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The framework of pointlessness is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, more a screensaver than an actual film. This is a third installment to the classic Tron film from the early 80s, a movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that eludes this film and its predecessor Tron: Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film almost comes to life just one time – 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. This is a bit of firm parenting you might want to handing out to every producer engaged in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of The New Tron Film

The situation now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a competitor to the VR company Encom Inc, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to design and create profitable things such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then export them into actual reality using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that no matter how intimidating, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence code” 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 deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter 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's performance plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and unfortunate Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were possibly designed by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. No one who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was also quite amused by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, unrelentingly awful here, although his performance isn't aided by a limp plot point which is intended to allow him to show flashes of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be charming when Ares the character says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

Consistent with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which whizz about the environment in long straight lines, adhering to the angular layout of classic video games (or even dance clubs); one even shoots out a death ray which slices a cop car in half. But there is no drama or danger or emotional engagement throughout. This franchise now looks about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.