Shadows on the Wall

Atlas

dir Brad Peyton
scr Leo Sardarian, Aron Eli Coleite
prd Brad Peyton, Jeff Fierson, Joby Harold, Tory Tunnell, Jennifer Lopez, Greg Berlanti
with Jennifer Lopez, Simu Liu, Sterling K Brown, Mark Strong, Gregory James Cohan, Abraham Popoola, Lana Parrilla, Briella Guiza, Adia Smith-Eriksson, Logan Hunt, Jared Shimabukuro, Ashley J Hicks
release US/UK 24.May.24
24/US Netflix 1h58

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Opening in what looks like a live-action Jetsons-era Los Angeles before moving on to a distant planet, this thriller is packed with achingly cool technology. Fast and loud, the movie hurls the audience into the fray, which spirals into intense action sequences without warning. Aside from some fairly simplistic humour and emotional back-story elements, there's not much to this. But the pulpy adventure is entertaining and even gripping.

When artificial intelligence turns on humanity, causing global chaos, humans unite to fight back, and the ruthless bot leader Harlan (Liu) flees into hiding on another planet. Nearly three decades later, Harlan's cohort Casca (Popoola) turns up on Earth, alerting jaded counter-terrorism boss Atlas (Lopez), who works out which planet Harlan is on. But General Boothe (Strong) ignores Atlas' advice and sends arrogant hothead Colonel Banks (Brown) with her to capture Harlan before he can destroy humanity. Then after travelling across space, their plans are instantly derailed by the world Harlan has built.

Landing on Harlan's planet is crazily rough, throwing the film into another genre as Atlas has to survive trapped inside a large robotic suit named Smith (dryly voiced by Cohan), although she resists the neural link for obvious reasons. And there's a strong vein of humour woven through the dialog. These touches pull the viewer in, allowing us to live vicariously through Atlas. So the movie feels rather a lot like a role-playing videogame that's involving and entertaining, and also forgettable.

Always likeable, Lopez spends much of the running time alone, thrown around inside this suit, gasping for breath and trying to make sense of her situation. This means that much of Atlas' interaction is with Smith's voice. And then there are the scenes with Liu's chillingly smirking Harlan, which have a snap of lifelong familiarity mixed with both a hugely emotive past and the vicious present struggle. For contrast, Brown and Strong add gravitas along with their own brands of wit.

Harlan believes bots are "simply the better versions" of humans, which is about as deep as the script goes into the moral complexities of artificial intelligence. Instead, the focus remains on the tenacious Atlas as she learns to trust technology while simultaneously doing everything she can think of to stop its destructive intent. There's never much of a question about where this is headed, and there's also never much depth to this portrait of Earth's future. But for a couple of hours, this is a terrific diversion.

themes, language, violence 20.May.24

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