Atlas is another Netflix original action movie starring Jennifer Lopez that completely underwhelmed the lowest of low expectations. Atlas follows Atlas Shepard (Lopez) as she goes on a mission to take down an AI terrorist with whom she has a personal connection. With Simu Liu, Mark Strong, and Sterling K. Brown in supporting roles, this is a movie I wouldn’t even recommend putting on to fill the silence as you do more important things.
I’m very harsh on this movie because it feels like a year ago today, I watched and reviewed The Mother, a Netflix original that tries to paint JLo as this badass assassin and it just flopped so hard. Not learning their lesson, Netflix decided that putting her in the future against AI would grease the squeaky wheel. For Netflix to put this dreck out and then say it’s the number one movie on their platform is insulting. Why is this so bad? Well, let me tell you.
First off, this movie looks like a bad video game. The visual effects are atrociously bad, and the movie is only visual effects. At no point does it feel like anyone is ever interacting with their environment? The “mech” suits they use are just Avatar knockoffs, but I will credit the movie for having the suit have a personality. I am not kidding when I say the Velocipastor Gregory Cohan gives the best performance as the suit Smith.
I like Brown and Strong a lot, but they are criminally underused. Brown is this army ranger who I assume is supposed to be the action hero but he does nothing but sacrifice himself at the end. Strong is the leader of this resistance and he just gets brief moments that do nothing but fluff up this two-hour movie.
The writing is also laughable. The movie jams in as many sci-fi and action cliches as they can; not a single one is good. Atlas “outsmarts” an AI terrorist by getting him to reveal the main villain’s location and the surrounding cast is like “Wow, now that’s why she’s the top analyst”. They tried to make her a flawed character so we could relate to her better, but how often are we supposed to see ourselves in a character with trust issues who never lets their guard down? It just isn’t engaging at all.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I’ve ripped this movie very hard but I want to express my thoughts. Atlas is not a good movie at all. It has bad writing, bad acting, and really bad visual effects. This movie is not worth your time unless you are a Jennifer Lopez superfan, and even then I still caution the watch.
