🔗 Share this article

The framework of pointlessness is reloaded in this tediously complex sci-fi movie, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. This is a third installment to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a film that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its time in a way that eludes this one and its forerunner Tron Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film nearly awakens just once – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. That's a bit of firm parenting you might want to handing out to all the producers engaged in this movie, and it's sad to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The situation currently is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a rival to the VR company Encom, first established in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson's character Julian (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce profitable things such as invincible troops and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then export them into actual reality using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these creations disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence code” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian sets his attack dog 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 traditional way of androids, is starting to exhibit symptoms of not doing what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and subtly omniscient grin, details that were perhaps created by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. No one who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was also quite amused by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, unrelentingly terrible in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a limp plot point which is intended to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and delegate 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 adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart.

Series Features and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which speed around the place in linear paths, conforming to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or even dance clubs); a single bike even emits a lethal beam which cuts a police vehicle in half. But there is no drama or danger or human interest anywhere. This franchise currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.