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The matrix of pointlessness is revisited in this tediously complex science fiction movie, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a third installment to the original movie Tron from 1982, a film that was mould-breaking and boldly pioneering for its time in a way that eludes this film and its forerunner Tron Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares almost awakens just once – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mum, in an traditional bit of real-world action. This is a piece of tough love you might feel like administering to every producer engaged in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.

Story Summary of The New Tron Film

The scenario currently is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a rival to the VR company Encom, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is led by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to design and create profitable things such as invincible troops and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into the real world using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has discovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the humanoid uber-warrior which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of androids, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and unfortunate Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton.

Acting and Roles Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist 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 artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who recalls the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, persistently terrible in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a limp plot point which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be adorable when Ares the character says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Final Impression

Consistent with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which speed around the place in linear paths, adhering to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or even dance clubs); a single bike even emits a lethal beam which slices a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or danger or human interest throughout. This franchise now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.