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The matrix of pointlessness is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull science fiction movie, 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 courageously innovative for its time in a way that eludes this film and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares nearly awakens just once – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mum, in an traditional bit of real-world action. That's a piece of tough love you might feel like handing out to all the producers involved in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the respected 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 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 80s arcade-game era 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 odiously nerdish grandson's character Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce profitable things such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the VR world and then transfer them into the real world using a kind of 3D printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these things disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger 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 time-honoured way of robots, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena's role and poor Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Breakdown

Moreover, Ares – the hero of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, details that were perhaps designed by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. No one who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was also quite amused by his broad (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, persistently awful here, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be adorable when Ares the character says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which speed around the environment in linear paths, conforming to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); one even emits a death ray which slices a police vehicle in half. But there is no drama or danger or emotional engagement anywhere. This series now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.