🔗 Share this article

The framework of futility is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi film, more a screensaver than an actual film. It's a threequel to the classic Tron film from 1982, a movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that eludes this film and its forerunner 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's character playing his mum, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. This is a bit of firm parenting you might feel like handing out to all the producers involved in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Plot Overview of Tron: Ares

The scenario currently is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the VR company Encom Inc, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn's character, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce lucrative items such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of 3D printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these creations crumble into dust after 29 minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence code” which can keep these things alive for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian 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 androids, is beginning to show signs of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and unfortunate Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Analysis

Moreover, Ares – 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 “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who remembers 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, persistently awful here, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be adorable when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which speed around the place in long straight lines, conforming to the angular layout of classic video games (or even dance clubs); one even shoots out a death ray which slices a cop car in two. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This franchise now looks about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.