Review of Tron: Ares – Despite Gillian Anderson's Efforts Can't Save This Incredibly Mind-Bendingly Dull Sci-Fi Film

The framework of futility is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, more a screensaver than an actual film. This is a threequel to the classic Tron film from the early 80s, a movie that was mould-breaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that escapes this film and its predecessor Tron Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares nearly awakens just once – 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 piece of tough love you might feel like administering to every producer involved in this movie, and it's sad to see the estimable Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

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 has become a rival to the VR company Encom Inc, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn's character, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, played by David Warner) is led by the founder's odiously nerdish grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create lucrative items such as invincible troops and tanks in the VR world and then export them into the real world using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that no matter how intimidating, these things disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can keep these things alive permanently, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the superhuman fighter which can exit the virtual realm for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of androids, is beginning to show signs of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and unfortunate Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Breakdown

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps designed by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. No one who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly awful in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline 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 making her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares the character says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart.

Series Features and Final Impression

Consistent with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which speed around the place in long straight lines, adhering to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or indeed dance clubs); a single bike 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 now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.