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The framework of futility is revisited in this tediously complex science fiction film, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. This is a threequel to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its time in a way that escapes this one and its predecessor Tron: Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares almost 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 analogue reality. That's a piece of tough love you might want to administering to all the producers engaged in this film, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary 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 rival to the VR company Encom Inc, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, 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 indestructible soldiers and tanks in the VR world and then export them into the real world using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these things crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the dreadful Julian deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the humanoid uber-warrior which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of androids, is beginning to show signs of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and unfortunate Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Breakdown

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the title – is played by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and subtly omniscient grin, details that were perhaps designed by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, unrelentingly terrible in this film, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be adorable when Ares says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart.

Series Features and Overall Impact

Consistent with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorcycles from the virtual underworld which speed around the environment in linear paths, adhering to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); a single bike even emits a lethal beam which slices a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This series now looks about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.