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The framework of futility is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. It's a third installment to the classic Tron film from the early 80s, a movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that eludes this one and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film almost awakens just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mother, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. This is a piece of tough love you might want to administering to every producer engaged in this movie, and it's sad to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview of Tron: Ares

The scenario currently is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the VR company Encom, first established in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson's character Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce profitable things such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the VR world and then transfer them into the real world using a kind of 3D printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these creations disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive 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 USB drive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger sets his attack dog on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of robots, is starting to exhibit symptoms of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and unfortunate Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were possibly created by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. Nobody who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, persistently terrible in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is supposed 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 marginally more interesting. It is meant to be charming when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Overall Impact

Consistent with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which whizz about the place in linear paths, conforming to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); a single bike even emits a death ray which slices a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or emotional engagement throughout. This franchise currently appears as relevant as an automobile CD system.