At the outset of the by-product and overwrought synthetic intelligence thriller “Atlas,” we hear snippets of determined 911 calls and see newscast-style footage of mass destruction, as exposition-spouting anchors clarify the premise of the film: “For years, we’ve got been assured that they’d by no means hurt us, however tonight all of that has modified, as throughout the globe, synthetic intelligence bots … have all bypassed their safety protocols,” and, “Authorities have estimated that over 500,000 have died from AI-controlled drone strikes in Bangalore.”So what you’re telling us is that people created AI bots and put in safety protocols to make sure the bots would all the time stay peaceable and subservient — and but those self same machines that in some way grew to become self-aware and unbiased, to the level the place they rebelled towards the people and are hell-bent on taking up the world? Why, that’s virtually extraordinary, and but why do I maintain listening to the theme from “The Terminator” taking part in in my head?With Jennifer Lopez doing underwhelming work in a job that requires emotional heavy lifting, a tremendous supporting solid misplaced in the weeds of an excessive amount of techno-talk, and a warmed-over plot with echoes of much better films, together with the “Terminator” franchise, “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Ex Machina,” “I, Robot,” “Blade Runner,” “Real Steel,” “A.I.” and “Interstellar,” it is a murky-looking, CGI-heavy dud. Nearly every part is heavy-handed, together with the identify of Lopez’ title character: She’s Atlas Shepherd, and he or she feels the weight of the world on her shoulders as she acts as the information for a flock of troopers on a mission to save lots of humanity. At least they didn’t name her Savior McDanger!As we additionally realized in that very useful opening sequence, all the lands in the world united to type the International Coalition of Nations (ICN) and had been capable of flip the tide in the battle towards the bots, with Simu Liu’s Harlan, “the first AI terrorist” and the humanoid chief of the riot, finally fleeing our world for a distant planet, however solely after vowing, “I’m coming again to complete what I began. This is the solely approach.” Big speak, bot man!Cue the title card studying “28 YEARS LATER,” and we’re in a futuristic Los Angeles (dig that enormous neon “Hollywood” signal) that’s rocked by an assault led by Casca (Abraham Popoola), an AI henchman who’s a part of a terrorist cell that apparently stayed behind when Harlan fled. When Casca is captured, — his AI head trapped in a cool briefcase-type machine, and perhaps that’s what was in the “Pulp Fiction” briefcase — the ICN calls on Lopez’ Atlas, the coalition’s high counter-terrorism analyst, to interrogate. The sensible Atlas (it is best to see how good she is at chess) finally methods Casca into revealing Harlan’s whereabouts: he’s been hiding out on a distant planet often known as GR39, little question plotting and scheming his return to Earth.
AI terrorist Harlan (Simu Liu) plots his return to Earth to complete the anti-human revolution he began.
The ICN, led by Mark Strong’s Gen. Boothe, decides to launch a mission to GR39 to seize Harlan and produce him again for examine or some such factor. (As Boothe places it, “SAPTECH needs Harlan’s CPU. They wish to again hint his code.” Ah, OK, received it.) Atlas argues it is a actually dangerous thought, even after Col. Banks (Sterling Okay. Brown), the commanding officer of the mission to GR39, reveals Atlas the ICN’s newest know-how, which allows neural hyperlinks between people and mech fits resembling large Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots.
Atlas argues that they need to kill Harlan and be performed with him, as a result of he’s the WORST. She’s not incorrect, plus she has further pores and skin in the sport as a result of her genius scientist mom (Lana Parrilla) is the creator of Harlan, who grew to become a form of creepy robotic massive brother to Atlas, and that allow’s say we hope Atlas has a great therapist on velocity dial.
Though Atlas refuses to sync up with the AI creation known as Smith (Gregory James Cohan) who “lives” in her mech swimsuit, she does be a part of the mission, and let’s simply say issues don’t go as deliberate, and until Atlas learns to belief Smith and absolutely bond with him, everyone seems to be doomed. Ah, however whilst Smith turns into ever extra human-like, displaying a humorousness and mimicking Atlas’ tough language and saying he cares about her, how can Atlas belief a bot when she’s … that’s proper … by no means realized to completely belief any HUMAN?Nothing about “Atlas” appears like an genuine illustration, whether or not it’s the CGI model of future L.A. or the scenes on GR39, which has a really soundstage-y, inexperienced screen-y really feel to it. Superb actors reminiscent of Sterling Okay. Brown and Mark Strong do what they will with their underwritten characters, whereas Lopez comes throughout as attempting too exhausting and Acting with a capital “A” in the quite a few scenes that require Atlas to expertise heavy feelings. This movie isn’t so horrible as to advantage camp worth, neither is it near being sturdy sufficient to advantage two hours of your viewing time. Atlas? Shrug.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/entertainment-and-culture/2024/05/23/atlas-review-netflix-jennifer-lopez-movie-simu-liu
