Review | Atlas (Netflix) - Future of the Force

“Atlas has an interesting premise but ends up just being another action-packed CGI mess, yet an entertaining one.”

Atlas is a science fiction film directed by Brad Peyton, starring Jennifer Lopez, Simu Liu, Sterling K. Brown, Lana Parilla and Mark Strong. The film releases today on Netflix.

STORY

*Atlas*. Jennifer Lopez as Atlas Shepherd. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024.

On paper, Atlas has an interesting premise. Artificial Intelligence has rebelled against humanity. Atlas (Jennifer Lopez), an analyst with distrust of AI joins a mission to stop their leader Harlan (Simu Liu). When things go wrong, she must trust AI in order to save humanity. Undoubtedly, AI is a topic that everyone has been talking about recently as there’s been huge advancement on this technology. As such, there’s a lot of storytelling possibilities on that topic. Judging from the trailer, this film had potential.

However, Atlas is a disappointment. Indeed, there’s no depth to the story, it always remains superficial with little to no character development. All the characters around Atlas have no clear personality, they can be replaced with one another, they are just here. Her opponent Harlan is as basic as it gets. He feels like he is a villain you have seen in dozens of other films. Only Atlas has a personality. Her fear of AI and having to learn to trust her AI robot (called Smith) in order to save humanity is the highlight of the film. The bond she has to create with Smith forces Atlas to confront her fear. It brings challenge for the character. It is a compelling storyline. But then again, it doesn’t go far enough, like I said above it always remains superficial.

This is the real problem with Atlas. It’s a film that does the strict minimum in terms of storytelling. It takes a lot of shortcuts and forgets what’s the heart of its story. Sure, it takes inspiration from great sci-fi films but it turns that inspiration into a feeling of déjà vu instead of creating something new or something of its own. So, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before and even worse, it’s nowhere near as good as what we have seen before. It’s just a pale imitation of mix of sci-fi films. Indeed, it turns out to be just another action-packed CGI mess. Yet, it is an entertaining one. Thus, if you watch it, you will still end up having a good time because of the action scenes.

CAST

*Atlas*. Jennifer Lopez as Atlas. Cr. Ana Carballosa/Netflix ©2023

There is one thing you can’t take away from Atlas, it’s the cast. In fact, Jennifer Lopez nails her part. She delivers a strong and moving performance as Atlas. She carries the whole film herself. So, it’s really a shame she doesn’t have a better script to work with. It’s the same for Simu Liu. Through his performance, you can tell he would be great as a villain, if only he had more to work with.

Sterling K. Brown is definitely fun in this role but he doesn’t enough screen time. There are two scenes in which he has a perfect delivery line. I think it’s quotes you will remember. I loved Lana Parilla in Once Upon A Time and I was so happy to see her name in the opening credits. When she appears on screen, she definitely captures your attention. On top of that, her character is an important one to the story. She has the right acting range for this role and yet, they do nothing with her character. No matter how good and talented this cast is, they can’t save this film. But, they sure did their best.

VISUALS

Moreover, Atlas is a CGI mess and an uninspired one. All of the designs whether it’s the ships, the robots, the futuristic buildings, absolutely nothing feels original. It’s like watching a re-hash of Star Trek, Alien, The Hunger Games, The Creator and other big sci-fi films put together in the same film. Design-wise it’s a let-down but the quality of the CGI is also left to be desired. At times it can be good. At others, it can be wonky. But, it’s the wide shots that are the worst. There are often wide shots of computer-generated imagery environments with Smith right at the centre. These are shots designed to be beautiful. However, they end up being dull and repetitive shots.