Tron: Ares Review – Despite Gillian Anderson's Efforts Fails to Rescue This Incredibly Boringly Complex Sci-Fi Film

The framework of futility is revisited in this tediously complex sci-fi film, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a threequel to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a movie that was mould-breaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that escapes this film and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film nearly awakens just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of real-world action. That's a piece of tough love you might feel like administering to all the producers engaged in this film, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The scenario currently is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a rival to the VR company Encom, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder’s odiously nerdish grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce profitable things such as invincible troops and tanks in the VR world and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of 3D printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence algorithm” which can keep these things alive permanently, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic flashdrive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the humanoid uber-warrior which can leave the VR world for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of androids, is starting to exhibit symptoms of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and poor Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

Moreover, Ares – the hero of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, details that were possibly created by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his expansive (and critically misunderstood) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, persistently terrible in this film, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares the character says how he adores 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Final Impression

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which speed around the place in long straight lines, adhering to the angular layout of classic video games (or even nightclubs); a single bike even shoots out a lethal beam which cuts a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or emotional engagement anywhere. This franchise now looks as relevant as an in-car CD player.