The matrix of pointlessness is revisited in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi movie, more a screensaver than an real cinematic experience. It's a third installment to the original movie Tron from the early 80s, a movie that was mould-breaking and courageously innovative for its time in a way that escapes this one and its predecessor Tron: Legacy from 2010. The new Tron film almost awakens just once – when Evan Peters gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character playing his mother, in an traditional bit of analogue reality. That's a bit of firm parenting you might feel like handing out to all the producers involved in this film, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith's character being made to look so lifeless.
The scenario now 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, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This Dillinger (initially founded by Encom executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson's character Julian (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to design and create profitable things such as invincible troops and tanks in the VR world and then transfer them into the real world using a sort of three-dimensional printer.
The problem is that however fearsome, these things disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim's character (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can keep these things alive permanently, and even stores it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the ghastly Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares the warrior, the superhuman fighter 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 not doing what he's told. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Ares's deadpan second-in-command Athena and poor Bridges has a wooden legacy appearance in sage-like white garments, like a Poundshop Jor-El on Krypton's setting.
And Ares himself – the hero of the film's name – is acted by Jared Leto with hipsterish long hair, facial hair and subtly omniscient grin, details that were possibly created by typing the words “extremely annoying” into an artificial intelligence character generator. No one who remembers the 90s TV classic My So-Called Life series will ever find it in their hearts to be totally rude about Jared Leto, and I was also very entertained by his broad (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's movie House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly terrible here, 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 rendering her slightly more engaging. It is supposed to be charming when Ares says how he adores 80s synth pop and that Depeche Mode are better than Mozart.
Consistent with the franchise identity of the franchise, there are motorcycles from the VR netherworld which whizz about the place in linear paths, adhering to the rectilinear design of antique arcade games (or even dance clubs); one even emits a death ray which slices a cop car in half. But there is zero tension or danger or emotional engagement throughout. This franchise currently appears about as urgently contemporary as an automobile CD system.
Elara is a financial strategist with over a decade of experience in wealth management and entrepreneurship.
