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The matrix of pointlessness is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull science fiction film, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. It's a threequel to the original movie Tron from 1982, a movie that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that escapes this one and its predecessor Tron: Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film nearly comes to life just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mother, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. That's a bit of firm parenting you might want to administering to every producer engaged in this film, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The situation now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the VR company Encom, first established in the 1980s gaming period by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder’s odiously nerdish grandson's character Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce profitable things such as invincible troops and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then export them into actual reality using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these things crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (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 very low-tech flashdrive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger sets his attack dog 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 androids, is beginning to show signs of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena's role and unfortunate Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were perhaps designed by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. No one who recalls 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 quite amused by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly awful in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a limp plot point which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart.

Series Features and Final Impression

Consistent with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which speed around the place in long straight lines, conforming to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or indeed dance clubs); one even shoots out a death ray which cuts a cop car in two. But there is no drama or danger or emotional engagement throughout. This series now looks as relevant as an automobile CD system.