Even J.Lo in a mech suit can’t save Netflix’s AI thriller

You’d think a sci-fi flick where Jennifer Lopez teams up with a smart and sensual mech suit to fight her evil AI brother would be a little more fun. alas, Atlas — Netflix’s latest attempt at a blockbuster streaming action movie — takes itself way too seriously. It also fails to really delve into the complexities of the AI ​​debate, despite it essentially being a conflict between a friendly AI assistant and the machine’s purpose in a doomsday scenario. There are some funny moments, especially the banter between Lopez and her mechanical sidekick, but every other part of the film seems to struggle against Atlas‘true form. This is a buddy comedy that tries too hard to be a serious action movie.

Atlas takes place almost three decades after an uprising that saw an advanced AI robot named Harlan (Simu Liu) help free other machines, who then proceeded to bypass their own security protocols and start a war with humanity . It’s an organization that echoes many real-world concerns. Except, in this case, the AIs lose and Harlan goes off-planet to lick his wounds—but not before unleashing an ominous threat to the human population. Atlas (Lopez), the daughter of Harlan’s creator, who basically grew up with him as a sibling, spends the next 28 years trying to find exactly where Harlan went so the threat can be eliminated forever. The film begins when she discovers that location after interrogating the severed head of an AI soldier.

The most important thing to know about Atlas is that she was raised to absolutely hate AI and, by extension, most futuristic technology. She has the same fears that many of us have (along with sci-fi characters like Will Smith Me, robot), which are made worse by the fact that the technology around it can be hacked and exploited by Harlan and his associates. At one point, while briefing a group of soldiers, she says, “You can’t trust HIM,” as she hands out plans printed on paper.

That fear particularly extends to a device called Neural Link (not to be confused with the Elon Musk-backed Neuralink), which allows a human mind to connect directly to an AI companion. It’s a cool idea, but the film never slows down enough to explore it in depth. Inevitably, Atlas finds himself with no choice but to use a neural link to connect with an artificial intelligence named Smith (Gregory James Cohan) who looks exactly like Siri and is housed inside a tattered mechanical suit. immediately from Titanfall.

As contrived as it is, the relationship between Smith and Atlas is easily the best part of the film. Atlas is quirky and sarcastic, and due to his adaptive learning abilities, Smith soon becomes exactly the same. The AI ​​swears and jokes, giving it to Atlas the same way it does to him. The banter is genuinely funny, to the point that even though you can see it coming a mile away, their inevitable friendship still feels touching. It’s almost worth watching the entire film for its heartwarming finale alone.

The problem with Atlas it’s not so much that it’s predictable (though that doesn’t help, nor is its painfully generic vision of a sci-fi future). It is that the film does not rely on this strength. Outside of Smith and Atlas, everything else about Atlas it’s self-serious and boring. Harlan is the ultimate offender, played with subdued effect by Liu that makes him more boring than scary. In a future where AI robots can perfectly mimic human beings, it’s confusing that the most advanced machine sounds like an old GPS giving directions. Overall, there is a lot of wasted potential. In particular, the film’s premise is a perfect frame for current AI debates—Siri vs. Skynet—but doesn’t take the opportunity to say anything new.

There are already many recent films that explore a possible AI future with a great deal of sincerity, whether it’s Creator, Dead Reckoningor even Netflix Jung_E. Atlas it adds nothing to that vast body of work. Even worse, it fails to capitalize on its single defining aspect. The comedic moments are the best part of the film, and yet they can feel out of place buried under everything else. Atlas it was a chance to take an urgent AI conversation and explore it in an accessible Hollywood package. It could be fun AND smart – instead, like a lot of AI now, it’s neither.

Atlas begins streaming on Netflix May 24.