You might think a sci-fi movie in which Jennifer Lopez teams up with a smart, intelligent robot suit to battle her evil AI brothers would be a bit more interesting. Atlas The latest addition to Netflix's hit streaming action slate takes itself far too seriously, and fails to delve into the complexities of the AI debate, even though it's essentially a showdown between a friendly AI assistant and a machine plotting a doomsday scenario. There are some funny moments, such as Lopez's interactions with his robotic comrades, but the rest of the movie seems all about fighting AI. Atlas's true character. It's a buddy comedy that tries too hard to be a serious action movie.
Atlas The film takes place almost 30 years after the rebellion in which Harlan (Simu Liu), an advanced AI bot, helped liberate the other machines, who then circumvent security protocols and start a war with humanity, a setup that mirrors many real-world concerns. In this case, however, the AI loses and Harlan heads off-planet to lick his wounds, but not before posing an ominous threat to humanity. Atlas (Lopez), the daughter of Harlan's creator and with whom he practically grew up like a brother, spends the next 28 years trying to find out exactly where Harlan went and eliminate the threat once and for all. The film begins with her discovering the location after interrogating the severed head of one of the AI's minions.
The most important thing to know about Atlas is that she has developed a deep loathing for AI, and for that matter, most future technology — she harbors the same fears that many of us have (as well as characters like Will Smith in sci-fi movies). I, Robot), which is exacerbated by the fact that the technology around her can be hacked and exploited by Harlan and his allies: at one point, while briefing her soldiers, she tells them “never trust AI” as she hands out blueprints printed on paper.
This fear especially extends to a device called Neural Link (not to be confused with the Elon Musk-backed Neuralink) that can connect a human mind directly to an AI companion. It's a cool idea, but the movie doesn't have the pace to explore it deeply. Inevitably, Atlas is forced to use the Neural Link to hook up with an AI named Smith (Gregory James Cohan), a Siri lookalike who lives in a mech suit ripped from the spaceship. Titanfall.
Though contrived, the relationship between Smith and Atlas is arguably the best part of the film. Atlas is a cranky sarcastic guy, and thanks to its adaptive learning abilities, Smith soon becomes just the same. The AI swears, makes jokes, and throws them at Atlas just as hard as Atlas does at Smith. The banter is genuinely funny, and even though you can predict it a mile away, their inevitable friendship is touching. The heartwarming ending alone makes it worth watching the whole movie.
The problem is Atlas Not that it's unexpected (though a painfully banal vision of sci-fi's future doesn't help), but that the film doesn't play to this strength. Atlas The film takes itself too seriously and is boring. Harlan is the biggest culprit, played so awkwardly by Liu that it's more boring than scary. In a future where AI bots can perfectly mimic humans, it's puzzling to have a cutting edge machine sound like an old GPS navigating the roads. Overall, there's a lot of wasted potential. In particular, the film's premise is a perfect framework for the current AI debate (Siri vs. Skynet), but it misses the opportunity to say something new.
Recently, there have been a number of films that take a serious look at the future potential of AI. creator, Dead reckoningor Netflix's own John Yi. Atlas The film adds nothing to that vast body of work, and even worse, fails to capitalize on its defining aspects: the comedy moments are the best parts of the film, but they can feel out of place, lost in everything else. Atlas It was a chance to explore the urgent AI conversation in a Hollywood-friendly package. and It's not exactly smart, but like a lot of AI today, it's neither.
Atlas Available on Netflix from May 24th.
