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The framework of futility is revisited in this tediously complex science fiction movie, more a screensaver than an actual film. This is a third installment to the classic Tron film from the early 80s, a film that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that eludes this one and its forerunner Tron Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares nearly awakens just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mum, in an traditional bit of real-world action. That's a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to all the producers engaged in this movie, and it's sad 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 now is that an evil AI corporation with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the virtual reality firm Encom, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is headed by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then export them into actual reality using a kind of 3D printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these creations disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has uncovered the plot-driving “permanence algorithm” which can keep these things alive permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the humanoid uber-warrior which can leave the VR world for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of androids, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and unfortunate Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Analysis

And Ares himself – the hero of the title – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were possibly designed 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 ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie 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 display glimpses of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be adorable when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart.

Series Features and Final Impression

Consistent with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which speed around the environment in long straight lines, adhering to the angular layout of classic video games (or even dance clubs); a single bike even shoots out a lethal beam which cuts a police vehicle in half. But there is no drama or danger or human interest throughout. This franchise now looks about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.