June 3, 2024 · Watch the official trailer
The decision making behind Netflix’s film slate ranges from solid to unquestionably baffling.
A streaming service turned movie studio that seeks to become a major player in the film industry has done a terrific job weaving its way into high-quality prestige cinema with numerous documentaries and dramatic films earning Academy Award nominations and wins, including Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” western “The Power of the Dog” and doc “American Factory.”
Yet at the same time, Netflix takes films out of the theatrical market that could have been majorly successful – notably Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man” starring Glen Powell which will sneak onto the streamer next weekend – and otherwise create projects that could have gone straight-to-DVD if not for a much larger budget.
The latest such basic cable fodder to hit the streamer – “Atlas” starring Jennifer Lopez – is a clear example of Netflix dumping too much money behind an A-lister with no real intention, plot, or cinema in the offing, simply trying to keep viewers from canceling the service.
Directed by blockbuster disaster movie filmmaker Brad Peyton of “San Andreas” and “Rampage” fame, “Atlas” finds Lopez as the title character in a quasi-postapocalyptic world where artificial intelligence threatens humanity at every turn. It’s a lesser cross between “Gravity” and “The Terminator” where Atlas must traverse the universe alone in search of an AI terrorist hellbent on killing off humanity to be its salvation.
Much of the movie finds Lopez alone on a green screen, talking to an AI robot “Smith” that her character works inside and has a distant love-hate relationship with over the course of the film as she tries to navigate the military unit on a remote planet in relative isolation.
This may evoke some of the work Sandra Bullock delivered in a powerful isolated turn in space in the Oscar-winning “Gravity,” but with a lack of nuance or character development, “Atlas” becomes cinematic cannon fodder. Lopez does her best to carry scenes emotionally and narratively, but the nonsensical, almost farcical ways in which the challenges over the course of her mission are contrived make the whole experience laughable.
Viewers who abhor green screen technology and overly CGI visuals will likely turn off “Atlas” within the first 20 minutes as the entire feature has a synthetic, textured quality to it and the distance between characters is comical to the extent that it feels like no two actors ever share the same scene together, filming everything alone.
This is especially true when it comes to “Shang-Chi” and “Barbie” star Simu Liu as the film’s erstwhile villain Harlan, who menaces and snarls around the background of scenes while only actually appearing in about 15 minutes of the narrative. Though Liu has the ability to develop a compelling character, there’s simply no need for him to do so here, given how little the protagonist-antagonist relationship between Atlas and Harlan has to do with the overall narrative.
Sterling K. Brown, fresh off an Oscar nomination for “American Fiction,” fills up the screen unnecessarily as a combat Ranger in charge of the mission, though the film never allows Brown to use his ability to emote in any meaningful way.
For a director who’s made his name on disaster spectacle, “Atlas” doesn’t really have many interesting, bombastic, or compelling action sequences as everything feels muted by the computer-heavy glaze that shines off every frame of the film.
Only one sequence where Atlas is in free fall from space as war rages on around her has any audience engagement that might lead one to think that Peyton is heading somewhere visually in his action, but the film largely stalls out immediately afterwards.
Netflix may have a grasp on prestige-based projects and acquiring completed projects to screen on its streaming service, but “Atlas” – as well as Zack Snyder’s massively underwhelming “Rebel Moon” series – proves that there’s still a long way to go when it comes to original science fiction content.
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