🔗 Share this article

The matrix of pointlessness is revisited in this tediously complex science fiction movie, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. This is a threequel to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a film 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. The new Tron film nearly awakens just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of real-world action. That's a piece of tough love you might feel like handing out to every producer involved in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The situation now is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a competitor to the VR company Encom Inc, first established in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is headed by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson's character Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then export them into the real world using a sort 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 keep these things alive permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger sets his attack dog on her: Ares, the humanoid uber-warrior which can leave the VR world for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of androids, is starting to exhibit symptoms of not doing what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and unfortunate Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the hero of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps created by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. Nobody who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, persistently awful in this film, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares the character says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

Consistent with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which speed around the place in long straight lines, conforming to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or even nightclubs); a single bike even shoots out a lethal beam which cuts a cop car in half. But there is no drama or jeopardy or emotional engagement throughout. This franchise currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.