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The framework of futility is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull science fiction film, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. This is a threequel to the original movie Tron from 1982, a film that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that eludes this film and its predecessor Tron Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film nearly awakens just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. That's a bit of firm parenting you might want to handing out to every producer involved in this movie, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview 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, first established in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder’s odiously nerdish grandson's character Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce profitable things such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then export them into actual reality using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these creations disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has discovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can exit the virtual realm for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of robots, is beginning to show signs of not doing what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance 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 hipsterish long hair, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, details that were perhaps designed by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. No one who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was also quite amused by his broad (and critically misunderstood) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly terrible here, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be adorable when Ares says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart.

Series Features and Final Impression

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which speed around the place in linear paths, adhering to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or indeed nightclubs); a single bike even emits a lethal beam which slices a cop car in two. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This series currently appears as relevant as an in-car CD player.