The premise of Brad Peyton's sci-fi actioner Atlas may sound like artificial intelligence propaganda, but, against all odds, the end result doesn't leave much of a “don't praise the machine” flavor. As in connecting with us Unauthorized Scarlett Johansson Cosplay by OpenAI, Racist chatbots, and other fantasies of creatively bankrupt Silicon Valley billionaires, it's hard to imagine AI headlining any kind of movie other than technology-driven horror stories like M3GAN. That's not lost on this galactic survival flick, for which writers Leo Sardarin and Aaron Elicollett mix buddy comedy banter into a commentary on the collaborative benefits of AI. (Think: Road Trip humor meets Le Vanille's upgrade. (with dashes of Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim.) It's a bold choice, portraying ChatGPT's descendants as our friends rather than our enemies, yet avoiding Peyton Atlas becoming an unintended punchline. does. (Though let's be clear: He doesn't dismiss concerns about AI's myriad professions or its environmental impact.)
Jennifer Lopez plays Atlas Shepherd, an analyst for the International Consortium (ICN) in a future where automatons are using Skynet over humanity. The attack is led by Harlan (Simo Liu), the world's first AI terrorist, introduced during an aggressively dystopian barrage of TV news that feels oddly absurd if you have seen anyone The movie where a robot goes rogue. Peyton's world building is down and dirty, a violent uprising, the ICN's successful counterattack, Harlan's escape to another planet, and his commitment to finish what he started on Earth. We meet Atlas 30 years on, when she joins an elite ICN squadron whose mission is to eliminate Harlan before he can threaten her.
For the first few minutes, Atlas feels needlessly silly and downright unremarkable about its portrayal of murderous robo-maids. Abraham Popola's mechanical assassin Casca slashes his way through a squad of ICN soldiers, but we're soon joined by Sterling K. Brown's Colonel Elias Banks, whose aggressively pro-AI stance is reflected in the rest of the film. Is. Once Peyton introduces “a secure bilateral” consciousness with the ICN Rangers and their Titanfall-esque mecha – “ARC suits” as the script calls them – Atlas shifts to preaching coexistence with regulated surveillance. becomes Where the introductory scaremongering portrays a familiar dystopia, the friendly Maxes who protect their harmless attached human partners suggest a utopian alternative.
As you might predict, Atlas – despite his technophobia – finds himself inside an ARC suit that goes by Smith (voiced by Gregory James Cohen). For the rest of Atlas, Lopez's job is to fight tooth and nail against a broken supercomputer trying to save his life. She's working against a recorded voice, yet their chemistry is vulnerable and natural. Atlas is initially presented as a shaggy-haired Luddite yelling at the clouds, but Atlas's journey with Smith is deceptively emotional (despite the team's half-failure). felt emotions). Smith transforms Atlas's sardonic decadence into a wonderfully endearing breath, while Lopez takes his butt off to realize a fully fleshed-out character who's in a cramped ARC cockpit for the majority of the film. Trapped inside.
Atlas's reliance on digital animation is in keeping with Netflix's heavy use of green screens in the original, but it's less distracting than usual. Action sequences of airborne ARCs blasting Harlan's defense droids send the camera spinning. Match suits move fluidly across the screen. Col. Banks' ARC, Zoe, hesitates as she hands Atlas a cup of coffee, waiting for praise like a daughter waiting for her mother's approval, and a view of the control center from inside the ARCs. It nails the details of its fun-sized jaggery. There's nothing strikingly rich or innovative about Peyton's off-world landscapes – it's hardly like watching Star Wars or District 9 for the first time – but the production's visual texture is still sharper than expected. Peyton cites Titanfall as an influence.and parallels the graphics and sense of excitement of the games throughout Atlas.
The supporting performances are largely serviceable, rising to the level of Sardaryan and Colette's cliched script. Colonel Banks spoke confidently, predictably jinxing his so-called foolproof plan to infiltrate Harlan's hideout. Then there's Harlan himself, a treacherous villain hellbent on genocide who might as well be a Skynet Trojan horse (complete with Terminator Light makeup effects and T-1000 arm blades). Popoola's dead-eyed vibes are similar to many of the Killer Replants we've seen before – not that it's above a lack of originality. Everyone else in the film is there to help Atlas overcome his hatred of Smith, especially Harlan, who represents today's backward and badly untested AI models with no safeguards. are sent to the market.
Through it all, Lopez holds our attention. A film about human/AI collaboration delivered by an algorithm-driven streamer is poised to shoot itself in the foot, but Block's Jenny Atlas sells it as solid popcorn entertainment. She sweats from the menacing intensity of final boss battles held around pools of molten magma, chuckles at the irony of her situation, and makes a light hearted conversation with Smith over pastry. Is. The script may be paper-thin, and its themes written in bright neon lights, but with a movie star like Lopez at the controls, Atlas never falters.