Review of Tron: Ares – Even Gillian Anderson Fails to Rescue This Incredibly Mind-Bendingly Dull Sci-Fi Film

The framework of pointlessness is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull science fiction film, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a threequel to the classic Tron film from 1982, a movie that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that eludes this one and its predecessor Tron: Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film almost comes to life just once – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. This is a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to all the producers involved in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The situation currently is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the VR company Encom, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (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 Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create lucrative items such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the VR world and then transfer them into the real world using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can keep these things alive permanently, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic flashdrive. So the ghastly 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 disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and unfortunate Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were perhaps created by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. No one who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his broad (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, unrelentingly terrible in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and subcontract all the villainous actions to Athena, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be charming when Ares the character says how he adores 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart.

Series Features and Final Impression

Consistent with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which speed around the place in long straight lines, conforming to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or even dance clubs); one even emits a lethal beam which cuts a cop car in half. But there is no drama or jeopardy or emotional engagement anywhere. This franchise now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.