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The matrix of pointlessness is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. This is a threequel to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a movie that was mould-breaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that eludes this film and its predecessor Tron Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film nearly comes to life just once – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mum, 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 film, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Plot Overview 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 virtual reality firm Encom Inc, first established in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to design and create lucrative items such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the virtual reality grid and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of 3D printer.

The issue is that no matter how intimidating, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence algorithm” which can maintain these entities for ever, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for 29 minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of robots, is starting to exhibit symptoms of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena's role and poor Jeff Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Character and Performance Analysis

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 designed by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was also very entertained by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, persistently awful here, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is supposed to be charming when Ares the character says how he loves 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart.

Series Features and Overall Impact

Consistent with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the virtual underworld which whizz about the environment in linear paths, conforming to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or indeed dance clubs); a single bike even emits a death ray which cuts a police vehicle in half. But there is no drama or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This series now looks about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.