Tron: Ares Film Analysis – Despite Gillian Anderson Can't Save This Mind-Bendingly Dull Sci-Fi Movie

The framework of futility is reloaded in this tediously complex science fiction film, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a threequel to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that eludes this film and its forerunner Tron Legacy from 2010. Tron: Ares nearly awakens just one time – when Evan Peters' character 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 every producer engaged in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Plot Overview of Tron: Ares

The situation currently is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a rival to the VR company Encom, first established in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to design and create lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then export them into the real world using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, 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 keep these things alive permanently, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger sets his attack dog on her: Ares the warrior, 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 disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and unfortunate Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Analysis

And Ares himself – the hero of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were possibly designed by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. No one who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was also very entertained by his expansive (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, unrelentingly awful in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be adorable when Ares says how he adores 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which whizz about the environment in long straight lines, adhering to the angular layout of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); a single bike even shoots out a lethal beam which slices a police vehicle in half. But there is no drama or danger or human interest throughout. This franchise currently appears as relevant as an automobile CD system.