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The matrix of futility is reloaded in this tediously complex sci-fi film, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a threequel to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a movie that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that escapes this film and its forerunner Tron Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film almost comes to life just once – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of real-world action. This is a piece of tough love you might feel like handing out to all the producers involved in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The scenario now is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a competitor to the VR company Encom, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create lucrative items such as invincible troops and tanks in the VR world and then export them into actual reality using a kind of 3D printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these things crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the humanoid uber-warrior which can exit the virtual realm 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's performance portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps designed 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 Mr Leto, and I was also quite amused by his broad (and critically misunderstood) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly awful here, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the virtual underworld which whizz about the environment in linear paths, conforming to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or indeed dance clubs); one even shoots out a lethal beam which cuts a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or danger or emotional engagement throughout. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.