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The framework of pointlessness is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. It's a third installment to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a film that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that eludes this one and its forerunner Tron Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares nearly awakens just once – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. That's a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to all the producers 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 uninspired.

Plot Overview of Tron: Ares

The scenario currently is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the VR company Encom Inc, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the VR world and then transfer them into the real world using a sort of 3D printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these creations crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has uncovered the plot-driving “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian 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 traditional 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 poor Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance 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 title – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were possibly created by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Mr Leto, and I was also very entertained by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly awful in this film, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus rendering her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be charming when Ares the character says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which speed around the environment in linear paths, adhering to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or even nightclubs); one even shoots out a lethal beam which cuts a police vehicle in two. But there is zero tension or danger or human interest throughout. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.