🔗 Share this article

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

Story Summary of The New Tron Film

The situation currently is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a rival to the virtual reality firm Encom Inc, originally set up in the 1980s gaming period by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (originally set up by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, acted by David Warner) is headed by the founder's odiously nerdish grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce profitable things such as invincible troops and tanks in the VR world and then export them into the real world using a sort of 3D printer.

The problem is that however fearsome, these things crumble into dust after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has discovered the plot-driving “permanence code” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even stores it on her person on a very low-tech USB drive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can leave the VR world for twenty-nine minutes at a time but which, in the time-honoured way of robots, is starting to exhibit symptoms of disobeying what he is commanded. Jodie Turner-Smith portrays Ares's stoic deputy Athena and unfortunate Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton.

Character and Performance Analysis

Moreover, Ares – the protagonist of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, touches that were possibly designed by inputting the words “incredibly irritating” 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 completely harsh about Jared Leto, and I was incidentally very entertained by his expansive (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Leto is consistently, persistently awful in this film, although his performance isn't aided 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's character, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is supposed to be adorable when Ares the character says how he adores 1980s electronic music and that Depeche Mode are superior to Mozart.

Franchise Elements and Final Impression

And in keeping with the franchise identity of the series, there are motorbikes from the VR netherworld which speed around the place in linear paths, conforming to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or even nightclubs); one even emits a lethal beam which slices a cop car in half. But there is no drama or danger or human interest anywhere. This franchise currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.