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The matrix of pointlessness 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 movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its time in a way that escapes this one and its predecessor Tron Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares almost comes to life just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of real-world action. This is a piece of tough love you might feel like administering to every producer involved in this movie, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.

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 virtual reality firm Encom, first established in the 1980s gaming period by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson's character Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into the real world using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these creations crumble into dust after 29 minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the plot-driving “permanence code” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can exit the virtual realm 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 plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and unfortunate Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were perhaps created by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was also very entertained by his expansive (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, unrelentingly terrible in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is supposed to be adorable when Ares says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart's compositions.

Series Features 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 angular layout of classic video games (or indeed nightclubs); one even shoots out a lethal beam which slices a police vehicle in half. But there is no drama or danger or human interest anywhere. This franchise currently appears as relevant as an in-car CD player.