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The framework of futility is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi film, more a screensaver than an actual film. It's a threequel to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a film that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that eludes this film and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film nearly awakens just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mum, 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 sad to see the estimable Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

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 1980s gaming period by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn's character, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is led by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the VR world and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of 3D printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these creations crumble into dust after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the dreadful Julian sets his attack dog on her: Ares the warrior, the humanoid uber-warrior which can exit the virtual realm for 29 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 plays Ares's stoic deputy Athena's role and unfortunate Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Analysis

And Ares himself – the hero of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were possibly designed by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, unrelentingly awful here, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be charming when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which whizz about the place in long straight lines, conforming to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or indeed nightclubs); a single bike even emits a lethal beam which slices a cop car in half. But there is no drama or danger or human interest throughout. This franchise now looks as relevant as an automobile CD system.