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The framework of pointlessness is revisited in this tediously complex science fiction film, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a threequel to the original movie Tron from 1982, a movie that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that escapes this one and its predecessor Tron Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film almost awakens just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mother, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. This is a piece of tough love you might feel like handing out to all the producers engaged in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so uninspired.

Plot Overview of Tron: Ares

The scenario currently is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the VR company Encom, first established in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create profitable things such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the VR world and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these creations crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the ghastly Julian sets his attack dog on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of androids, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Analysis

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were possibly created by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. No one who recalls the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, persistently awful here, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is supposed to be charming when Ares says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart.

Series Features and Final Impression

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the franchise, 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 emits a lethal beam which slices a police vehicle in half. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or emotional engagement throughout. This series now looks about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.