o-CEOs of Encom, sisters Tess and Eve Kim (Greta Lee) bring the once flagging company back to glory with several wildly successful video games. When her sibling succumbs to cancer, Eve decides to pursue Tess’s obsession to locate their predecessor’s invention, an elusive “permanence code,” which would allow digital creations to remain in the real world indefinitely. But Encom’s rival company Dillinger Systems, helmed by the recklessly intrepid programmer Julian (Evan Peters), insists on obtaining the code first, no matter the cost or legality of its acquisition. Using his vast resources to bring the highly advanced security program Ares (Jared Leto) into reality, the tech mogul tasks this “Master Control” with hunting down and kidnapping Eve. But when Ares begins to recognize the callousness of his commander and the empathy of his target, he disobeys a direct order to wage war against his users and fight for a new cause.

“Transfer of biological life form in progress …” The biggest hurdle with this series is still present: making audiences believe that human flesh can be digitized and converted into code, then uploaded into a computer system – and have this process reversed back and forth to go in and out of a network of servers and real life. It may actually have been most convincing in the original 1982 film, due to the primitive nature of the imagery, and the simpler designs of a mere video game; it’s easier to imagine fantastical concepts when everything looks strange or off. Here, the CG has gotten so cutting-edge, and the real world so crisp and modern, that nearly every notion pushes the boundaries of sensibility.

The universe the filmmakers have created is still visually impressive – and appearing more advanced and futuristic with every new theatrical chapter; even the previous entry had considerable faults with the graphics, especially when it came to the uncanny-valley aura of a young Jeff Bridges. In 2025, hyper-realistic computer animation is clearly achievable. Unfortunately, despite the prescient and increasingly understandable worries about rogue A.I. destroying the world, the story of “TRON: Ares” hasn’t shifted into anything remotely levelheaded. It may embrace the judicious impression that true A.I. will be immediately militarized (just like nearly every movie about extraterrestrial discoveries), weaponized by technocrats and billionaires to overcome pesky obstacles like laws, but it’s unable to make sense of computer programs designed to mimic humanoid concoctions. In the “Terminator” series, from which this picture unsparingly borrows, the killer robots took human forms for purposes of infiltration. But here, why would A.I. ever need to place itself into the bodies of regular soldiers? Why wouldn’t every iteration resemble an impenetrable tank or the round, indestructible Omnidroids from “The Incredibles”?

And once again, a movie all about computer programmers and hackers lays out a plot in which a magical line of code can miraculously, inexplicably, and singlehandedly solve everything – and it just so happens to be contained on a single flash drive – all while skilled hackers can get into any system with just a single computer and a few minutes of keyboard-punching (at one point visualized as good troopers versus bad troopers fighting each other with martial arts and edged weapons, symbolizing software security defenses against an invading virus). It’s also bizarre that incomprehensibly complex structures can be 3D-printed in seconds, out of organic materials no less (an organic material particle laser is plainly nonsense), and are assigned an arbitrary disintegration countdown of about 30 minutes. Perhaps they should have stuck to automatons that can mutate themselves into stabbing weapons (like the T-1000), as opposed to ones that can materialize entire spaceships with their own energy sources and laser guns. And though surveillance overreach isn’t new, in the hands of Ares, the program can apparently browse countless personal home videos, even though those would be highly unlikely to exist in a digital medium, especially for older characters.

In short, the story is a collection of absolute absurdities. Nevertheless, the look of the picture is oozing with slick style, neon-lighted costumes, and exhilarating sci-fi structures; it boasts nonstop action, oodles of destruction and collateral damage, and superhero-movie types of climactic showdowns. It may conclude with far more questions than it answers (right in line with the last entry, “TRON: Legacy,” 15 years prior), but it will surely appease fans (and confuse others) as it bubbles over with nostalgic elements and exceptionally sleek upgrades.

– The Massie Twins