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The framework of futility is revisited in this tediously complex sci-fi movie, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a threequel to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a film that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that escapes this one and its predecessor 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 portraying his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. That's a bit of firm parenting you might want to administering to all the producers engaged in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The scenario currently 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, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, played 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 design and create profitable things such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into actual reality using a sort of 3D printer.

The problem is that no matter how intimidating, these creations crumble into dust after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the humanoid uber-warrior which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of robots, 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 poor Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance 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 possibly designed by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly terrible in this film, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and subcontract all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which whizz about the environment in linear paths, conforming to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or even nightclubs); a single bike even emits a lethal beam which slices a cop car in two. But there is no drama or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This series now looks as relevant as an in-car CD player.