🔗 Share this article

The framework of pointlessness is revisited in this tediously complex sci-fi film, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. This is a threequel to the original movie Tron from 1982, a film that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that escapes this film and its predecessor Tron: Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares almost comes to life just once – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. This is a bit of firm parenting you might want to handing out to all the producers involved in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The scenario currently is that an evil AI corporation with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a rival to the VR company Encom Inc, first established in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is led 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 tanks in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these things crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can keep these things alive for ever, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the dreadful Julian sets his attack dog on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of androids, is beginning to show signs of disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and unfortunate Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Breakdown

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the title – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were possibly designed by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his broad (and critically misunderstood) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, persistently terrible in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is supposed to be adorable when Ares the character says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart.

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 long straight lines, adhering to the angular layout of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); a single bike even shoots out a death ray which cuts a police vehicle in half. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or emotional engagement anywhere. This franchise now looks about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.