ATLAS is a banal and sonically confused mess

AtlasNetflix's new sci-fi space war movie about artificial intelligence going out of control is such a cliched mess that it's easy to say it feels like an AI wrote the script. And that would be true. When the movie ended, I seriously checked to see if any real human writers were listed in the film's credits. They are, but that doesn't make me think any better about humanity. Atlas is tonally confusing and full of cliches. The film also thinks it's a good idea to have Jennifer Lopez sit in a fancy chair for more than half the running time.

It is difficult to quantify Atlas because it has no idea what it actually is. It can never decide if it wants to be a fun, cheesy, big-budget B-movie or a more serious action film full of important social commentary. I'm not even sure the stars know, because their performances suggest they've all been in a different movie.

Lopez keeps this bizarre film from being a disaster by doing a fine job as Atlas Shepherd, a brilliant, witty, introverted analyst with a troubling past that makes her hate artificial intelligence. She's strong, vulnerable, and charming. Most of the time she's having fun. The other times she gives the role the emotional weight it needs. Mark Strong and Sterling K. Brown, meanwhile, play military commanders who are clearly in a much more serious film. That might not seem so out of place next to Lopez were it not for the otherwise fantastic Simu Liu playing the first and leading AI terrorist, the cartoonish villain Harlan, as if hoping Atlas ends at Mystery Science Theater 3000.

As with many other films, I'm confused by Liu's choices. I honestly don't know if he's bad or if he delivered exactly the performance director Brad Peyton wanted. Either way, it doesn't work.

In fairness to Liu, very little in this film works. The predictable script is full of ideas about artificial intelligence and sci-fi elements that were hackneyed 30 years ago. It's also a CGI-fest of varying quality, with a million things going “boom” without much of it being important, but most of it feeling silly. The script, which also features some over-the-top dialogue, also has plot holes so big you could fly an intergalactic spaceship through them. At one point, an AI supercomputer with all the knowledge in the world doesn't know something everyone knows because the plot requires it not to know. This supercomputer also forgets a “step” during a clearly defined, simple procedure. It's not funny in any way, even though it tries to be. It's just unnecessarily stupid.

“Needlessly stupid” is also a perfect description of what the film asks of its star. Jennifer Lopez spends more than half the film, and at one point about 50 minutes straight, in a mech suit. From her chair, she navigates a fake Pandora planet while talking endlessly to an AI program that has the most uninteresting, boring robot voice imaginable.

This choice of voice is actually an interesting idea (perhaps the only one in the film). By not sounding human, Atlas forces us to confront what it really means to be alive. A robot that can think and feel for itself, even though it's clearly a robot, is harder to accept as alive than one that sounds like us. The problem is, this idea doesn't work on screen. The voice is immediately dull, even shrill, even before the bulk of the film is a continuous (not so) funny exchange between Lopez and “Smith.”

At times in the film, she is also asked to line up and box with robots for ten minutes before giving a big, emotional speech about whether computers have souls. Atlas is like Blade Runner, Throw awayAnd Starship Troopers got drunk together on a case of Original Four Loko. That sounds fun until you realize that in these movies you're not even supposed to hang out together, let alone drink poison.

Ultimately Atlas either it would have had to be much dumber or much smarter to be good. It would also have had to let Jennifer Lopez go. But its greatest sin might be what it ultimately says about the possibilities of artificial intelligence, in an age when corporations are forcing useless AI garages on us. Despite its lazy comic book villain, this film loves artificial intelligence. It loves it and its possibilities so much. And it believes its affection for AI will give the film a heart that it desperately wants.

Like humor, action, ideas and insights, it has no heart. All it has to offer is proof that humans are perfectly capable of making a bad movie even without AI

Atlas will be released on Netflix on May 24th.

Mikey Walsh is an editor at Nerdist and loves all things Simu Liu. You can follow him on Þjórsárden and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere where someone reviews the Targaryen kings.