‘Atlas’ (2024) Review – An Aggressively Mediocre Big Budget Extravaganza

Every movie has a point it is trying to make or reach. Save your snarky comments. Yes, even Michael Bay, Zack Snyder, Uwe Boll, whomever. You can argue that they failed, or that you wish that they were going for a different goal. But the point stands, that each and every movie has a point and a goal. And that brings us to the big budget Netflix extravaganza, Atlas. Given the reliance on visual effects and dealing with the hot button topic of artificial intelligence, one might assume the main goal is popcorn entertainment or to make us think more deeply about the gray area of AI. Surprisingly, both of these assumptions would be mostly incorrect.

The film focuses on the eponymous Atlas Shepherd (Jennifer Lopez), an analyst whose life work is focused on tracking down an evil AI creation, Harlan Shepherd (Simu Liu), created by her own mother, Val (Lana Parrilla). Some time after his creation, when Atlas is 10, Harlan bucks his programming and leads an AI revolt (which we see only through extensive news footage, taking the place of character narration) that costs millions of human lives. The movie immediately moves 28 years into the future, and Atlas is interrogating an AI soldier, Casca (Abraham Popoola), which leads to her cleverly finding Harlan’s location. This sets a military operation in motion, which she cajoles her way into. Unfortunately, that involves getting into a mech suit, paired with an AI named Smith (voiced by Gregory James Cohan), whom she does not trust for obvious reasons.

These plot intricacies are all to set up the relationship between Atlas and Smith, and somehow rebuild not only her trust in technology, but also humans and herself. This is a tall order, especially for a relatively limited actress like Lopez. In her niche, she can do very well, as indicated by her performances in Hustlers and Out of Sight and… Well, it is telling that it may be hard to come up with excellent, layered performances in her filmography. We will certainly not be adding Atlas to this short list, but it’s not her fault, at least not entirely. 

What the film seems to really be going for, outside of special effects entertainment, is emotion and connection. And given the fact that Lopez is attempting to connect with a disembodied voice while the camera stays relatively static on her face, director Brad Peyton is not exactly doing her any favors. Neither is the script (penned by Leo Sardarian and Aron Eli Coleite) which parrots trite AI talking points that would not have been revolutionary a decade ago. The story of trusting AI may be particularly galling, considering the current dilemmas facing the entertainment industry. And no, this movie does not have a lot to say about that beyond, some AI good, some AI bad.

However, Lopez and James Cohan’s rapport at the start of their relationship is quite good.  It is, at a minimum, mildly entertaining to experience their verbal sparring sessions.  Additionally, hearing Smith change his tactics to include her stylings (sarcasm, cursing) definitely works well enough to carry the story forward. What doesn’t work is anything real or genuine. The film continually attempts to make Smith her makeshift therapist to heal her old emotional wounds. And whether this is due to Lopez or the script, all of it seems to lack the genuine emotional catharsis necessary. 

Another reason this doesn’t ever quite work is the tremendously boring villain. Simu Liu, who can turn on the charm at will, is basically working with all of his tools taken away. In order to play the bad guy who might have a point (stop me if you’ve heard this before), many mistakes are made. His delivery is monotonous and his action sequences are nowhere near as fun as say, Shang-Chi. It is clear that the money spent was on the grand action sequences featuring the mech suits. And to the credit of that team, these sequences are memorable, if a bit overlong. If you enjoy giant mechanical suits ripping limbs off and crushing skulls, there is certainly some fun to be had.

What isn’t fun to me, is waste. This is a movie that features such actors as Oscar nominee Sterling K. Brown and Mark Strong. They are both completely wasted and given stock characters that drift from your memory about five minutes after the credits roll. Other actors besides Liu and Lopez could basically be played by anyone which is a disservice to these wonderful actors’ talents. 

Atlas is a passable science fiction adventure. It will not offend, but it also will not be dedicated any time in the cultural consciousness, no matter what numbers Netflix reports in the coming weeks. If the goal was to create a film that reaches any kind of emotional heights, then it falls far short. But hey, if you want a movie to mildly entertain you for a couple hours and you would like to watch Ms. Lopez cry in close-up, there are worse ways to spend your time.

Atlas will be available to stream exclusively on Netflix on May 24, 2024.