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The framework of pointlessness is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. This is a threequel to the original movie Tron from 1982, a movie that was mould-breaking and boldly pioneering for its time in a way that escapes this film and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film nearly awakens just once – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of real-world action. This is a bit of firm parenting you might feel like administering to every producer involved in this movie, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so lifeless.

Story Summary of The New Tron Film

The situation currently is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp 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 Dillinger (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder's odiously nerdish grandson's character Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce profitable things such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the VR world and then export them into actual reality using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these creations crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the ghastly Julian sets his attack dog on her: Ares, the humanoid uber-warrior 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's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the title – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were perhaps created by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, persistently terrible here, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be adorable when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

Consistent with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which speed around the place in long straight lines, adhering to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or even dance clubs); a single bike even shoots out a death ray which cuts a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This series now looks about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.