Tron: Ares Review – Despite Gillian Anderson's Efforts Fails to Save This Incredibly Mind-Bendingly Dull Science Fiction Film

The framework 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 mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that escapes this one and its predecessor Tron: Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film almost awakens just one time – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. This is a bit of firm parenting you might feel like administering to all the producers engaged in this movie, and it's sad to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The scenario currently is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a competitor to the VR company Encom Inc, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn's character, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is led by the founder's odiously nerdish grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the VR world and then export them into actual reality using a sort of three-dimensional 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 plot-driving “permanence code” which can keep these things alive permanently, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the ghastly Julian sets his attack dog on her: Ares, the humanoid uber-warrior which can exit the virtual realm for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of androids, is beginning to show signs of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and poor Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Breakdown

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and subtly omniscient grin, details that were perhaps created by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who recalls 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 very entertained by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, unrelentingly terrible here, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, 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 band are superior to Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

Consistent with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which whizz about the place in long straight lines, adhering to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or even nightclubs); one even emits a death ray which slices a cop car in two. But there is no drama or jeopardy or emotional engagement anywhere. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.