongest beats—Daft Punk’s pulse, the father‑son tension, the scale that finally makes the Grid feel mythic—while calling out the bloat and recycled beats that keep it from greatness. Finally, we dig into Ares: a high‑concept setup about a program entering the real world, a cast stacked with Jared Leto, Jeff Bridges, Greta Lee, and Evan Peters, and an AI theme that should be urgent right now. On paper it sings; on screen, thin character work, flat humor, and a weightless villain mute the chorus.
Along the way, we talk missed opportunities with Jeff Bridges, why strong worldbuilding can’t carry weak stakes, and how a franchise obsessed with spectacle can reclaim its soul by centering relationships and consequences. Expect spoilers, honest scores, and a few laughs about breakfast burritos and the strange romance of light cycles. Whether you’re a Tron lifer or a curious skeptic, you’ll leave with a clear sense of what this universe needs to matter again—and why so many fans still want it to.
Enjoyed the chat? Follow, rate, and share the show with a friend who loves sci‑fi. Drop your take on which Tron film still holds up and what it would take to make the Grid glow for real.
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The weekend's here, it's time to unwind. Grab your snacks, leave the week behind. Blockbusters, classics, they're all on the way. Let's kick it off with Cinema Saturdays.
SPEAKER_02:Hello, everybody, and welcome to another Cinema Saturday episode of The Couch Critics. I'm your host, Nathan, and on today's episode, not only is it a triple feature episode, but I also have a brand new couch critic on the show. It is my good friend Thomas. Hi, Thomas.
SPEAKER_01:Hey Nathan.
SPEAKER_02:Happy to be here. Good, good. So for those of you who don't know who Thomas is, which is probably everybody listening because he's never been on the show before, Thomas and I are actually part of an improv troupe here in Fayetteville, North Carolina called The Unnecessaries. And we've done some shows together. We're about to do another show pretty soon. So I get this Tuesday coming up is a new show and a new venue. So super excited about that. So, Thomas, before we dive into what we're talking about today, do you want to tell the listeners a little bit about yourself?
SPEAKER_01:Yes. So I am active duty army, currently stationed at Fort Bragg, married to my beautiful wife, Morgan, and I have a passion for improv, like you said. So, and I have a passion for movies. So when I found out about this podcast, I wanted to be part of it. Very cool.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And so Thomas and I have already talked about going to see other movies on my cinema Saturday, cinema Sunday episode. So I'm really excited about that because I found that when I record by myself, the episodes tend to be extremely short. So I like to have somebody to talk to and kind of share opinions about different movies and stuff like that, which is exactly what we're going to be doing today on this triple feature episode, all about Tron, Tron Legacy, and the newest one, Tron Ares. So let's dive right into Tron, which came out in 1984, I believe. So that was like two years before I was born, which is crazy. And it stars Jeff Bridges, and it's all about a video game and the world within the video game, known as The Grid. And I fell asleep when I watched it. It was very boring and very talk-heavy, and very surprising that Disney made it. Now, obviously, Disney has made live action movies before, but this movie was just just boring. Thomas, have you ever watched Tron?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so I was the same thing. I'd never never seen them before, but I know it kind of has a cult following. A lot of people really like it, so I wanted to find out. I think something we have to consider is it was probably a lot cooler in 1982. Because what I've heard is that this movie inspired a lot of future CGI. I was researching the movie a little bit, and it's interesting that it actually didn't win a lot of awards because people considered it cheating back then. And now everybody uses CGI. So I thought that was interesting.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, obviously, yes, in 1982. Sorry, I said 1984. 1982, the visuals were you know ahead of their time. So obviously, you mean you gotta give props where props are due. The visuals nowadays don't look that cool, but again, in that time period of 1982. I like how I said time period, like it's a crazy, crazy long time ago. But yeah, though, I mean the visuals obviously were pretty impressive if you've never seen anything like that before. But other than that, I thought it was very boring. Yeah, it so let's just skip over that movie and let's go to Tron Legacy, which came out in 2010. So, first one 1982, the second one in 2010. I'm starting to feel a pattern of very long periods of time between Tron movies. So, Tron Legacy brings back Jeff Bridges, which I did think was pretty cool. I did stay up when I watched this one, I stayed up the whole time. My wife even joined me and watched it with me, so that was fun that we watched it together. But again, it was uh it was kind of boring. I will say I do think I like Tron Legacy better than Tron because the storyline was a little bit more compelling. But other than that, again, it was just it was boring. I mean, the music was cool, you know. They have the the Daft Punk kind of music going on, and that kind of brings you back to the 80s a little bit, but the storyline was just I mean, I I I do feel like there was more of a storyline than there was in Tron. But Thomas, have you seen Tron Legacy?
