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The framework of pointlessness is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi film, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. It's a threequel to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a movie that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that eludes this film and its predecessor Tron Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film almost awakens just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mum, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. That's a piece of tough love you might feel like administering to every producer involved in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The situation now is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the virtual reality firm Encom Inc, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn's character, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson's character Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce profitable things such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the VR world and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these creations crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence code” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger sets his attack dog on her: Ares, the humanoid uber-warrior which can leave the VR world for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of robots, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and unfortunate Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton.

Acting and Roles Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the hero of the title – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were possibly designed by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was also very entertained by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, unrelentingly terrible here, although his performance isn't aided by a limp plot point which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares the character says how he adores 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Final Impression

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which whizz about the environment in long straight lines, conforming to the angular layout of classic video games (or even dance clubs); one even shoots out a death ray which slices a police vehicle in half. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or emotional engagement anywhere. This franchise now looks as relevant as an automobile CD system.