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The matrix of pointlessness is reloaded in this tediously complex science fiction film, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. This is a threequel to the original movie Tron from 1982, a film that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that eludes this film and its predecessor Tron Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film almost awakens just one time – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. This is a bit of firm parenting you might want to handing out to all the producers engaged in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Plot Overview of Tron: Ares

The scenario now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the VR company Encom Inc, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, played 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 ambitious scheme to develop and produce lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the VR world and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these creations crumble into dust after twenty-nine 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 for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger 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 robots, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the hero of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were possibly designed by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. No one who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his broad (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly terrible here, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be charming when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

Consistent with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which speed around the place 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 cop car in half. But there is no drama or danger or emotional engagement throughout. This series now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.