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The framework of pointlessness is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, more a screensaver than an actual film. This is a threequel to the original movie Tron from 1982, a movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that escapes this film and its predecessor Tron Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares nearly awakens just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. That's a bit of firm parenting you might feel like administering to all the producers engaged in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview of Tron: Ares

The scenario currently is that an malicious artificial intelligence company 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 Dillinger (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, acted by David Warner) is headed 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 creations 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 keep these things alive for ever, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can exit the virtual realm for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of androids, is beginning to show signs of disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and poor Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Analysis

And Ares himself – the hero of the film's name – is played 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 artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who recalls the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his expansive (and critically misunderstood) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, persistently awful in this film, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares the character says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

Consistent with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which speed around the environment in long straight lines, conforming to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); one even shoots out a death ray which slices a cop car in two. But there is no drama or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This franchise currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.