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The framework of futility is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, more a screensaver than an actual film. It's a threequel to the classic Tron film from the early 80s, a film that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that escapes this film and its predecessor Tron Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film almost awakens just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mother, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. That's a piece of tough love you might feel like handing out to all the producers involved in this movie, and it's sad 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 obviously criminal name of Dillinger Corp has become a competitor to the virtual reality firm Encom, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom 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 grand plan to design and create lucrative items such as invincible troops and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of 3D printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these creations disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has discovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can keep these things alive permanently, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the ghastly 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 traditional way of robots, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's stoic deputy Athena's role and unfortunate Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps designed by inputting 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 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 unremittingly, persistently terrible in this film, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and subcontract all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus rendering her slightly more engaging. It is supposed to be charming when Ares the character says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which speed around the environment in long straight lines, adhering to the angular layout of classic video games (or indeed nightclubs); a single bike even shoots out a death ray which slices a police vehicle in two. But there is no drama or danger or emotional engagement anywhere. This series now looks about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.