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The matrix of pointlessness is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi film, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. It's a third installment to the classic Tron film from 1982, a film that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that eludes this one and its forerunner Tron Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares nearly comes to life just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. That's a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to every producer involved in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The scenario currently is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the virtual reality firm Encom Inc, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted 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 armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these creations disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the dreadful 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 time-honoured way of androids, is beginning to show signs of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and poor Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the hero of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and subtly omniscient grin, details that were perhaps designed by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. Nobody who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, unrelentingly terrible in this film, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is intended to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be adorable when Ares says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which whizz about the environment in long straight lines, conforming to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or indeed dance clubs); a single bike even shoots out a death ray which slices a police vehicle in half. But there is no drama or jeopardy or human interest throughout. This series currently appears as relevant as an automobile CD system.