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The matrix of pointlessness is revisited in this tediously complex sci-fi film, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. This is a third installment to the classic Tron film from 1982, a film that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that eludes this one and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares almost comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mother, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. That's a piece of tough love you might feel like administering to all the producers involved in this movie, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The situation now is that an evil AI corporation with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a rival to the VR company Encom, first established in the 1980s gaming period by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder’s odiously nerdish grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the VR world and then export them into actual reality using a kind of 3D printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has discovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can keep these things alive for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the humanoid uber-warrior which can exit the virtual realm 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 plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and unfortunate Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were possibly designed by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who recalls the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was also quite amused by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, unrelentingly terrible in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a limp plot point which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus rendering her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be charming when Ares the character says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which whizz about the environment in long straight lines, adhering to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or indeed nightclubs); one even shoots out a lethal beam which cuts a cop car in half. But there is no drama or danger or human interest anywhere. This franchise currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.