Picture: Ana Carballosa/Netflix
That is her … now … on Netflix. Jennifer Lopez is making an attempt to save lots of humanity because the titular character in Brad Peyton’s new sci-fi movie, Atlas. Simu Liu and Sterling Okay. Brown additionally star, however the film’s most important focus is on Atlas and her sentient mecha go well with, which is voiced by Gregory James Cohan. Atlas delivers a reasonably optimistic message about AI … hmm, how do we predict that may land with a gaggle of critics who probably don’t need to get replaced by robots? Because it seems, the AI story line is simply one of many issues that critics have with the challenge. Early reactions up to now have usually been a shrug at finest — for instance, a Hollywood Reporter headline politely drags it as “one other Netflix film made to half-watch whereas doing laundry.” Whereas some evaluations have supplied reward for Lopez’s efficiency, she was additionally concerned as a producer on the movie, so the general response might be nonetheless one thing J.Lo’s PR crew may need to carry on the lo. Under, what critics are saying about Atlas.
“When, sometime not so lengthy from now, Netflix begins serving up personalised AI-generated sludge content material primarily based on every of our viewing histories, it in all probability gained’t look all that totally different from Atlas, which barely seems to be prefer it was made by people anyway. However the level of Atlas isn’t to make its actors look massive — it’s to remind us that AI is our good friend, even when it often tries to exterminate us, and that we must always recover from ourselves and our tetchy objections.” —Alison Willmore, Vulture
“Atlas seems like an underwhelming return to the type of tasks which have maintained Lopez’ place within the Hollywood firmament, however not those that catapulted her there within the first place.” —Todd Gilchrist, Selection
“In a second when everyone seems to be legitimately involved concerning the function that AI will play in our lives going ahead, creating such a limp, insecure movie that offers straight with the topic, but says completely nothing about it, isn’t only a waste of cash. It’s a waste of beneficial time.” —Coleman Spilde, Each day Beast
“For a futuristic, planet-hopping journey, Atlas feels awfully tiny; as a romance (minus the precise romance), it treads no new emotional terrain. However there’s one thing oddly relatable, even romantic about its hope that therapeutic one’s coronary heart may be step one in saving the world.” —Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter
“The script teeters between high-concept and a showcase for Lopez’s versatility, and regardless of an honest premise for some futuristic thrills, Atlas usually seems like a missed alternative, hampered by sluggish pacing and a scarcity of depth in character improvement for everybody else besides Atlas.”
—Valerie Complicated, Deadline
“At instances Atlas seems like pure pastiche, and it seems to be, in a vogue we’re getting used to seeing on the streamers, type of low cost, darkish, plasticky and pretend, significantly within the massive motion sequences. Science fiction usually earns its place in reminiscence by envisioning one thing new and startling — however with Atlas, we’ve seen all of it earlier than.” —Alissa Wilkinson, the New York Occasions
“Finally Atlas both wanted to be a lot dumber or a lot smarter to be good. It additionally wanted to let Jennifer Lopez stroll. However its largest sin may be what it finally says about the opportunity of synthetic intelligence at a time when firms are pressure feeding ineffective A.I. storage down our throats.”
—Mikey Walsh, Nerdist
“Principally, all of it seems to be like a online game minimize scene, which isn’t only a ding on its total aesthetics (low cost), however its basic narrative thrust (weak, foolish). The nearer you take note of these components, the tougher they’re to disregard, and the much less even vaguely entertaining this all is. The much less value saving, too.”
—Kate Erbland, IndieWire
“[T]he whole affair is powered by a B-movie air of tacky enjoyable, and Lopez makes for a convincing high-kicking heroine when she buddies up with the mech robotic snappily voiced by Gregory James Cohan. It’s an motion movie an AI might have scripted however you’d should have a circuit free to not get caught up within the high-octane silliness.” —Ed Energy, The Telegraph
“In one other world, all it’s actually responsible of is being simply okay. However I felt utterly inactivated by this film. I linked to nobody, cared about nothing. The emotional tenor of scenes rose and fell with out transferring me within the slightest.” —Alex Harrison, Display screen Rant
“Whereas Lopez’s star energy and uncooked attraction are palpable as ever, that’s not sufficient to flesh out a guilt-ridden, self-loathing genius whose mind is vital to humanity’s survival. The dismal writing does her no favors, true, however she’s the form of actress who can save The Wedding ceremony Planner — not Earth.”
—Johnny Oleksinski, the New York Publish
“There’s simply not one of the awe we must always get from a movie akin to this, director Brad Peyton […] by no means in a position to edge his movie away from being simply one other streaming simulation of an actual blockbuster. For a movie that desires us to cease worrying and love massive tech, Atlas does an awfully good job of exhibiting us why we must always nonetheless be cautious of it.” —Benjamin Lee, The Guardian
