🔗 Share this article

The framework of futility is reloaded 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 movie that was mould-breaking and boldly pioneering for its time in a way that escapes this one and its predecessor Tron Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film nearly comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. This is a bit of firm parenting you might feel like administering to every producer involved in this film, and it's sad to see the estimable 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 VR company Encom Inc, first established in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is led by the founder's odiously nerdish grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a ambitious scheme to develop and produce profitable things such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the VR world and then transfer them into actual reality using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence code” which can keep these things alive permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech flashdrive. So the ghastly Julian sets his attack dog on her: Ares the warrior, the superhuman fighter which can exit the virtual realm for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of robots, is beginning to show signs of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and unfortunate Jeff Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance 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 hipsterish long hair, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, details that were possibly created 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 Jared Leto, and I was also very entertained by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, persistently awful in this film, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to show flashes of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and subcontract all the villainous actions to Athena, thus making her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be charming when Ares says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart.

Series Features and Final Impression

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which whizz about the place in linear paths, conforming to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or indeed nightclubs); a single bike even shoots out a lethal beam which slices a cop car in two. But there is zero tension or danger or emotional engagement throughout. This series currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.