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The matrix of futility is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull science fiction movie, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. It's a threequel to the original movie Tron from 1982, a movie that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that eludes this film and its predecessor 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's character playing his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of real-world action. This is a piece of tough love you might feel like administering to all the producers involved in this film, and it's sad to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The scenario currently is that an evil AI corporation with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the VR company Encom Inc, first established in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, acted by David Warner) is headed 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 invincible troops and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then export them into the real world using a kind of 3D printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these creations disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (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 flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, 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 androids, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps designed by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. Nobody who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was also quite amused by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly awful here, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, thus rendering her slightly more engaging. It is supposed to be adorable when Ares says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

Consistent with the franchise identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which whizz about the place in linear paths, adhering to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or even nightclubs); one even emits a death ray which slices a cop car in half. But there is no drama or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This series now looks about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.