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The framework of pointlessness is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull science fiction movie, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. This is a threequel to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a film that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that escapes this film and its predecessor Tron Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares almost comes to life just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mum, in an traditional bit of real-world action. That's a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to all the producers involved in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The scenario currently is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the VR company Encom Inc, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder’s odiously nerdish grandson's character Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then export them into the real world using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these things crumble into dust after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has uncovered the plot-driving “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the dreadful Julian deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the superhuman fighter which can exit the virtual realm for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of androids, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena's role and poor Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were possibly designed by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. Nobody who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his broad (and critically misunderstood) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, unrelentingly terrible here, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be adorable when Ares the character says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart.

Series Features and Final Impression

Consistent with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the virtual underworld which speed around the environment in linear paths, adhering to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or indeed nightclubs); one even emits a death ray which slices a police vehicle in two. But there is no drama or jeopardy or emotional engagement throughout. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.