🔗 Share this article

The matrix of pointlessness is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. This is a threequel to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a movie that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that escapes this one and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares nearly awakens just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mum, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. This is a piece of tough love you might want to administering to every producer engaged in this movie, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The scenario currently is that an evil AI corporation with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a rival to the virtual reality firm Encom, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger, played by David Warner) is led by the founder's odiously nerdish grandson's character Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce lucrative items such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the VR world and then export them into the real world using a kind of 3D printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these things disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the plot-driving “permanence code” which can keep these things alive permanently, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of robots, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and poor Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were perhaps created by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. No one who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, persistently awful here, 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 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 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart.

Series Features and Final Impression

Consistent with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which whizz about the environment in linear paths, conforming to the angular layout of classic video games (or even nightclubs); a single bike even shoots out a death ray which cuts a cop car in two. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or human interest throughout. This series currently appears as relevant as an automobile CD system.