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The framework of futility is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. This is a third installment to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a film 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 almost comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mum, in an traditional bit of real-world action. This is a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to every producer engaged in this movie, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The situation now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the virtual reality firm Encom, originally set up 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 odiously nerdish grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to design and create lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the VR world and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these creations crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim's character (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 deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of androids, is starting to exhibit symptoms of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Analysis

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and subtly omniscient grin, details that were possibly created by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. Nobody who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude 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 Leto is consistently, unrelentingly awful 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 delegate all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be charming when Ares the character says how he adores 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

Consistent with the franchise identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which whizz about the environment in long straight lines, conforming to the angular layout of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); one even shoots out a lethal beam which cuts a cop car in two. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or emotional engagement throughout. This franchise currently appears as relevant as an automobile CD system.