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The framework of futility is revisited in this tediously complex science fiction movie, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a third installment to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a movie that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that eludes this one and its forerunner Tron Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film nearly comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. That's a bit of firm parenting you might feel like handing out to every producer engaged in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of The New Tron Film

The situation now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the virtual reality firm Encom Inc, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson's character Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create lucrative items such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the VR world and then transfer them into actual reality using a sort of 3D printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these things crumble into dust 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 for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the humanoid uber-warrior which can leave the VR world for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of robots, is beginning to show signs of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's stoic deputy Athena's role and unfortunate Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and subtly omniscient grin, details that were possibly created by typing the words “incredibly irritating” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was also very entertained by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, persistently terrible here, 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's character, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be adorable when Ares the character says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart.

Series Features and Final Impression

Consistent with the franchise identity of the franchise, there are motorcycles from the virtual underworld which speed around the place in long straight lines, conforming to the angular layout of classic video games (or even nightclubs); one even emits a death ray which cuts a police vehicle in half. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or emotional engagement anywhere. This series now looks as relevant as an in-car CD player.