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The matrix of pointlessness is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi 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 mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that eludes this one and its predecessor Tron Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film nearly comes to life just once – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mum, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. That's a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to all the producers engaged in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The scenario currently is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a competitor to the virtual reality firm Encom, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period 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 led by the founder's odiously nerdish grandson's character Julian (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce lucrative items such as invincible troops and tanks in the VR world and then transfer them into actual reality using a sort of 3D printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these things disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence code” which can keep these things alive for ever, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger sets his attack dog on her: Ares the warrior, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for 29 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 portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and unfortunate Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Analysis

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and subtly omniscient grin, details that were possibly created by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody 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 Jared Leto is unremittingly, persistently terrible here, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, thus rendering her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be charming when Ares the character says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the franchise, there are motorcycles from the virtual underworld which speed around the environment in long straight lines, conforming to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or even dance clubs); one even shoots out a lethal beam which slices a cop car in two. But there is no drama or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This series now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.