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The framework of pointlessness is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull science fiction film, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a threequel to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that escapes this film and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film almost awakens just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mum, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. That's a piece of tough love you might feel like administering to every producer involved in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee's role 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 malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the virtual reality firm Encom Inc, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create profitable things such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the VR world and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of 3D 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 discovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the ghastly Julian sets his attack dog on her: Ares the warrior, the humanoid uber-warrior which can exit the virtual realm for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of androids, is beginning to show signs of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and unfortunate Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Breakdown

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the title – is played by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were perhaps created by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. No one who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his broad (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, unrelentingly terrible in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a limp plot point which is intended to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Final Impression

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the virtual underworld which speed around the environment in linear paths, conforming to the angular layout of classic video games (or even nightclubs); one even emits a death ray which slices a police vehicle in two. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or emotional engagement throughout. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.