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The framework of futility is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi film, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. This is a third installment 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 one and its forerunner Tron Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film almost comes to life just once – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mum, in an traditional bit of real-world action. This is a bit of firm parenting you might want to 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 uninspired.

Story Summary of The New Tron Film

The scenario currently is that an evil AI corporation with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a rival to the virtual reality firm Encom Inc, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the VR world and then transfer them into the real world using a sort of 3D printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger 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 starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and unfortunate Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the hero of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps designed by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. No one who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, persistently terrible here, although his performance isn't aided by a limp plot point which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares the character says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Overall Impact

Consistent with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the virtual underworld which whizz about the environment in linear paths, conforming to the angular layout of classic video games (or even nightclubs); a single bike even emits a lethal beam which slices a cop car in half. But there is no drama or jeopardy or emotional engagement anywhere. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.