🔗 Share this article

The matrix of pointlessness is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull science fiction film, more a screensaver than an actual film. It's a third installment to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a film that was mould-breaking and boldly pioneering for its day in a way that eludes this one and its predecessor Tron Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film almost awakens just once – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mother, in an traditional bit of real-world action. That's a piece of tough love you might feel like administering to all the producers engaged in this film, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith 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 rival to the VR company Encom Inc, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (originally set up by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is led by the founder’s odiously nerdish grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce lucrative items such as invincible troops and armored vehicles in the VR world and then transfer them into the real world using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these things disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim's character (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 USB drive. So the ghastly Julian sets his attack dog on her: Ares the warrior, the humanoid uber-warrior which can exit the virtual realm for 29 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's role and poor Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Breakdown

And Ares himself – the hero of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, beard and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were possibly created by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” into an AI human creation programme. No one who recalls the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his broad (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly awful here, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be charming when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are better than Mozart.

Series Features and Overall Impact

Consistent with the franchise identity of the franchise, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which speed around the place in linear paths, conforming to the angular layout of antique arcade games (or even dance clubs); one even emits a death ray which cuts a cop car in half. But there is no drama or danger or emotional engagement throughout. This series now looks as relevant as an automobile CD system.