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The framework of futility is revisited in this tediously complex sci-fi movie, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. It's a threequel to the original movie Tron from 1982, a film that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that escapes this film and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film nearly comes to life just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mother, in an traditional bit of real-world action. That's a bit of firm parenting you might feel like administering to all the producers engaged in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so uninspired.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The scenario now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a rival to the VR company Encom Inc, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder's odiously nerdish grandson's character Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then export them into actual reality using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these things crumble into dust after 29 minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the humanoid uber-warrior which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of androids, is beginning to show signs of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and unfortunate Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Analysis

And Ares himself – the hero of the title – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were perhaps created by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. No one who recalls the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh 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, persistently awful here, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to show flashes of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be charming when Ares the character says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart.

Series Features and Final Impression

Consistent with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which speed around the place in linear paths, adhering to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or even dance clubs); one even shoots out a death ray which cuts a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or emotional engagement throughout. This series now looks as relevant as an in-car CD player.