Atlas reviewed by Matt Donato. Now streaming on Netflix.
Atlas earns more than a shrug, even if it won’t settle relevant and alarming debates about artificial intelligence’s place in contemporary society. Brad Peyton oversees a futuristic action thriller that frequently plays like a clone of other cautionary tales about AI – but those movies, shows, games, and books don’t have Peyton’s secret weapon: Jennifer Lopez. She’s able to command the screen, bicker with software programs, and sell a convincing heroine’s arc from behind a mech-suit’s windshield. Atlas is far from the “Justice for AI!” disaster its premise implies, and while it’s not the next groundbreaking sci-fi epic, it earns points for building an entertaining, adequately executed movie around a hot-button topic.
