Tron: Ares Review – Despite Gillian Anderson Fails to Rescue This Mind-Bendingly Dull Science Fiction Film

The framework of pointlessness is revisited in this tediously complex sci-fi movie, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a threequel to the original movie Tron from 1982, a film that was mould-breaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that escapes this one and its forerunner Tron Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares nearly comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mum, in an traditional bit of real-world action. This is a bit of firm parenting you might feel like administering to all the producers involved in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The scenario now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the VR company Encom, first established in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder's odiously nerdish grandson's character Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to design and create profitable things such as invincible troops and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into actual reality using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can keep these things alive permanently, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian sets his attack dog on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can exit the virtual realm 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 stoic deputy Athena and unfortunate Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the hero of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were perhaps designed by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. Nobody who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly terrible in this film, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be charming when Ares says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Final Impression

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the franchise, there are motorcycles from the virtual underworld which speed around the place in linear paths, conforming to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or indeed dance clubs); one even shoots out a lethal beam which cuts a police vehicle in half. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or emotional engagement throughout. This franchise now looks about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.