🔗 Share this article

The matrix of futility is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull science fiction movie, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. This is a third installment to the classic Tron film from 1982, a movie that was mould-breaking and boldly pioneering for its time in a way that escapes this one and its predecessor Tron Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film almost awakens just once – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mother, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. That's a bit of firm parenting you might feel like handing out to every producer involved in this film, and it's sad to see the estimable Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The scenario currently is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the VR company Encom Inc, first established in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder's odiously nerdish grandson's character Julian (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into the real world using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that no matter how intimidating, these things crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the plot-driving “permanence code” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the dreadful Julian deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured 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 leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Breakdown

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the film's name – 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 recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was also quite amused by his broad (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, persistently terrible in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be adorable when Ares says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Final Impression

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which speed around the environment in long straight lines, adhering to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or indeed dance clubs); one even shoots out a death ray which cuts a police vehicle in two. But there is no drama or danger or human interest throughout. This franchise currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.