ATLAS (NETFLIX) (2024)

SYNOPSIS: Atlas Shepherd (Jennifer Lopez), a brilliant but misanthropic data analyst with a deep distrust of artificial intelligence, joins a mission to capture a renegade robot with whom she shares a mysterious past. But when plans go awry, her only hope of saving the future of humanity from AI is to trust it. 

MOVIE REVIEW:

When it comes to artificial intelligence and robots gone rogue, the Will Smith’s sci-fi actioner, I Robot (2004) comes to mind. Now it’s Jennifer Lopez’s turn to tackle the subject matter in Atlas.

Directed by Brad Peyton (Rampage) and produced by Lopez, Atlas is set in the future whereby Lopez’s character, Atlas Shepherd, an AI hating counterterrorism analyst is on a mission to capture Harlan (Simu Liu), an android who lead an uprising that claimed a million lives before fleeing the planet 28 years ago.

The movie also boasts a supporting cast consisting of Mark Strong as General Boothe and Sterling K. Brown as Colonel Banks, it’s yet another big budget, ambitious Netflix sci-fi that has more star power, visual effects than a good entertaining story.

Aside from the clumsily setup prologue showcasing Atlas as a multitasking and smart lady tracking down Harlan’s whereabouts in an instant, the rest of the movie is mostly focused on Atlas and the artificial intelligence being, Smith (Gregory James Cohan). Atlas hates AI but in order to survive on a stranded planet, she has to sync with Smith in her mech suit to get to the rescue pod. And why she is the only one left? Because her team never survive an enemy attack earlier on.

Even though Jennifer Lopez is the star here, she is not given a lot of chances to flex her acting muscles except looking sad and desperate and vice versa. Got to admit the scene where Smith nursed Atlas’s broken leg is kind of funny though. While Harlan is being portrayed as some sort of clever diabolical villain, unfortunately the very reason why he wants to destroy humanity isn’t that new or clever after all.

Despite a promised affair of AI vs humans, there isn’t a satisfying exploration of that. Atlas is generally a huge CGI fest that pulls and mix ideas from Aliens, Terminator, Avatar and probably shot in a studio full of green screen and created by the wizards at ILM. Strictly speaking, the premise is so generic, loud and forgettable, we are befuddled why J.Lo is even interested in making this instead of one with better written material.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee