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The matrix of futility is reloaded in this tediously complex sci-fi film, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. This is a threequel to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a film that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that escapes this film and its forerunner Tron Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares nearly awakens just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of real-world action. That's a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to all the producers 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 The New Tron Film

The scenario now is that an evil AI corporation with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a rival to the VR company Encom Inc, first established in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson's character Julian (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to design and create profitable things such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the VR world and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these creations disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the ghastly Julian sets his attack dog on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of androids, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and poor Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Analysis

And Ares himself – the hero of the title – is played by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were perhaps created by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Mr Leto, and I was also very entertained by his broad (and critically misunderstood) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, persistently awful here, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be charming when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart.

Series Features and Final Impression

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which whizz about the place in linear paths, conforming to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or indeed nightclubs); one even emits a lethal beam which cuts a cop car in two. But there is zero tension or danger or human interest anywhere. This series now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.