SPEAKER_01:Yep, same thing. I thought it was a lot better. I feel like it could have been a lot shorter. You did have so I enjoyed the character dynamics, I enjoyed the the father-son relationship, but like you said, it just it didn't feel like there was really anything special, and if it wasn't a sequel, because the original Tron, okay, it did something new that nobody had done before in a movie, so I understand why it had that cult following. This one, you're kind of watching it and you're saying, what did it even do different than the original? And it's what 28 years later, and it kind of feels like the same movie just now now his son's involved instead of his friends.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was just it was basically like a rehash of what we'd seen before. Nothing like you said, nothing new except this time had an attractive program lady in it, but that's about it. So that movie didn't do that well in the box office, and I don't I I I can't think of a reason why it would do well, because again, it was boring, but for some reason Disney thought, hey, we still have something with this Tron thing. And I think in 2011 they came out with a short-lived one-season cartoon, which I did try to watch, but again, it was very boring, even though it had a pretty impressive uh voice actor uh lineup with one of them was uh Elijah Wood played the star role in that show, which was pretty impressive because you know it's a cartoon show, and yeah, anyway, but I could not get past the first episode. So this brings us to 15 years later, folks. 15 years later, to Tron Ares.
SPEAKER_01:The the great Tron is back, even though isn't Tron the name of a character and Tron is not in this movie, he pretty much dies and somehow just always comes back.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so finds a way because I did not do the synopsis for the other two movies. I will do the synopsis for this movie. So here is the synopsis.
SPEAKER_03:A highly sophisticated program, Aries, is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission.
SPEAKER_02:Electron Ares stars Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Jeff Bridges, and Evan Peters. With a cameo, I guess, of sorts from Jillian Anderson or Gillian Anderson. Everyone is there now. And Jodie Turner Smith is in this too. I don't know who she is, but she plays Athena. So let's just get let's let's just get it over. Disney needs to stop trying to make Tron movies because these movies aren't interesting at all. Like nothing about them is interesting. They try to make you care about characters that you care literally nothing about the entire time. Thomas, do you agree or disagree?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I will say I do not think it was too bad of a movie because I only fell asleep in the theater two times. So I mean, you know, if it was if I was watching the first tron in the theater, I probably would have fallen asleep for the whole thing. So so I'll give it credit where credit's due. I do think that probably part of the reason that they wanted to make this 15 years later is how involved AI has become in our lives. So I think it's what's so strange that this movie bombed, even though the topic is of so much interest to everyone right now, and it's kind of taken over a lot of people's imaginations of what I AI is gonna do in the next five, 10 years. So watching it from that perspective, the characters didn't inspire me. The visuals were kind of cool. A lot of the action scenes just kind of dragged on. I think some of the philosophical questions that were raised were interesting, just because AI were we're kind of at a point where AI is about to just get out of control.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I I feel like what the what this movie was trying to do was uh avert your expectations of you know the usual AI taking over the world and and going against humanity. And spoiler alert, folks, we're gonna spoil this movie because I don't think you should see it. We're gonna spoil it because Jared Leto wants to save humanity and actually become a human himself. That's right, he wants to become a human. This movie was so dumb, and it comes off. Sorry, that this is how deep my reviews go. If if you've if you're just listening to the show for the very first time, this is how deep my reviews go. I don't go in depth, I just tell you if it sucked or not. And I think this movie was terrible because Jared Leto was Jared Leto, he's very one note, it's very a lot of people compared, I think, his performance in this to his performance in Morbius, which I don't know if you've seen that movie, Thomas. I actually enjoyed Morbius, which I was very surprised because a lot of people hated it. I thought it was cool, the character is interesting. I thought it wasn't as bad as everyone thought. But this movie was just not good because I didn't care about his character. And at first, you're like, Oh my gosh, he's trying to save humanity. No, no, he's not. He's very selfish. The whole movie, he's just focusing on himself becoming human and not really like he uses everybody, he uses the female character to get the thing that he needs. And can we talk about the the acting in this movie? The that was the biggest thing for me. In the very first line of dialogue, I think I turned to you. I don't know if you noticed, but I turned to you and I was like thinking in my head, this movie's gonna be awful because the acting just from the start was atrocious, and they tried so hard to have that male character or her friend, the male character who I guess was trying to be. I don't know who he was trying to be. He reminded me of another actor, but he was trying to be the comic relief, and it just wasn't working, like nothing he said was funny to me.
SPEAKER_01:That whole first scene, they could have just thrown it away. It was so awkward with the with the breakfast burritos that he was making, and like it wasn't funny. What they didn't tell us, they didn't make us care about the characters. Like they didn't, I didn't feel a connection to the characters until at least 30 minutes into the movie, and at that point, why are you still here?
