Review of Tron: Ares – Despite Gillian Anderson Fails to Rescue This Boringly Complex Sci-Fi Movie

The matrix of futility is revisited in this tediously complex science fiction movie, more a screensaver than an actual film. This is a third installment to the classic Tron film from the early 80s, a film that was mould-breaking and boldly pioneering for its time in a way that escapes this film and its predecessor Tron: Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film almost awakens just once – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mother, 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 sad to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The scenario currently is that an evil AI corporation with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the virtual reality firm Encom, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is headed by the founder’s odiously nerdish grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce profitable things such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the VR world and then export them into the real world using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these things crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the plot-driving “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the humanoid uber-warrior which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of androids, is beginning to show signs of not doing what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's stoic deputy Athena's role and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the title – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were possibly created by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who recalls the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his expansive (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, persistently terrible in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is intended 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 meant to be charming when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which whizz about the environment in long straight lines, conforming to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or even nightclubs); one even shoots out a death ray which slices a cop car in two. But there is no drama or jeopardy or emotional engagement anywhere. This series currently appears as relevant as an automobile CD system.