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

The framework of pointlessness is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi film, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. This is a third installment to the original movie Tron from 1982, a movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that escapes this film and its forerunner Tron Legacy from the previous decade. Tron: Ares almost awakens just once – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mum, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. This is a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to all the producers involved in this film, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview of Tron: Ares

The scenario now is that an evil AI corporation with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a rival to the VR company Encom, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (originally set up 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 grand plan to design and create profitable things such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the VR world and then transfer them into the real world using a sort of 3D printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these creations disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has uncovered the plot-driving “permanence code” which can keep these things alive permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian sets his attack dog 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 time-honoured way of robots, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and unfortunate Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Analysis

And Ares himself – the hero of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were possibly created by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. No one who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, unrelentingly terrible here, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be charming when Ares says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart.

Series Features and Overall Impact

Consistent with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which speed around the place in linear paths, conforming to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or indeed nightclubs); one even shoots out a death ray which cuts a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or danger or human interest anywhere. This franchise now looks as relevant as an automobile CD system.