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The framework of futility is reloaded in this tediously complex sci-fi film, more a screensaver than an actual film. This is a third installment to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a film that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that eludes this one and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film nearly awakens just once – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mum, in an traditional bit of real-world action. That's a bit of firm parenting you might want to handing out to every producer involved in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee 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 unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the VR company 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's executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder's odiously nerdish grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme 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 sort of three-dimensional printer.

The issue 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 for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can exit the virtual realm for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of robots, is beginning to show signs of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

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 designed by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life 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 Jared Leto is consistently, unrelentingly awful here, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be adorable when Ares the character says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which speed around the environment in linear paths, adhering to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or even dance clubs); one even shoots out a death ray which cuts a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or human interest throughout. This franchise now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.