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The framework of pointlessness is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull science fiction movie, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. It's a third installment to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that escapes this film and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares almost comes to life just once – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mother, in an traditional bit of real-world action. This is a piece of tough love you might feel like handing out to all the producers involved in this movie, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary 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 Inc, first established in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson's character Julian (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to design and create lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then export them into actual reality using a sort of 3D printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these creations disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can keep these things alive for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the dreadful Julian sets his attack dog on her: Ares the warrior, the humanoid uber-warrior which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of androids, is beginning to show signs of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and poor Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the title – is played by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, details that were perhaps created by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who recalls the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, unrelentingly terrible in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be adorable when Ares the character says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which whizz about the environment in long straight lines, adhering to the angular layout of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); one even shoots out a lethal beam which cuts a police vehicle in two. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or emotional engagement throughout. This franchise now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.