SPEAKER_02:Well, and before that, they were trying to make you care because the female character sister dies, but they tell you so early on that this is gonna sound really mean. I said, I don't care, who cares? Yeah, I don't care that she died. And yeah, he was trying to make the the microwave with the breakfast burritos. I guess the joke was microwaves are old. Like, I guess that they would like, ooh, look at this technology that we still use today, folks. That they're acting like it was like this old ancient thing, this microwave. Yeah, it was dumb. And so, yeah, I didn't care about Jared Leto's character because I don't think obviously I understand at the beginning of the movie he's supposed to be a quote unquote program, and so I guess they're like he's kind of robotic, so he doesn't have to show emotion, but he's like that the entire movie, even when he's even when he is trying to make jokes, they fall flat because at no point, because again, I I guess I understand they were trying to show that he was slowly starting to show emotion, but it it was just so it was so confusing. And even after he becomes human, he still is very one note in his acting. And I would think like a cool choice would have been like as soon as he becomes human, he emotes more and has different, you know, fluctuation in his voice or something. I don't know. I don't know what I was expecting. I wasn't expecting much because again, the first two were so terrible, but I've talked enough. Thomas, what what what was there anything about this movie? Like you you kind of already said there were some things that you liked. Was there anything about this movie that really stuck out? And you're like, this movie is pretty okay, maybe? Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:So, like I said, it's it's less the movie, it's more the themes that interested me. So I remember very early on, Dillinger, I don't remember his first name, but he's the grandson of the the bad guy in the first movie. So I thought that was fun. He's talking with his mother, who uh she had kind of been the CEO, and then he took over as CEO, and there was a line of no matter what, this AI is here, and it's it's like a car that's that's driving, but who holds the key? I think that's really what the whole story was about is forces for good, sort of good, like you said, really more just selfishness that's a little less psychotic, versus complete psychotic evil. But do you know what's crazy is Dillinger on paper was a completely a complete villain, but he never convinced me as a villain either, as an actor. Like he literally, the program that he told to destroy humanity at all costs, he told Athena, go and well, he didn't tell her, sorry, he didn't tell her to destroy humanity, he told her to uh stop the mission at all costs, and she took that to whatever levels. She killed his mom. And even at that moment, I'm like, I'm not convinced with him as a villain. Like, he doesn't scare me, he doesn't but I don't know. It just it just felt weird. It it didn't even feel I didn't feel any emotion from that happening because it was all so quick.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I I wasn't fully convinced either, and because, like you said, and and it goes along with my whole feel of the acting in this movie. No one was convincing, like no one, the hero wasn't convincing, the the the female character wasn't convincing about whatever she's supposed to be convincing about. I just didn't care. I didn't care when his mother died because I mean, while she she did okay, her acting was okay. I I I could have used a little bit more of like the very concerned mother, like what you're doing is very wrong, and it's slowly corrupting because that's what they should have done. They should have had like a slow corruption of his character, like the beginning, and maybe they felt like we've seen that before, but I don't care. I mean, just that's what you should do. At the beginning, he thinks he's doing good in humanity, and then he slowly sees that it's corrupting him, and it corrupts him so bad that the post-credit scene that happens makes more sense. Yeah, so I'm gonna go ahead and spoil that too. In the post-credit scene, he goes into the grid and he finds his grandfather's suit from the original Tron movie, and he puts it on basically. It becomes a part of him, and so now I guess there's you're supposed to be convinced that he's gonna be even more of a big bad guy in the apparent. I guess they're trying to make another one, but I've already heard that if they do, it will not release in theaters because this movie flopped so bad, which I thought was funny because like the day after it released, I saw something saying, Oh, this is really impressive, how much money it made opening day. And then, like that very next day, there are like all these articles saying how much of a flop it was, and how Jared Leto should not touch any movies ever again in the near future, because everything he's touched recently has been pretty pretty bad in the box office. But again, I liked Morbius. I'm probably one of the two people that did, but I actually enjoyed it. So obviously, I think we kind of both said what we didn't like about this movie either. So I don't know if there's are there any final thoughts that you have about Tron Ares before we give all three of these movies a rating?
