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The framework of pointlessness is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi film, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a threequel to the original movie Tron from 1982, a film that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that escapes this film and its predecessor Tron Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film almost awakens just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mum, in an traditional bit of real-world action. This is a piece of tough love you might feel like handing out to every producer involved in this film, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith's character 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 unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the VR company Encom, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder's odiously nerdish grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and armored vehicles in the VR world and then transfer them into the real world using a kind of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that no matter how intimidating, these creations disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive 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 very low-tech flashdrive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger sets his attack dog on her: Ares, 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 beginning to show signs of disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and poor Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Breakdown

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the title – is played by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps created by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. Nobody who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his broad (and critically misunderstood) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, unrelentingly awful in this film, although he isn't helped by a limp plot point which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus rendering her slightly more engaging. It is meant to be charming when Ares the character says how he adores 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart's compositions.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the virtual underworld which whizz about the place in linear paths, conforming to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); a single bike even emits a lethal beam which cuts a police vehicle in two. But there is zero tension or jeopardy or emotional engagement anywhere. This series now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.