At The Movies: Atlas is a story about an AI rebellion that feels written by AI

Atlas (NC16)

120 minutes, available on Netflix
2 stars

The story: In the future, robots with artificial intelligence (AI) are at war with humanity. Data analyst Atlas (Jennifer Lopez) holds a personal grudge against AI, so she signs up for a military mission to destroy Harlan (Simu Liu), the leader of the AI rebellion. The mission heads to Harlan’s planet, confident in having the firepower to destroy his base of operations.

The best thing that can be said about this sci-fi action movie is that it is not the worst Netflix Original. That honour would have to go to the Adam Sandler comedy-western The Ridiculous 6 (2015), a steaming mess that the streaming service’s executives should have mercy-killed at inception.

But there may be more to Atlas than mere indifference to standards. In common with other Netflix Originals, the film seems to be made to consume on a phone or tablet while washing dishes or ironing.

There is no subtext in this story, for instance. Everything is said out loud, so viewers do not have to watch the screen to understand the proceedings. Lopez’s Atlas is a loose cannon who cannot be trusted on a military operation, so Colonel Banks (Sterling K. Brown) is there to speak those very words to General Boothe (Mark Strong).

Atlas is a genius, so she plays chess, distractedly speaking her moves to a chess computer while she, like the viewer, is doing something else. She beats the computer every time, naturally.

Lopez is a producer, so it is clear that she has had input into the character. She is meant to be misanthropic, but brilliant, which is why, despite her biases, she is allowed to be on the mission. But in this story, misanthropic is a label lazily slapped on Atlas to lend edginess to a character who would otherwise be insufferable.

Just in case audiences are put off by her moments of crabbiness, she is that way only towards robots. To compensate for that tiny flaw, she is given the quirky, relatable trait of being in need of good coffee, without which she gets a little testy.

Atlas feels like a parody of the romantic comedy protagonist, the hard-charging executive with the tough exterior who heads into a small town only to meet a man who can melt her defences. In this case, instead of a nice small-town man, it is an AI that Atlas must believe in. By the time the plot gets to Atlas’ anti-AI biases coming down, it will be hard for most viewers to care.

Hot take: This take on an AI-led rebellion smashes together tropes from romantic comedy and science fiction in such a heavy-handed fashion, it feels written by AI.