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The matrix of pointlessness is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull science fiction film, more a screensaver than an actual film. This is a threequel to the original movie Tron 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 2010. The new Tron film nearly comes to life just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mother, in an traditional bit of real-world action. This is a piece of tough love you might feel like administering to all the producers involved in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith 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 VR company Encom, first established in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger, acted by David Warner) is headed by the founder’s odiously nerdish grandson's character Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce lucrative items 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 things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the dreadful Julian deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, 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 not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and poor Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Breakdown

Moreover, Ares – the hero of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were perhaps created by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly awful in this film, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is supposed to be charming when Ares the character says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which speed around the place in linear paths, conforming to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or indeed dance clubs); a single bike even emits a lethal beam which slices a cop car in two. But there is zero tension or danger or emotional engagement anywhere. This franchise now looks as relevant as an in-car CD player.