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

The matrix of pointlessness is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull science fiction movie, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. It's a third installment to the classic Tron film from 1982, 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. The new Tron film nearly awakens just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mother, in an traditional bit of real-world action. That's a bit of firm parenting 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's character being made to look so lifeless.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The situation now is that an evil AI corporation with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the virtual reality firm Encom, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger, played by David Warner) is led by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create profitable things such as invincible troops and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into the real world using a kind 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 code” which can keep these things alive permanently, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the superhuman fighter 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 disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and poor Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the title – is played 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. Nobody who remembers 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 critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly terrible in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be adorable when Ares the character says how he adores 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

Consistent with the franchise identity of the franchise, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which whizz about the place in linear paths, conforming to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or indeed nightclubs); one even emits a death ray which slices a police vehicle in two. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.