Sommerleigh Pollonais, Senior Writer
Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD
Plot: In a bleak future, an AI companion has determined that the only way to save the world is to decimate humanity. And it is up to a socially awkward analyst and a team of soldiers to stop him and his AI soldiers once and for all.
This new Pacific Rim film looks tight
Review: If the saying "you've seen one, you've seen them all" was a movie, it would be Atlas. Directed by Brad Peyton, a man whose style is somewhere between Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich with movies such as Rampage and San Andreas. This time around Peyton teams up with Netflix and Jenny from the Block Lopez to make a movie that's not terrible but also has nothing sci-fi fans haven't seen a hundred times before.
Atlas (Lopez) is an analyst/hacker/genius/whatever the plot needs her to be, who hates AI (artificial intelligence) because it killed her mother. Harlan (Simu Liu of Shang Chi, Kim's Convenience) is said killer, your typical humanity hating AI, considered the first terrorist of his kind who has set his sights on Earth's destruction in order to "restart" the world for the better. Harlan is hiding out on another planet so Atlas and a team of rangers led by Colonel Elias Banks (Sterling K. Brown) head a mission to hunt him down and take him out. To ensure their success they've created advanced AI mechs, robots they can sync with to create the perfect soldier. But of course, Atlas doesn't want to do this as she doesn't trust them. Predictable plot lines lead to Atlas and her AI known as Smith being the only ones left to fight Harlan and his army while Atlas deals with her past trauma in order to *yawn*…
Eye see what they did there
JLo's first movie with Netflix The Mother also had a premise that was typical of the action genre, but her performance in that movie was one I enjoyed, and it did a lot to keep me invested in the outcome. Unfortunately, I can't say the same here as her portrayal of Atlas was less nuanced and more one dimensional. The first half of the story she comes across as unlikeable and your typical Mary-Sue archetype. Atlas is depicted as always being the smartest person in the room, even when that doesn't make sense (how do you go from computer geek to capable of piloting a mech suit with no training while refusing to "sync" with it?).
While I understand her reluctance to "sync" with Smith due to her past experiences, the predictable nature of the story meant the entire journey to her eventually befriending and trusting the big mech was an exercise in tedium and I literally let out an exasperated sigh when they finally got to the point of it all.
AI good. Humans bad. Why is that so hard to understand?
All that said, I don't think Atlas is a terrible movie, it's simply a lazy one. The CGI was solid, and Smith (voiced by Gregory James Cohan) had a fun personality to him. I just wish they gave him more to work with, so we could've spent more time developing a relationship with him enough to care about his inevitable self-sacrifice. Another missed opportunity would be if they made Casca (Abraham Popoola) the main villain, instead of the deeply boring Harlan. Nothing against Simu Liu but it seemed like the only note they gave him was don't blink much so your robot eyes will look creepy. Casca on the other hand reminded me of The Terminator as he (or replicant versions of him) kept popping back up to hunt Atlas down, which made for a much more intense and thrilling story. They should've thrown in a twist that made Casca the true threat to humanity, at the very least it would've made this mash-up of The Terminator meets the video game Titanfall (which the director said was an inspiration for this), a more entertaining watch.
Not good and not bad, Atlas (the film this time) gets an "A" for "average". It might be worth checking out if you're a fan of these types of stories but just don't expect anything memorable as I predict most of us will forget this movie exists before year's end.
Sommer's Score: 5 out of 10
Have you seen Atlas? What did you think of it? And you can check out more reviews from Robot Mango Reviews below:
CANADIAN ANDROID THRILLER 'SIMULANT' IS A SLOG
J-LO KILLS IT IN ASSASSIN THRILLER 'THE MOTHER'
ALL 7 TERMINATOR FRANCHISE ENTRIES RANKED
Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge-Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I'll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes. Double Tap Baby! Read More
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