Tron: Ares Review – Even Gillian Anderson's Efforts Can't Rescue This Incredibly 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 1982, a film that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that escapes this film and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares almost awakens just once – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. That's a piece of tough love you might want to administering to all the producers engaged in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so uninspired.
Plot Overview of Tron: Ares
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 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up 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 lucrative items such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into actual reality using a sort of three-dimensional printer.
The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these creations crumble into dust after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (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 ghastly Julian Dillinger sets his attack dog 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 robots, is beginning to show signs of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.
Acting and Roles Breakdown
Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, details that were possibly created by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. No one who recalls the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Mr Leto, and I was also quite amused by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly awful in this film, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be adorable when Ares says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart's compositions.
Franchise Elements and Final Impression
Consistent with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the virtual underworld which whizz about the environment in linear paths, adhering to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or even nightclubs); one even shoots out a death ray which slices a cop car in two. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This franchise currently appears as relevant as an in-car CD player.
