Tron: Ares Review – Despite Gillian Anderson Can't Rescue This Mind-Bendingly Dull Science Fiction Film

The framework of futility is reloaded in this tediously complex science fiction film, more a screensaver than an actual film. It's a threequel to the classic Tron film from the early 80s, a movie that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that escapes this one and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares almost comes to life just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of real-world action. That's a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to all the producers engaged in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of Tron: Ares

The situation now is that an evil AI corporation with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger Corp has become a competitor to the virtual reality firm Encom, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is led by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce profitable things such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the VR world and then transfer them into the real world using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that no matter how intimidating, these things disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the humanoid uber-warrior 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 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 budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were possibly designed by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. No one who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was also quite amused by his broad (and critically misunderstood) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly terrible in this film, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be charming when Ares the character says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart.

Series Features and Final Impression

Consistent with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which whizz about the environment in linear paths, conforming to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or indeed 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 human interest throughout. This series now looks about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.