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The matrix of pointlessness is reloaded in this tediously complex science fiction movie, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. It's a third installment to the original movie Tron from 1982, a movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that eludes this film and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares almost comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of real-world action. That's a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to every producer engaged in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee 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 virtual reality firm Encom, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, acted by David Warner) is led 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 actual reality using a sort of 3D printer.

The problem is that no matter how intimidating, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence code” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the ghastly Julian deploys his enforcer 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 androids, is starting to exhibit symptoms of not doing what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Analysis

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps designed by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. No one who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his broad (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, persistently terrible here, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart.

Series Features and Final Impression

Consistent with the franchise identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which speed around the environment in long straight lines, adhering to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or even dance clubs); a single bike even emits a lethal beam which slices a police vehicle in two. But there is no drama or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.