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The framework of futility is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a third installment to the original movie Tron from 1982, a movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that eludes this film and its predecessor Tron Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares nearly awakens just one time – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of real-world action. This is a bit of firm parenting you might feel like handing out to all the producers involved in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The situation now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a competitor to the VR company Encom, first established in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is led by the founder’s odiously nerdish grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce lucrative items such as invincible troops and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these things disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the humanoid uber-warrior 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's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, details that were perhaps created by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. Nobody who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was also very entertained by his broad (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, persistently terrible here, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which speed around the place in long straight lines, adhering to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or indeed nightclubs); one even emits a lethal beam which slices a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or danger or human interest throughout. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.