🔗 Share this article

The matrix of pointlessness is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a threequel to the classic Tron film from 1982, a movie that was groundbreaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that escapes this film and its predecessor Tron Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film nearly comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mother, in an traditional bit of real-world action. That's a piece of tough love you might feel like handing out to every producer involved in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of The New Tron Film

The situation now is that an evil AI corporation with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the VR company Encom Inc, first established in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger, acted by David Warner) is headed by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson's character Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce lucrative items such as invincible troops and tanks in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into actual reality using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that no matter how intimidating, these creations disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the ghastly 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 androids, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena's role and poor Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Breakdown

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were perhaps created by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was also quite amused by his broad (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly terrible here, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is intended to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares says how he adores 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

Consistent with the franchise identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which whizz about the environment in long straight lines, conforming to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or even dance clubs); one even shoots out a death ray which cuts a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.