The matrix of pointlessness is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi film, more a screensaver than an actual film. This is a threequel to the original movie Tron from 1982, a movie that was groundbreaking 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 gets a slap in the face from Gillian Anderson's character portraying his mother, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. That's a piece of tough love you might want to handing out to every producer engaged in this film, and it's sad to see the respected Greta Lee's role and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.
The situation currently is that an evil AI corporation with the unsubtly gangster-ish name of Dillinger Corp has become a competitor to the VR company Encom Inc, first established in the 1980s gaming period by brilliant innovator Kevin Flynn, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. This corporation (initially founded by Encom's executive Ed Dillinger's role, played by David Warner) is headed by the founder’s annoyingly geeky grandson Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who has a grand plan to develop and produce lucrative items such as invincible troops and tanks in the VR world and then transfer them into actual reality using a sort of 3D printer.
The problem is that however fearsome, these creations disintegrate after twenty-nine minutes. But Encom's present chief executive Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has uncovered the MacGuffin-y “permanence code” which can maintain these entities permanently, and even keeps it on her person on a extremely basic USB drive. So the dreadful Julian Dillinger deploys his enforcer on her: Ares, the superhuman fighter which can exit the virtual realm 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's told. Jodie Turner-Smith's performance plays Ares's stoic deputy Athena's role and poor Bridges has a leaden legacy cameo in wise white robes, like a budget Jor-El on Krypton's setting.
And Ares himself – the hero of the title – is acted by Jared Leto with trendy lengthy locks, facial hair and faintly all-knowing smile, details that were perhaps designed by inputting the words “extremely annoying” into an AI human creation programme. No one who recalls 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 quite amused by his broad (and critically misunderstood) humorous performance in Ridley Scott's film House of Gucci. But Jared Leto is unremittingly, unrelentingly awful in this film, although his performance isn't aided by a limp plot point which is intended to allow him to show flashes of “empathy” for Eve Kim's role and delegate all the badass wickedness to Athena, thus rendering her marginally more interesting. It is meant 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 long straight lines, adhering to the angular layout of classic video games (or indeed dance clubs); a single bike even shoots out a death ray which cuts a police vehicle in two. But there is no drama or jeopardy or emotional engagement throughout. This series now looks as relevant as an in-car CD player.
Elara is a passionate writer and photographer who shares insights on creativity and mindful living through engaging storytelling.
