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The matrix of futility is reloaded in this tediously complex science fiction movie, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. This is a threequel to the original movie Tron from 1982, a film that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its time in a way that escapes this film and its forerunner Tron Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film almost awakens just once – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mother, in an traditional bit of real-world action. This is a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to all the producers involved in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The situation now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the VR company Encom, first established in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is headed by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson Julian Dillinger (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 export them into the real world using a kind of three-dimensional 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 plot-driving “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the superhuman fighter which can exit the virtual realm for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of androids, is beginning to show signs of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the hero of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and subtly omniscient grin, details that were perhaps designed by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. No one who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was also quite amused by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, unrelentingly terrible here, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and subcontract all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be charming when Ares says how he adores 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Final Impression

Consistent 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); a single bike even emits a lethal beam which cuts a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or danger or human interest throughout. This franchise currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.