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The matrix of futility is revisited in this tediously complex sci-fi film, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. This is a threequel to the classic Tron film from the early 80s, a movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its time in a way that escapes this film and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares nearly comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters gets a slap 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 administering to all the producers engaged in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so uninspired.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The scenario now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger Corp has become a competitor to the virtual reality firm Encom Inc, first established in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger, played by David Warner) is led by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create profitable things such as invincible troops 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 things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful 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's performance portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and poor Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Acting and Roles Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps designed by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. Nobody who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was also very entertained by his expansive (and critically misunderstood) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, persistently terrible in this film, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the villainous actions to Athena, thus making 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 superior to Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Final Impression

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which whizz about the place in long straight lines, adhering to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or indeed dance clubs); a single bike even shoots out a death ray which slices a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or emotional engagement throughout. This franchise now looks about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.