Review of Tron: Ares – Despite Gillian Anderson Can't Rescue This Mind-Bendingly Dull Science Fiction Movie

The matrix of futility is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull science fiction film, 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 film and its predecessor Tron: Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film almost comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of real-world action. That's a bit of firm parenting you might feel like handing out to every producer involved in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable 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 obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the VR company Encom, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded 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 ambitious scheme to design and create profitable things such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into actual reality using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can keep these things alive for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, 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 starting to exhibit symptoms of not doing what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Breakdown

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps created by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his expansive (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, persistently terrible in this film, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is intended to allow him to show flashes of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be charming when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

Consistent with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which whizz about the environment in long straight lines, adhering to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or even dance clubs); one even emits a death ray which cuts a police vehicle in half. But there is no drama or danger or human interest throughout. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.