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The matrix of pointlessness is reloaded in this tediously complex sci-fi film, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. 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 film and its predecessor Tron: Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film almost comes to life just once – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mum, 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 film, 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 scenario currently is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a rival to the virtual reality firm Encom, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into the real world using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these creations disintegrate after 29 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 USB drive. So the dreadful Julian sets his attack dog on her: Ares the warrior, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of androids, is beginning to show signs of disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and unfortunate Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the title – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were possibly designed by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. Nobody who recalls the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was also very entertained by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, unrelentingly terrible here, although his performance isn't aided by a limp plot point which is intended to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

Consistent with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which speed around the place in linear paths, adhering to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); one even shoots out a death ray which cuts a cop car in half. But there is no drama or jeopardy or emotional engagement anywhere. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.