In cinemas; Cert 12A
Tron: Ares – Official Trailer
An emotionally detached AI being develops a worrying interest in the human condition in this scrambled third chapter in the increasingly baggy Tron saga.
Directed by Joachim Ronning, Tron: Ares sets up its stall in a miserable landscape where mega corporations compete for virtual dominance in the real world.
In one corner, there’s a horrible boss (Evan Peters’s Julian Dillinger) with a wicked god complex – and in the other, there’s a humble CEO (Greta Lee’s Eve Kim) who promised her late sister she’d use her brain for the good of our planet.
Complications arise after Dillinger creates a super digital soldier with a conscience (Jared Leto’s Ares). Elsewhere, Gillian Anderson plays a billionaire matriarch (we are not worthy), and our friends in Nine Inch Nails provide a nifty electronic backdrop.
The original Tron was lightyears ahead of its time; in contrast, this dreary, insubstantial threequel occasionally resembles a music video from 2003.
All the special effects in the world won’t save a film without a soul – and Leto’s vacant AI antihero shtick is a total downer.
Full marks, though, to franchise star Jeff Bridges for showing up. That dude deserves his pay cheque.
Two stars