Tron: Ares Review – Despite Gillian Anderson Can't Rescue This Mind-Bendingly Dull Sci-Fi Movie

The matrix of futility is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi film, more a screensaver than an actual film. It's a threequel to the classic Tron film from the early 80s, a film that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its time in a way that escapes this film and its predecessor Tron Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares nearly awakens just one time – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mum, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. That's a piece of tough love you might want to administering to all the producers involved 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 scenario currently is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger Corp has become a competitor to the virtual reality firm Encom, first established in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, played 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 indestructible soldiers and tanks in the VR world and then export them into the real world using a kind of 3D printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these creations crumble into dust after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger sets his attack dog on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of robots, is beginning to show signs of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and unfortunate Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Analysis

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were perhaps designed by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who remembers the 90s TV 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 expansive (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, persistently awful in this film, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the villainous actions to Athena, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be adorable when Ares says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

Consistent with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which speed around the place in long straight lines, conforming to the angular layout of classic video games (or even nightclubs); a single bike even emits a death ray which cuts a police vehicle in half. But there is zero tension or danger or emotional engagement throughout. This series now looks as relevant as an automobile CD system.