Review of 'Atlas'

atlas.jpg In the future AI terrorist Harlan (Simu Liu) with the help of AI expert Val Shepherd (Lana Parrilla) leads a war of machines against humans which he loses causing him to flee the planet. 28 years later, Val's daughter Atlas (Jennifer Lopez) is an analyst hunting fugitive robots. After capturing one of Harlan's AI agents Casca Decius (Abraham Popoola) Atlas discovers the location of Harlan. Atlas convinces General Jake Boothe (Mark Strong) that she should accompany the military mission to seek out and destroy Harlan. Atlas' commander Colonel Banks (Sterling K. Brown) shows her the new Mechs they are to use on the mission which have a 2-way neural pathway with their human occupants. The ships are attacked as they approach the planet where Harlan is hiding with Banks throwing Atlas into a Mech suit to save her life as they crash to the surface. As she struggles to survive she has to reluctantly yield control over to the AI controlling the suit, Smith (Gregory James Cohan), and in doing so comes to terms with her difficult past.

Yeah, this is pretty much a SF shoot-em-up with cool looking Mech tech. The action sequences do look quite good and the Mechs are quite convincing. Dialogue is a bit to be desired but the fairly minimal story is not that bad focusing on fears of AI Armageddon that could have been ripped from the front pages of today's newspapers.

An obvious draw for filmgoers will be Jennifer Lopez as Atlas who does a fairly good job in the role and is very much the focus of the story though not an altogether convincing performance. She is supposed to be this hard, rebellious and contentious character but she seemingly only ever needs to raise her voice slightly to get what she wants. What is more convincing is her coming to terms with her difficult past while talking to her persistent suit computer Smith. Supporting cast are largely forgettable and, here, disposable though it has to be said that Simu Liu does a great job as a muscle-bound AI gone rogue.

Generally a fun, action-packed convincing looking SF space adventure with Mechs and lots of battles that has a touch of AI acceptance about it.

Rating: “It is OK but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2024-06-30


Directed by: Brad Peyton

Studio: ASAP Entertainment

Year: 2024

Length: 118 minutes

Genre: Science Fiction

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14856980/