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The framework of pointlessness is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a third installment 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 eludes this film and its predecessor Tron Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares nearly awakens just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of real-world action. This is a piece of tough love you might want to administering to every producer engaged in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so uninspired.

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 competitor to the VR company Encom, first established in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, played 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 lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then export them into actual reality using a kind of 3D printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has uncovered the plot-driving “permanence algorithm” which can keep these things alive for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger sets his attack dog on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of robots, is beginning to show signs of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Analysis

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps designed by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. No one who recalls the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance 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 display glimpses of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be adorable when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Final Impression

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which speed around the environment 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 slices a cop car in half. But there is no drama or jeopardy or human interest throughout. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.