Tron: Ares Review – Even Gillian Anderson's Efforts Fails to Rescue This Mind-Bendingly Dull Sci-Fi Film

The matrix of futility is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, more a screensaver than an actual film. It's a threequel to the classic Tron film from 1982, a movie that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that escapes this film and its predecessor Tron: Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares almost comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of real-world action. This is a bit of firm parenting you might want to handing out to every producer engaged in this movie, and it's sad to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so lifeless.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The scenario now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal 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, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then export them into actual reality using a sort of 3D printer.

The problem is that no matter how intimidating, these things disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the humanoid uber-warrior which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of androids, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena's role and poor Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the hero of the title – is played by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were perhaps designed by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Mr Leto, and I was also quite amused by his expansive (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly awful here, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be adorable when Ares the character says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart.

Series Features and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which whizz about the place in linear paths, adhering to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); a single bike even shoots out a death ray which slices a police vehicle in two. But there is no drama or danger or human interest anywhere. This series now looks about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.