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The framework of pointlessness is revisited in this tediously complex sci-fi movie, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. It's a third installment to the classic Tron film from the early 80s, a film 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 nearly comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. That's a piece of tough love you might feel like handing out to every producer involved in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so uninspired.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The scenario now is that an evil AI corporation with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the VR company Encom, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is led by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce profitable things such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then export them into actual reality using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these things crumble into dust after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence code” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech 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 traditional way of androids, is beginning to show signs of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton.

Acting and Roles Analysis

And Ares himself – the hero of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps created by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his broad (and critically misunderstood) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, persistently awful in this film, 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 villainous actions to Athena, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

Consistent with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which whizz about the environment in long straight lines, conforming to the angular layout of classic video games (or indeed nightclubs); one even emits a death ray which cuts a cop car in two. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or human interest throughout. This series now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.