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The matrix of pointlessness is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi film, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. This is a third installment to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a film that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that eludes this one and its forerunner Tron Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares almost comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. That's a bit of firm parenting you might feel like administering to all the producers involved in this movie, and it's sad to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The situation now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the virtual reality firm Encom Inc, first established in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, 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 odiously nerdish grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then export them into actual reality using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that no matter how intimidating, these things crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the ghastly Julian sets his attack dog on her: Ares the warrior, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of androids, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and unfortunate Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Breakdown

Moreover, Ares – 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 will always find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Mr Leto, and I was also quite amused by his expansive (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly terrible here, 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 delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is meant 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

Consistent with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the virtual underworld which speed around the place in long straight lines, adhering to the angular layout of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); a single bike even emits a death ray which slices a police vehicle in half. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or emotional engagement throughout. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.