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The matrix of pointlessness is revisited in this tediously complex sci-fi film, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. It's a third installment to the original movie Tron from 1982, a film that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that escapes this film and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares nearly 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 handing out to every producer involved in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview of Tron: Ares

The scenario now is that an evil AI corporation with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger Corp has become a competitor to the VR company Encom Inc, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger, acted by David Warner) is headed by the founder’s odiously nerdish grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to design and create lucrative items such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the VR world and then transfer them into actual reality using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these things disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the plot-driving “permanence code” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the ghastly Julian deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the humanoid uber-warrior 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 portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the title – is played by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were perhaps designed by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, persistently terrible here, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and subcontract all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is supposed to be charming when Ares the character says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which speed around the environment in long straight lines, conforming to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); a single bike even shoots out a death ray which slices a police vehicle in half. But there is zero tension or danger or human interest throughout. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.