🔗 Share this article

The matrix of pointlessness is reloaded in this tediously complex science fiction movie, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. This is a third installment to the original movie Tron from 1982, a movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its time in a way that escapes this one and its predecessor Tron: Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film almost awakens just one time – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mother, in an traditional bit of real-world action. That's a bit of firm parenting you might want to administering to all the producers involved in this movie, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so uninspired.

Plot Overview of Tron: Ares

The situation now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger Corp has become a competitor to the virtual reality firm Encom Inc, first established in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger, played by David Warner) is led by the founder’s odiously nerdish grandson's character Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to design and create lucrative items such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into the real world using a kind of 3D printer.

The problem 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 uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can keep these things alive for ever, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the superhuman fighter which can exit the virtual realm for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of robots, is beginning to show signs of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and poor Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Breakdown

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps designed by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared 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 consistently, unrelentingly terrible here, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be adorable when Ares says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorcycles from the virtual underworld which whizz about the place in linear paths, adhering to the angular layout of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); one even emits a lethal beam which slices a cop car in two. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or human interest throughout. This franchise now looks as relevant as an automobile CD system.