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The framework of futility is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi film, more a screensaver than an actual film. This is a threequel to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a film that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that escapes this one and its predecessor Tron: Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film nearly comes to life just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. This is a piece of tough love you might want to administering to all the producers involved in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee 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 unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the virtual reality firm Encom, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger, acted 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 armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then export them into the real world using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these creations crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic flashdrive. 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 starting to exhibit symptoms of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and unfortunate Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

Moreover, Ares – the hero of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps created by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was also quite amused by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, persistently awful here, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena, thus rendering her slightly more engaging. It is supposed to be charming when Ares says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

Consistent with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which speed around the environment in long straight lines, adhering to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); one even shoots out a lethal beam which slices a police vehicle in half. But there is no drama or jeopardy or emotional engagement throughout. This franchise now looks as relevant as an in-car CD player.