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The framework of futility is revisited in this tediously complex science fiction movie, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. This is a threequel to the original movie Tron from 1982, a movie 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 almost comes to life just once – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mum, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. That's a piece of tough love you might feel like administering to every producer involved in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of The New Tron Film

The scenario now is that an evil AI corporation with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a rival to the VR company Encom, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder’s odiously nerdish grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of 3D printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these creations crumble into dust after 29 minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian 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 not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and poor Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were perhaps designed by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who remembers the 90s TV 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 broad (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, persistently awful here, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be charming when Ares the character says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart.

Series Features and Overall Impact

Consistent with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorcycles from the virtual underworld which speed around the environment in long straight lines, conforming to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or even dance clubs); a single bike even shoots out a death ray which slices a cop car in half. But there is no drama or jeopardy or emotional engagement anywhere. This franchise now looks as relevant as an automobile CD system.