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The framework of pointlessness is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi film, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a threequel to the original movie Tron from 1982, a film that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that escapes this one and its forerunner Tron Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares almost comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mum, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. That's a bit of firm parenting you might want to handing out to every producer involved 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.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The situation currently is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a rival to the virtual reality firm Encom Inc, first established in the 1980s gaming period by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn's character, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, played by David Warner) is led by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson's character Julian (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce profitable things such as invincible troops and armored vehicles 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 creations crumble into dust after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the ghastly 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 stoic deputy Athena 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 title – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and subtly omniscient grin, details that were perhaps designed by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who recalls the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was also quite amused by his broad (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly terrible here, 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 marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be adorable when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which speed around the place in long straight lines, adhering to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or even nightclubs); a single bike even shoots out a death ray which slices a cop car in two. But there is no drama or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This franchise currently appears as relevant as an automobile CD system.