Atlas: Titanfall Meets I, Robot

Atlas is a science fiction action/adventure film that sees a future where a rogue A.I. is being hunted after it disappeared 28 years prior to the events of the film. Both produced by and starring Jennifer Lopez, who stars as the titular Atlas, the film follows Atlas’s journey as she navigates through an alien world while learning to cope with past trauma and trusting a world that let her down in the past. Although the scope of the story is broad and ever possibly expanding, the film chooses to take a much more grounded approach, juxtaposing the scale with a more personal story.

Netflix films are notoriously high budget, filled with stars and special effects, but always end up being mediocre at best. While Atlas is not a perfect film, it is definitely better than the stigma that befalls its predecessors. From a performance perspective, almost everyone does a fantastic job. Jennifer Lopez is strong in the lead role, delivering an honest performance that mostly sees her acting against a robot voice. While some actors struggle with this kind of performance, Lopez does a great job embracing the kind of story she is within.

Unfortunately, not all the performances are the best, with Simu Liu being horribly miscast in the role of the rogue A.I. villain, Harlan. Liu does not give off any kind of menacing presence, with most of the character’s nuance coming from stories other people tell about him. This creates an element of the narrative that shifts the focus back over to Atlas; however, at the cost of establishing a truly strong villain. Liu is not entirely to blame here, with much of his limited screen time being used poorly, although he never gives off any kind of menacing presence.

The part of the film that works the best is when the film leans into science fiction. The special effects work most of the time, making this film truly feel like a cinematic version of Titanfall and other mech style video games. This is a fun film to watch and definitely feels like something that embraced its budget and spent a good amount of time working on the elements that the filmmakers knew would stand out.

The biggest gripe with the film has to be the themes and plot. That is not to say that they are not explored very well, but that their significance in meaning seems almost counterintuitive in today’s society. The film discussed A.I. in a way that demonstrates its ability to be both a bad and good thing, depending on how it is implemented. This leads Atlas to learn to trust certain versions of A.I., while learning that others are bad. It makes complete sense for the lead character to learn and grow, but in today’s landscape, with A.I. becoming more and more complicated and frustrating for creators and artists, it is bizarre that the film takes this approach.