Certification. 12
Running Time. 1 hour 58 mins
Director. Brad Peyton
Cast. Sterling K. Brown, Simu Liu, Jennifer Lopez, Lana Parrilla, Mark Strong.
Rating. 8%
Review.
Starring Jennifer Lopez as the titular Atlas Shepherd, Netflix’s Atlas is an appalling film of limited ambition and one which, I'm afraid, lacks any real redeeming qualities.
Brad Peyton's Atlas is a collection of every single cliché in the science fiction lexicon, but the director struggles to arrange them into any semblance of coherent order that is worth the viewer's time. The recycled plot lines come from films such as The Terminator, Starship Troopers, The Matrix, I, Robot, Pacific Rim, Avengers: Age Of Ultron and Ex Machina. There is also a nod to the animated television series, Dragon Ball Z and the console game, Titanfall, especially the arc suit combat sequences.
Ironically, for a film that sets out a strong position - an inherent distrust of Artificial Intelligence - the film feels like the screenplay has been produced by ChatGPT.
Atlas lacks energy, drive and engagement. The audience barely learns anything about the main characters for us to truly latch onto them and create a meaningful connection. The absence of character development results in a lack of empathy towards Lopez’s character. Atlas is soulless and superficial.
In short, Atlas is exactly the kind of film Netflix has a reputation for making of late. A few A-list stars inexplicably show up in a film that feels rushed, borrows ideas from better films to sketch out a flimsy storyline, and ultimately looks cheap. It’s exactly what I expect from Netflix today, but remember the time when the streaming service actually produced high-quality output such as Beasts Of No Nation, Mudbound, Roma, The Power Of The Dog and All Quiet On The Western Front.
Comments
Post a Comment