Tron: Ares (2025) review

Tech CEO Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) is trying to convince his Board of Directors (and investors) that he's developed the equipment to bring digital tanks and soldiers, like Ares (Jared Leto), into the "real world" but what he doesn't tell them is that they crumble apart before thirty minutes are up - meanwhile Eve Kim (Greta Lee), of rival company ENCOM, has actually located what's referred to as the "Permanence Code" that was originally created by programming pioneer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges).  The special effects (all that neon!) and soundtrack (by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross under the Nine Inch Nails moniker) are very nice and help mask the laggy moments, except it falls into the trap of being a 'video game movie' in which it would be more fun to play than watch: since the characters can essentially be "regenerated" with a few keyboard clicks, it's not as if anything is really 'at stake.'  There isn't much there in terms of a 'message' regarding artificial intelligence that hasn't been discussed at length in the media: it can be used for good or for evil, so you have to be careful.  Instead of ChatGPT, Grok and Claude, I long for the days of Microsoft's very own Clippy....