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The matrix of futility is revisited in this tediously complex sci-fi movie, more 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 boldly pioneering for its time in a way that escapes this film and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares nearly comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. This is a piece of tough love 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's character being made to look so lifeless.

Story Summary of The New Tron Film

The scenario currently is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a rival to the VR company Encom Inc, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is headed by the founder's odiously nerdish grandson's character Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create profitable things such as invincible troops and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then export them into the real world using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these creations disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can keep these things alive for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the humanoid uber-warrior which can exit the virtual realm for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of robots, is starting to exhibit symptoms of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and unfortunate 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 title – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and subtly omniscient grin, details that were possibly created by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. Nobody who recalls the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his expansive (and critically misunderstood) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, persistently awful here, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena, thus making her marginally more interesting. 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.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the franchise, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which whizz about the environment in long straight lines, conforming to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or indeed nightclubs); a single bike even emits a death ray which cuts a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or emotional engagement anywhere. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.