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The framework of futility is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. This is a threequel to the classic Tron film 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 2010. Tron: Ares almost 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 real-world action. This is a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to all the producers involved in this movie, and it's sad to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Plot Overview of Tron: Ares

The scenario now is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the VR company Encom, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded 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 virtual reality grid and then transfer them into the real world using a kind of 3D printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered 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 sets his attack dog on her: Ares the warrior, the humanoid uber-warrior which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of robots, is beginning to show signs of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and unfortunate Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were possibly designed by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who recalls the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was also quite amused by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, persistently terrible here, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be charming when Ares says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the virtual underworld which whizz about the environment in long straight lines, conforming to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or even nightclubs); one even shoots out a death ray which slices a cop car in two. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or emotional engagement throughout. This franchise currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.