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The matrix of futility is reloaded in this tediously complex sci-fi film, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. It's a third installment to the classic Tron film from the early 80s, a movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its time in a way that eludes this film and its predecessor Tron Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares nearly comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mother, in an traditional bit of real-world action. This is a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to every producer involved in this movie, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The situation now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the virtual reality firm Encom Inc, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson's character Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to design and create lucrative items such as invincible troops and tanks in the VR world and then export them into actual reality using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these things disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the plot-driving “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of androids, is beginning to show signs of disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and unfortunate Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Analysis

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and subtly omniscient grin, details that were possibly created by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. Nobody who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his broad (and critically misunderstood) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, persistently awful here, although his performance isn't aided by a limp plot point which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be adorable when Ares the character says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart.

Series Features and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which speed around the place in linear paths, conforming to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or even dance clubs); one even emits a lethal beam which cuts a cop car in half. But there is no drama or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This franchise now looks as relevant as an automobile CD system.