Tron: Ares Review – Even Gillian Anderson Fails to Save This Incredibly Boringly Complex Science Fiction Film

The matrix of pointlessness is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull science fiction film, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a third installment to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a film that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its time in a way that eludes this film and its forerunner Tron Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film nearly awakens just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of real-world action. This is a piece of tough love you might feel like handing out to all the producers engaged in this film, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee's role 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 has become a competitor to the VR company Encom Inc, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is led by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to design and create lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into the real world using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that no matter how intimidating, these things crumble into dust after 29 minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has uncovered the plot-driving “permanence algorithm” which can keep these things alive for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the dreadful Julian 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 robots, is beginning to show signs of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command 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

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were possibly created by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will ever 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 movie House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, persistently terrible in this film, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is supposed to be adorable when Ares the character 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 motorbikes from the VR netherworld which speed around the environment in long straight lines, adhering to the angular layout of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); one even emits a death ray which slices a police vehicle in half. But there is no drama or jeopardy or emotional engagement throughout. This franchise now looks about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.