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The matrix of futility is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull science fiction film, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a third installment to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a film that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that eludes this film and its predecessor 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 portraying his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of real-world action. That's a piece of tough love you might feel like handing out to all the producers 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.

Story Summary of The New Tron Film

The scenario currently is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a competitor to the virtual reality firm Encom Inc, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder's odiously nerdish grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to design and create lucrative items such as invincible troops and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then export them into actual reality using a kind of 3D 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 MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can keep these things alive permanently, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of robots, 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 wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were possibly created by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Mr Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, unrelentingly terrible in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to show flashes of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is supposed 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 brand-identity of the franchise, 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 even dance clubs); a single bike even shoots out a death ray which cuts a police vehicle in half. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or human interest throughout. This franchise currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.