🔗 Share this article

The framework of pointlessness is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi film, more a screensaver than an actual film. This is a third installment to the classic Tron film from 1982, a movie that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that eludes this one and its predecessor Tron Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares almost awakens just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. This is a bit of firm parenting you might want to administering to all the producers engaged in this film, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The situation now is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the VR company Encom Inc, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder’s odiously nerdish grandson's character Julian (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce lucrative items such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the VR world and then transfer them into the real world using a sort of 3D printer.

The problem is that no matter how intimidating, these creations disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian sets his attack dog on her: Ares, the humanoid uber-warrior which can exit the virtual realm 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 plays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Breakdown

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps designed by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was also quite amused by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, persistently terrible in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and subcontract all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which whizz about the place in long straight lines, adhering to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or even dance clubs); a single bike even shoots out a lethal beam which cuts a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or danger or emotional engagement anywhere. This franchise currently appears as relevant as an automobile CD system.