Atlas

What is it with Netflix movies that precludes them from being good, especially when a real famous actor does a movie for them. Even Ryan Reynolds can't make his charm shine in a film that doesn't have to fight for viewers at the theatres. Now we have Jennifer Lopez who is struggling to remain relevant in Hollywood doing a science fiction movie with a CGI budget about matching the salary she no doubt received. It's the new dynamic. This time they prove that even with all the toys to play with you really can't amaze us anymore if you have no story to follow. There is nothing even remotely interesting going on here and I am watching a Latin woman in a robot doing damage. How can they mess that up?

Take one look at that trailer. Doesn't that look thrilling end of the world type action and adventure stuff? It should be if not for the fact that I have seen this movie dozens of times. Any time man and machine have to connect to get some shit done does this story appear. And it NEVER varies. I want to see once where the A.I. is super evil and wins the day by lies and manipulations of the hero. Good luck getting anything nearly that interesting here. I wonder why Furiousa was so good and Atlas is just blah and what is the Netflix variable in all of this. Both had an equal chance to succeed but only one does.

Atlas runs over much familiar material where man and computer are involved and can only succeed if they both integrate completely with one another. Of course Jennifer Lopez plays the one person in the world who hates A.I. that much that she refuses to merge which puts her life in danger until she eventually gives in. I don't know if I like the corporate messaging going on here. It's dull to see her go through all this bitching until she does what we expected she was going to do all along.

And then we get the end of the world countdown clock. Anyone want to guess who wins - the android who has had 30 years to plan the death of the human race (Simu Liu) or the one person not trailed or stable enough to win the day but of course DOES? This time I wanted the evil robot to win. Is that wrong? He is so clearly more charismatic and deadly than JLO in a combat robot. And he only loses by chance. Can't we get a surprise for once? Nope. This one has to follow all the beats we have seen before a billion times.

This one will get a lot of views on the Netflix because it's just interesting enough to finish once you start it but it's not going to change the world. Plus can we agree that Atlas is a terrible name for a girl? Maybe make that her LAST name, not her FIRST name. I don't know. It bugged me the whole movie.