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The matrix of pointlessness is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, more a screensaver than an actual film. This is a third installment to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a film that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that escapes this one and its forerunner Tron Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares nearly awakens just one time – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. This is a piece of tough love you might feel like administering to all the producers engaged in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.

Story Summary of The New Tron Film

The scenario now is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a competitor to the virtual reality firm Encom, first established in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is headed by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce lucrative items such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into the real world using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these creations disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the dreadful Julian sets his attack dog on her: Ares the warrior, the superhuman fighter which can exit the virtual realm for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of robots, is beginning to show signs of disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's stoic deputy Athena's role and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, details that were possibly created by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his expansive (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, persistently terrible in this film, although he isn't helped 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 badass wickedness to Athena, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be adorable when Ares says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which whizz about the place in linear paths, conforming to the angular layout of classic video games (or indeed nightclubs); a single bike even shoots out a lethal beam which cuts a cop car in half. But there is no drama or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This franchise now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.