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The matrix of pointlessness is reloaded in this tediously complex sci-fi movie, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a third installment to the original movie Tron from 1982, a movie that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that escapes this film and its forerunner Tron Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film almost awakens just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mother, 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 sad to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.

Story Summary of The New Tron Film

The situation now is that an evil AI corporation with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the VR company Encom Inc, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn's character, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, played 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 indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then export them into the real world using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these creations disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has discovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic flashdrive. So the dreadful Julian sets his attack dog on her: Ares the warrior, 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 beginning to show signs of disobeying what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and unfortunate Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Analysis

And Ares himself – the hero of the film's name – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were possibly created by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was also very entertained by his expansive (and critically misunderstood) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, persistently terrible here, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be adorable 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

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the franchise, there are motorcycles 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 lethal beam which slices a police vehicle in half. But there is no drama or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.