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The matrix of pointlessness is reloaded in this tediously complex sci-fi film, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a threequel to the classic Tron film from the early 80s, a movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that escapes this film and its predecessor 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 portraying his mum, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. That's a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to every producer engaged in this movie, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so lifeless.

Story Summary of The New Tron Film

The scenario currently is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a rival to the virtual reality firm Encom, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger, 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 invincible troops and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then export them into the real world using a sort of 3D printer.

The problem is that no matter how intimidating, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the dreadful Julian deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the humanoid uber-warrior which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of androids, is beginning to show signs of disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and poor Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Analysis

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were perhaps designed by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” 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 totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally quite amused by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, persistently awful here, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be adorable when Ares the character says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart.

Series Features and Final Impression

Consistent with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which whizz about the place in linear paths, conforming to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or indeed dance clubs); a single bike even shoots out a lethal beam which slices a police vehicle in two. But there is no drama or jeopardy or emotional engagement anywhere. This franchise currently appears as relevant as an automobile CD system.