🔗 Share this article

The matrix of pointlessness is revisited in this tediously complex sci-fi movie, 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 escapes this film and its forerunner Tron Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares almost comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mother, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. That's a piece of tough love you might feel like administering to all the producers involved in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so uninspired.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The situation currently is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the unsubtly gangster-ish 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, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, played by David Warner) is led by the founder’s odiously nerdish grandson Julian Dillinger (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 actual reality using a sort of 3D printer.

The problem is that no matter how intimidating, 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 maintain these entities for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic flashdrive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, 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 robots, is beginning to show signs of not doing what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Analysis

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were perhaps designed by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. Nobody who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was also very entertained by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, persistently terrible here, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be adorable when Ares says how he adores 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the virtual underworld which speed around the environment in long straight lines, adhering to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or even dance clubs); one even emits a lethal beam which cuts a cop car in half. But there is no drama or jeopardy or human interest throughout. This franchise currently appears as relevant as an in-car CD player.