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The framework of futility is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi film, more a screensaver than an actual film. This is a third installment 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 the previous decade. Tron: Ares nearly awakens just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mum, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. This is a bit of firm parenting you might want to handing out to all the producers engaged in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The situation now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a rival to the virtual reality firm Encom, first established in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce lucrative items such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the VR world and then export them into actual reality using a sort of 3D printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can keep these things alive for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, 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 not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's stoic deputy Athena's role and unfortunate Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps created by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” 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 totally rude about Mr 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 consistently, unrelentingly terrible in this film, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which whizz about the environment in linear paths, conforming to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or indeed nightclubs); a single bike even shoots out a lethal beam which slices a police vehicle in two. But there is zero tension or danger or emotional engagement throughout. This franchise now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.