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The framework of pointlessness is revisited in this tediously complex sci-fi movie, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a third installment to the classic Tron film from the early 80s, a movie that was groundbreaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that escapes this film and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film almost awakens just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mum, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. This is a piece of tough love you might feel like administering to every producer engaged in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The scenario now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a competitor to the virtual reality firm Encom Inc, first established in the 80s arcade-game era by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, played 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 tanks in the virtual reality grid and then export them into the real world using a sort of three-dimensional printer.

The problem is that no matter how intimidating, these things crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has uncovered the plot-driving “permanence code” which can keep these things alive for ever, and even keeps it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer 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 traditional way of robots, is starting to exhibit symptoms of not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's stoic deputy Athena's role and poor Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

And Ares himself – the protagonist of the title – is played by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were perhaps created by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who remembers the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Mr Leto, and I was also very entertained by his expansive (and widely misinterpreted) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly awful in this film, 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 subcontract all the badass wickedness to Athena's character, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be adorable when Ares says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

Consistent with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which whizz about the environment in linear paths, conforming to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); one even shoots out a death ray which cuts a police vehicle in two. But there is no drama or jeopardy or human interest anywhere. This franchise now looks as relevant as an in-car CD player.