🔗 Share this article

The matrix of futility is reloaded in this tediously complex science fiction film, closer to a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a third installment to the original movie Tron from 1982, a movie that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its day in a way that eludes this one and its forerunner Tron: Legacy from the previous decade. The new Tron film nearly awakens just once – when Evan Peters' character gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson portraying his mother, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. This is a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to all the producers engaged in this movie, and it's sad to see the estimable Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so uninspired.

Story Summary of The New Tron Film

The scenario currently is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger has become a rival to the VR company Encom, originally set up in the 80s arcade-game era by genius trailblazer Kevin Flynn's character, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is headed by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce profitable things such as indestructible soldiers and tanks in the VR world and then transfer them into actual reality using a kind of 3D printer.

The problem is that no matter how intimidating, these things disintegrate after 29 minutes. But Encom's current CEO 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 extremely basic flashdrive. 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 is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and poor Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Acting and Roles Analysis

And Ares himself – the hero of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, touches that were perhaps created by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. Nobody who recalls the 1990s television classic My So-Called Life will ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his broad (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is consistently, persistently awful in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a weak storyline which is intended to allow him to show flashes of “compassion” for Greta Lee's character and delegate all the villainous actions to Athena's character, thus making her slightly more engaging. It is supposed to be adorable when Ares says how he loves 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Overall Impact

And in keeping with the brand-identity of the series, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which whizz about the environment in long straight lines, conforming to the angular layout of classic video games (or indeed nightclubs); one even shoots out a lethal beam which cuts a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or danger or emotional engagement anywhere. This series now looks about as urgently contemporary as an in-car CD player.