Review of Tron: Ares – Even Gillian Anderson's Efforts Can't Rescue This Incredibly Mind-Bendingly Dull Sci-Fi Movie

The framework of pointlessness is revisited in this tediously complex science fiction film, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a third installment to the classic Tron film from the early 80s, a movie that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that eludes this film and its forerunner Tron Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares almost awakens just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mum, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. This is a piece of tough love you might feel like administering to all the producers 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 lifeless.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The situation currently is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the VR company Encom, first established in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to design and create profitable things such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these creations disintegrate after 29 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 stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger sets his attack dog on her: Ares the warrior, the humanoid uber-warrior which can exit the virtual realm 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's told. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Breakdown

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were possibly designed by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his broad (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, unrelentingly terrible here, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and subcontract all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus rendering her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be adorable when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which whizz about the place in long straight lines, conforming to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or indeed nightclubs); a single bike even emits a death ray which slices a cop car in half. But there is no drama or jeopardy or emotional engagement anywhere. This franchise now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.