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The framework of futility is reloaded in this tediously complex science fiction movie, closer to a screensaver than an actual film. It's a threequel to the original movie Tron from 1982, 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 comes to life just one time – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mother, in an traditional bit of real-world action. This is a piece of tough love you might feel like handing out to every producer engaged in this movie, and it's unfortunate to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so lifeless.

Plot Overview of The New Tron Film

The situation now is that an malicious artificial intelligence company with the obviously criminal name of Dillinger Corp has become a competitor to the virtual reality firm Encom, first established in the 1980s gaming period by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger, acted by David Warner) is headed by the founder's annoyingly geeky grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create lucrative items such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the VR world and then export them into the real world using a kind of 3D printer.

The issue is that however fearsome, these things crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” 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 deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the humanoid uber-warrior which can exit the virtual realm for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the traditional way of androids, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance portrays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and unfortunate Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Acting and Roles Breakdown

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were perhaps created by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. No one who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life series will always find it in their hearts to be completely harsh about Mr Leto, and I was also quite amused by his broad (and critically misunderstood) comic turn in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly terrible in this film, although he isn't helped by a weak storyline which is supposed to allow him to display glimpses of “compassion” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is meant to be adorable when Ares the character says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode band are superior to Mozart's compositions.

Series Features and Final Impression

Consistent with the franchise identity of the franchise, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which speed around the place in long straight lines, conforming to the rectilinear design of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); one even shoots out a lethal beam which cuts a police vehicle in two. But there is no drama or jeopardy or human interest throughout. This series now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.