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The framework of futility is reloaded in this tediously complex science fiction movie, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a threequel to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a film that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that escapes this film and its forerunner Tron Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film nearly 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 real-world action. That's a bit of firm parenting you might want to handing out to every producer engaged 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 lifeless.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The situation currently is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the virtual reality firm Encom Inc, first established in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson's character Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the VR world and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of androids, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Breakdown

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and subtly omniscient grin, details that were perhaps designed by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who recalls 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 quite amused by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, persistently terrible here, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus rendering her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be charming when Ares says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart.

Series Features and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the franchise, 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 indeed nightclubs); a single bike even emits a death ray which cuts a police vehicle in half. But there is zero tension or danger or emotional engagement anywhere. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.