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The framework of futility is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. This is a third installment to the classic Tron film from 1982, a movie that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that escapes this one and its forerunner Tron Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares almost awakens just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mother, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. This is a piece of tough love you might feel like administering to all the producers involved in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so lifeless.

Story Summary of The New Tron Film

The scenario now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the VR company Encom, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is led by the founder's odiously nerdish grandson's character Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then export them into the real world using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these things crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence code” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of androids, is beginning to show signs of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and poor Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the hero of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were possibly designed by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. No one who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his expansive (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly awful in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a limp plot point which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be charming when Ares the character says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

Consistent with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which speed around the place in linear paths, conforming to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or even nightclubs); a single bike even emits a lethal beam which slices a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or danger or emotional engagement anywhere. This franchise now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.