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The framework of pointlessness is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull science fiction film, more a screensaver than an actual film. This is a third installment to the original movie Tron from 1982, a movie that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that escapes this film and its predecessor Tron Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares nearly awakens just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. That's a bit of firm parenting you might feel like handing out to every producer involved in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so lifeless.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The situation now is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a rival to the VR company Encom, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom's 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 develop and produce profitable things such as invincible troops and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into the real world using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these creations disintegrate 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 for ever, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for twenty-nine 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's performance portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role 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 Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were perhaps designed by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. Nobody who recalls the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn 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 weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus rendering her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be charming when Ares the character says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

Consistent with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the virtual underworld which whizz about the environment in long straight lines, adhering to the angular layout of classic video games (or even nightclubs); a single bike even shoots out a lethal beam which cuts a cop car in two. But there is no drama or danger or emotional engagement anywhere. This franchise currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.