Atlas Movie Review: Jennifer Lopez Doggedly Wades Her Way Through Sci-fi Cliches and an Over-Familiar Plot (LatestLY Exclusive)

Atlas Movie Review: Imagine if Ultron was born in a world with no Avengers to stop it. Imagine if Ultron learned that humans were flawed, started a genocide, and then, in the flimsiest of reasons given, dropped its plans and left Earth to settle on a distant planet. And then imagine if he heard Danny Boyle was making 28 Years Later and, inspired by that title, decided to restart his Earth-destroying plans. That, in a nutshell, is what you get in Netflix's new sci-fi offering Atlas. It depicts a world dominated by artificial intelligence in a script that seems like someone asked AI to smash Age of Ultron with The Terminator franchise, Mass Effect, Titanfall, Pacific Rim, Fantastic Four (the bad version), and even Revenge of the Sith, and then wrote a screenplay from the resulting abomination. Atlas OTT Release: Jennifer Lopez's Netflix Sci-Fi Film Set to Release On May 24.

Yes, there is Jennifer Lopez, who manages to deliver the most competent performance possible given that she mostly spends time reacting to everything computer-generated. Still, she deserves better than whatever Netflix is offering in the hope of creating their JLo action playlist.

What's Atlas All About?

In an alternate reality, a scientist perfects humanbots—AI meshed into human bodies. A humanbot named Harlan (Simu Liu) breaks free of her control and leads the rest of the humanbots to create worldwide genocides. They then leave Earth to settle on an undisclosed planet, but humans know they are bound to return and complete their plans of doom.

Watch the Trailer of Atlas:

28 years later, the dead scientist's daughter Atlas (Jennifer Lopez) is working as an analyst for the US on artificial intelligence, though she is, understandably, mistrustful of all things AI (even if in her introduction scene, we see her playing chess with her virtual assistant). Thanks to a captured terrorist bot, she manages to discover the planet where Harlan is hiding. Atlas convinces General Jake Boothe (Mark Strong) to let her accompany the army unit, headed by Elias (Sterling K Brown), to that planet since she 'understands Harlan best'. However, the unit is ambushed by Harlan's forces, with Atlas being the only apparent survivor, thanks to some incredulous luck and an AI-steered arc outfit that Elias straps her into before she falls.

What follows is a sort of road trip movie through a dangerous wasteland where two cynical strangers must learn to trust each other to reach their end goal. In this case, one of these road trip companions is an AI named 'Smith' (voiced by Gregory James Cohan), who is insistent on syncing with Atlas' brain, and she keeps refusing until, inevitably, there is a moment ahead where she will cave in.

The 'Artificial'-ity of It All

Despite the generic storyline, or rather mish-mash of generic storylines, Atlas has a fascinating concept, or rather the germ of a concept, if it had been made a couple of decades ago. The created worlds, whether the futuristic Earth or the planet where Harlan has found a home, range from decent CGI to 'goddamn too much CGI to feel realistic'. The same goes for the action sequences. The movie tries to evoke some emotional connection in the bonding between its protagonist and Smith, which, if it works for you, is solely reliant on JLo's performance and Cohan's dry rendition, though admittedly at times, Smith's attempts to understand humour and sarcasm feels like someone uploaded TBBT's Sheldon Cooper onto a computer. Jennifer Lopez Shuts Down Divorce Rumours With Ben Affleck at Atlas Press Conference; Actress Says ‘You Know Better Than That’ (Watch Video).

After a point, or maybe even early on, you can predict the pathway Atlas sets itself on, even before the super-smart Smith can figure it out. What we cannot overlook are the writing expediencies that come along the way. For example, Atlas upgrading Smith to boss-level within seconds of an attack. Or an AI-driven villain ditching its biggest strength - artificial intelligence - to go all physical attack mode on the hero.

The final act of the movie is quite generic in its treatment, not helped by the distractingly over-CGI-ed environments where the final fight takes place. While Ms Lopez is a deserving asset for the movie, fantastic actors like Sterling . Brown and Mark Strong get a raw deal, and Simu Liu's performance feels more like an audition for a Terminator movie that will never get made.

Like with The Creator, Atlas tends to spark arguments - both good and bad - for the implementation of AI. It wants to convey that uncontrolled AI is definitely bad, but AI with protocols and human restraint is good. Except it forgets an age-old phrase—a pen in the wrong hands can also be a weapon. Also, if actual humans are writing scripts like this, it won't be long before they are replaced by ChatGPT. Unless they already have been. At Netflix.

Final Thoughts on Atlas

Atlas is a film that struggles under the weight of its own ambitions. It attempts to blend numerous sci-fi influences into a cohesive narrative, while walking its way through JLo's sturdy shoulders, but falls mighty short due to its derivative plot and over-reliance on CGI. Atlas is streaming on Netflix.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 24, 2024 10:02 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).