SPEAKER_01:So I'll say what they could have done better because they had a really good opportunity. Jeff Bridges was what made Tron Legacy a decent movie. He was phenomenal. And he was in this movie, but his role didn't make sense. It wasn't incredibly clear, and and maybe maybe a super fan would understand the situation, but it wasn't clear to me was that his program? Did he get inside of the system somehow? And then the other thing is he didn't have a relationship with the main character, so he's kind of suddenly giving all this information, but it's not clear as to why he's giving all this information, and then suddenly the main character is back out in the real world. So I think they could have I think a lot more of Jeff Bridges would have been good. And even if you want him to be less central, at least do better explaining why he matters. Because if if you have not seen the first two movies, then that entire scene makes no sense.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I I completely forgot to mention Jeff Bridges, probably because he was so minuscule in this movie. And I think in like one of the final trailers, that's when they revealed that he was going to be in this film. And I guess they're like thinking, oh, let's just go ahead and reveal Jeff Bridges because everyone's gonna want to go see it now. Yeah, I I 100% agree that Jeff Bridges should have been in this more. I I do believe that in Tron Legacy they kind of hinted that he died within the grid when the bridge explodes and all that stuff. But at the beginning of this movie, there's like conspiracy theories that he was still alive, and the female character's sister was like obsessed with him and was convinced that he was still alive. So I think they totally missed an opportunity for him to show up alive in person. Now, for reasons that we may not know, like behind the scenes, maybe there was a reason he couldn't be in it more, you know, scheduling and all this stuff. He's getting older, and so that's a possibility. But I think if you're gonna do a Tron movie, you have to have you have to have Jeff Bridges because I'm pretty sure he's the only one from the original that is alive still. I think I know the Dillinger's grandfather, the the man who played him, I know he passed away a couple years ago, so I know he passed away. So yeah, not utilizing Jeff Bridges more in this movie was a big mistake because, like you said, it didn't make any sense, it didn't make any sense why he cared about this character. Now, again, you could go with, you know, they're both programs, and so in a way, I guess Jeff Bridges' character created him to a certain extent, even though he was on the opposite side and all this confusing crap. But yeah, Jeff Bridges was was probably my favorite part of the whole movie, and he was only in it for like five seconds, what if it it felt like so? Kudos to Disney for having him there because I I think yeah, that was my favorite part, and then the rest of the movie was just to replay. So, yeah, those those are my final thoughts of of Tron Airs. I just think it was a waste of time. I'm sad that I wanted to go see it. I'm not sad that I would spend time with my friend Thomas, though. So that that that's the highlight. Thomas and Jeff Bridges, those are my two highlights for Tron Airs. You got me going on the the A-list for AMC. Yes, he has joined AMC A-list, so that's another reason why why we'll be able to go see awesome movies together, and I'm super excited. So let's go ahead and give let's do all three together because I don't feel like doing these individually because I feel like I felt the exact same with all of these movies. So for me, I'm gonna give a rating for all three Tron movies together. I'm gonna give the Tron franchise in general a 1.5 out of five. Oof. That is boring. Like that is aggressive. Okay, okay, okay. I'll give it a 2.5 because I think out of all the three, Tron Legacy was probably my favorite. I agree. The storyline was a little bit more compelling, the music was fun, even though the music in Tron Ares was a was pretty fun too. But I think Legacy was was just really good. It was like right there in the middle. I didn't fall asleep, but I still wasn't 100% sold.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So I think Tron Legacy, it's the only one that I really felt emotion at points in the movie, which again, I didn't feel it throughout the movie. So I don't think it flowed great. But like early on, the son being separated from his father, not knowing why, that they had a lot of good stuff. And and honestly, they had a lot of good stuff in Tron Ares too. They just didn't execute it because, like you said, the losing your sister, that that could have been a very interesting storyline. It just it just fell flat. I would so you said 2.5. I'm gonna give it a three, a three out of five as a series, only because I think the most recent one is probably a two out of five. I think the legacy is probably a three and a half out of five or three out of five. But the first movie, we have to remember that we are watching this with a modern lens, and I am sure that it would have been a lot more compelling in the theaters in 1982. So I'll give it, I'll give it credit for what it did in its time as a historical movie, but just because a movie was great in the 1980s doesn't mean it's great today. So I'll I'll give it, I'll give it the full three.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, like case in point, have you ever seen Citizen King?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, exactly. But yeah, it's considered the the top movie of all time, and then you watch it today and it's one of the most boring things I've ever seen. More boring than Tron. I mean I don't know if I'd go that far. But but I didn't, but I didn't fall asleep during during Citizen King. So there is that. So those are our thoughts on the Tron series, Disney. If you're listening, if anyone from Disney is listening, which they probably are, but if you are, just stop. Stop making Tron movies. It's not working, nobody likes it. I do want to go on the Tron ride one day, but that's that's about it. That's the only thing Tron related that I am looking forward to in my life. So, Thomas, thank you for coming on the show. I'm looking forward. I'm looking forward to other future episodes.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I'm looking forward to our show. If you're in Fayette L, if you're local, come to River House Church at 7 p.m. We're gonna be there with some funny people in the middle of a pumpkin patch. I'm excited. So thank you for listening. Next Tuesday, or this coming Tuesday, actually, not next Tuesday, I will be reviewing Lady and the Tramp as part of my Christmas movies. I don't know why. I mean, I do know why. I mean, there's some Christmas y stuff in there, and it's kind of up in the air what I'm gonna be reviewing next cinema Sunday. So I don't know. We'll see. Maybe it'll be a surprise. Maybe Thomas and I will go see something. I don't know. Thank you for listening to The Couch Critics where every movie gets its close up.
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